The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Dave Letterman, Bill Hicks, Truth & Reconciliation

    By quinn esq on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 8:04pm |
    Back in 1993, David Letterman cut a comedian's performance from his show. Apparently because the guy made some jokes about pro-lifers.

    Last night, Letterman had the comedian's mother on his show, and he... apologized to her. Repeatedly. Talked to her for 10 minutes. Then showed the tape of the routine the comedian had originally done, which Letterman had once censored. The tapes keep getting yanked from YouTube, but the 3 parts are here, here and here. (If you can't see these links, please search for Letterman last night, with Mary Hicks.)

    They had to show the performance on tape, because the comedian - Bill Hicks - had died back in '93, just a few months after the censoring episode. He'd been dying from pancreatic cancer at the time of the show (though Letterman didn't know that.) 

    Bill was 32.

    It interests me how these two actions by Letterman signify how times have changed. The original show was due to air in October 1993, just months after Clinton had been elected, putting an end to Bush 43's (and Reagan's) onslaught. To compare, last night's show came just months after Obama was elected... putting an end to Bush 44's (and Cheney's) destruction.

    Maybe it's Letterman's own aging, maybe he's in ill health & is just rethinking some things. But there's also the fact that when Clinton won, there was little sense that the cultural momentum of the Reagan right had been stopped. That Letterman could come on last night, apologize for what he'd done, and then show the entire clip - including the pro-life jokes - says something. In fact, Letterman said it himself, wondering why he'd censored it in the first place. Because, looking at it now, there seemed to be nothing wrong with Hicks' routine. That Hicks was likely just "ahead of his time."

    In short, one small sign that perhaps times have changed. Maybe even that the Right is no longer ascendant culturally.

    Something else that went through my mind is that what Letterman did, gave us a glimpse into how Truth & Reconciliation processes might work. Yes, yes, it was quite different than a formal process. But. Letterman sat Hicks' mother down, and talked with her, at length. About the fact that he had cut her son off (after 12 previous appearances on his show), and how that must have felt, with she & Bill already knowing he was dying of cancer.

    And it was uncomfortable. Mary Hicks was still visibly angry. She stated, outright, what she felt. And a national icon had to take it, directly, publicly, from one he had harmed.

    Letterman did extremely well, I thought. He had grace. He dealt with what he'd done directly, face to face. He replayed the whole original performance by Hicks. And he did this all (seemingly, at least) of his own volition. 

    It's worth watching, from beginning to end, just for a sense of the dynamic. How the audience initially doesn't "get it." The strain on Mary Hicks' face. Her strength in speaking up, telling Letterman what she thought. And for Letterman's own actions, how he handles this. 

    It's a crack, but only a crack, in the wall of wrongs that have been thrown up. But maybe it can show us a way to do some of what we know needs to be done. To right at least some of the wrongs of the past 8.... no, let's tell the truth here... of at least these past 28 years.

    My friend Jack sent me the tape this morning. We're part of a group of 7 friends, who meet up for a weekend at least every year, who e-mail daily, who see each other whenever we can. We come from different places, work in different fields, have very different families. But one thing we agree on - Bill Hicks is the greatest comedian of the last 20+ years. And yet, most Americans don't have a clue who he is. This homegrown genius, a blow-the-roof-off voice from Texas, Bill Hicks was - his strength & his destruction - an utterly fearless truth-teller.

    The fearlessness that made us cheer out loud was - of course - when Hicks went after our enemies. He savaged consumerism. He went after the viciousness & hypocrisy of the Gulf War with Iraq with a chainsaw. He was our rabid pit-bull on Reagan & Bush 43 and Rush & Jesse Helms. And perhaps because he was raised Southern Baptist, he went after militant fundamentalism with everything he had.
    "It Seemed So Plausible." (4:27)

    And yes, every clip has bad language.
    The thing is though, Bill Hicks played no favorites. Hell, he'd tell you every weakness he had. He'd change his views, then he'd change them again. And talk to you about it. But what made us squirm was that he'd go after US. You & I. And not just occasionally. Every single night, he'd say stuff you really didn't want him to say. And he'd say it hard. 

    He wasn't just after the "bad guys." He was after YOU. You having children. Your anti-smoking views. How you treated your aging parents. Your voting for Bill Clinton. You as a man, as a woman, as a gay or lesbian, rich or poor, educated or dumb -  he didn't give a rat's. Which is why some felt Bill was ultimately, just a misanthrope. 

    They were wrong.

    The secret to why we loved him - even though he'd poke us in the eye, hard - was that he'd follow that poke by showing us a glimpse of something beyond our narrow views. He'd burst our bubble, make us unsafe, and then... if we'd hang in... show us there might be a better, deeper, view - beyond our old one. 

    For instance, he'd go after you for having children, for viewing them as special, for babbling about how important it was to take action... "for the children." Listen to that alone, and damn right you'd be offended. But then he'd swing 'round behind you, and spank you with the thought that love should have no age limits put on it. And that we'd better all love one another, now.

    Or he'd do his routine where he'd suggest that terminally-ill seniors should be used as stunt doubles in action films. During which, they would be kicked to death by people like Chuck Norris. Which, as he admitted, sounds a bit cruel. You say that kinda thing, and you've pretty much barred yourself from ever getting a nickel from 80% of the population, right? Except, listen to him, and you can hear what he's really after. 1st, that the way we already let many of our seniors die is far worse than dying from a sudden kick from Chuck Norris. And 2nd, that the escalating violence on TV & in the movies was being deliberately made to make us fatter, and stupider. And that we were allowing it.
    "Put 'Em In The Movies." (3:57)


    A favorite of mine was when he'd go after any marketing or advertising people in the audience. And it was personal. He'd suggest that they should do the world a favor, and kill themselves. He'd spell out, graphically, how. And repeat it. Which again, when you first hear it, sounds somewhat harsh. Until he'd move into the part of the joke where he nails, precisely, the way advertisers themselves could distance themselves from his attack, analyze it, and then repackage even that anger and violence into... new ads.
    "Marketing." (2:43)


    If there was one thing Bill Hicks was about, it was passion. Passion for life. And especially, passion in music. Hendrix-style. He despised the musicians who sold themselves to advertisers, the manufactured music for mall-rats, and adored the ones who played with every fiber of their being.
    "Play From Your Fucking Heart!"  (1:36)


    Did he make a difference? Well, he died 15 years ago. From smoking. Which seems pretty futile. Yeah, he made a difference for me, my friends & some others, these past 15-20 years. But still, that's a little thing. Maybe bigger is that he made a difference to Radiohead, because they became one of the world's great bands, and dedicated two of their albums to him. Still though, maybe comedy - even combined with music - doesn't matter. 

    But watching Letterman, I wonder. Because voices speaking truth, even when they're censored & suppressed, have a power. And last night, Bill Hicks just reached straight up out of his grave... and turned the dial for us. Just an inch. But it's one more inch toward freedom. Toward truth. Toward passion. And toward love.

    And if you never heard Bill Hicks, well... here's the words he liked to use to close his shows. "Fear vs Love." (2:57)

    And love, with not one human being excluded.

     

    Good to have you back, Bill. (And thanks, Dave. Well done.)


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