6 ms·

Sometimes I find these kinds of link submissions pretty baffling. "Here's a nearly 30 year old article about a dead comedian!" Thanks, I guess. But also: why

Sometimes I find these kinds of link submissions pretty baffling. "Here's a nearly 30 year old article about a dead comedian!" Thanks, I guess. But also: why? Why this arbitrary New Yorker article, as opposed to any other article written in the last three decades?

throwanem 5y ago
Apparently a lot of people around here like Bill Hicks, and why not? He was a brilliant comedian, and maybe the most viciously accurate (and just vicious!) satirist there ever was of the grossly self-satisfied smugness that typified post-1989 American culture. He was easily worthy of being remembered alongside Carlin and Williams, and I think would've been had he not died of cancer just as his career was starting to really take off. You can find a lot of his stuff, full shows as well as excerpts, on YouTube, and I'd recommend doing so. You'll find your question better answered there than here.
- cafard 5y ago
  Post-1989?
  - throwanem 5y ago
    After the Berlin Wall fell. That was one of Lenin's "weeks where decades happen", and the decade that happened in that week was the 90s, when the United States believed it had won the world forever and behaved accordingly.
    - pvg 5y ago
      It's not really one of Lenin's https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/07/13/decades-weeks/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/07/13/decades-weeks/
low_tech_love 5y ago
A post is just a suggestion, a proposition. If there was no place for it, or interest, then it would die in oblivion. But apparently people like bill hicks here!
tagoregrtst 5y ago
Bill Hicks saw what most 30 years ago wouldn't and that has become painfully obvious today. - The war on drugs - Imperial hubris - Safetism The foresight of Hicks is evident by the fact that most Republican voters agree with Hicks on these issues; the last two maybe more than Democrat voters - at least the ones who havent been purged by the neoliberals (Tulsi, we love you!).
dang 5y ago
Historical material is always welcome here, and the only criterion for a good HN post is gratifying intellectual curiosity. I had no idea that the New Yorker had profiled Bill Hicks while he was still alive. That's already interesting! https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

throwanem 5y ago

Apparently a lot of people around here like Bill Hicks, and why not? He was a brilliant comedian, and maybe the most viciously accurate (and just vicious!) satirist there ever was of the grossly self-satisfied smugness that typified post-1989 American culture. He was easily worthy of being remembered alongside Carlin and Williams, and I think would've been had he not died of cancer just as his career was starting to really take off. You can find a lot of his stuff, full shows as well as excerpts, on YouTube, and I'd recommend doing so. You'll find your question better answered there than here.

cafard 5y ago
Post-1989?
- throwanem 5y ago
  After the Berlin Wall fell. That was one of Lenin's "weeks where decades happen", and the decade that happened in that week was the 90s, when the United States believed it had won the world forever and behaved accordingly.
  - pvg 5y ago
    It's not really one of Lenin's https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/07/13/decades-weeks/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/07/13/decades-weeks/

low_tech_love 5y ago

A post is just a suggestion, a proposition. If there was no place for it, or interest, then it would die in oblivion. But apparently people like bill hicks here!

tagoregrtst 5y ago

Bill Hicks saw what most 30 years ago wouldn't and that has become painfully obvious today. - The war on drugs - Imperial hubris - Safetism The foresight of Hicks is evident by the fact that most Republican voters agree with Hicks on these issues; the last two maybe more than Democrat voters - at least the ones who havent been purged by the neoliberals (Tulsi, we love you!).

dang 5y ago

Historical material is always welcome here, and the only criterion for a good HN post is gratifying intellectual curiosity. I had no idea that the New Yorker had profiled Bill Hicks while he was still alive. That's already interesting! https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html