Mediocre hacks live forever

I only just recently started to check out Bill Hicks. If you know who that is, I’m sure I don’t need to invite you to congratulate yourself and skip over the part where I explain that he was an edgy comedian who died in the early ‘90s when he was just 32 years old. In fact, the title of the entry was the most sadly ironic thing he ever said, “Mediocre hacks live forever and pollute the earth with their existence, while brilliant geniuses die way too early.”


For some reason, this seemed the most fitting image I had on hand for the post title...

I think in the ‘80s all you needed to earn your edgy comedian badge was to say fuck a lot and talk about blow jobs, or alternately, make a thoughtful and pointed comment about the absurdity of religion. But while watching this guy in the context of The Edgiest Comedians of the 1980s, I thought it was clear that he had depth and insight that could be dressed up in the style of the era, but could easily transcend it as well.

Unfortunately, Bill Hicks’ real legacy was largely reduced to “The Guy From Whom Denis Leary Stole His Entire Act.” I was watching some of these scathing YouTube videos that purport to prove it, and the people who are carrying this torch do both him and themselves no favors. For every moment of undeniable plagiarism, there are 6 moments of loose and probably coincidental parallels. Yes, both guys talk about smoking, and yes, Hicks did it first—Sam Kinison hated his ex-wife, does that mean all comedians who do ex-wife jokes are ripping him off? There are almost no original topics—and when you get on a topic, there are some obvious places to go. It’s something you see all the time in advertising when you come up with an idea, and a self-appointed member of the It’s Been Done Squad is like, Rawr, 5 years ago someone used a visual similar to that in China. Then you’re like, But the concept isn’t even close and this is for housewives in Michigan who don’t spend their nights studying Ads of the World and I’ve never fucking been to China!

But that said, using my probably more based in personal experience than I want to disclose analogy, Denis Leary had been to China. He knew Hicks and his act, and he did some jokes that, intentionally or not, were so uncannily similar that it just looks pathetic. Yet the people who harp on the broader coincidences are only watering down the claim that Denis Leary is a big thieving hack. The worse part of it is that these broader coincidences also make Hicks look less original—it’s easy to confuse the two, but being the first person to say something obvious is not the same as being original (And yes, you should definitely read into that and assume I’m talking about more than just comedy).

Still, the story is almost poetic in the way that it echoes the theme of ‘Mediocre hacks live forever,’ and it even ends on a sharp note—with the eerie coincidence that their friendship ended over Leary’s album No Cure for Cancer, shortly before Bill Hicks died of cancer. Details that only seem to have significance because he’s gone.

Because I do think Bill Hicks was original—it’s not something you can prove by highlighting his most easy-to-steal bits—but if he were still alive, he would have done what original people do. They move on and create something new. Something that’s harder to copy.