The Goat Boy Unbanned
From John Lahr’s famous New Yorker piece on Bill Hicks:
On October 1st, the comedian Bill Hicks, after doing his twelfth gig on the David Letterman show, became the first comedy act to be censored at CBS’s Ed Sullivan Theatre, where Letterman is now in residence, and where Elvis Presley was famously censored in 1956. Presley was not allowed to be shown from the waist down. Hicks was not allowed to be shown at all.
Even though Letterman acknowledges regret over the incident on the Hick’s documentary, IT’S JUST A RIDE, I always thought the ultimate karmic due would be to simply play the entire appearance. In an encouraging sign of the new times, David Letterman is doing just that. From the Bill Hicks website:
“The Late Show with David Letterman has scheduled a telecast of the never-aired October 1, 1993 Bill Hicks appearance. The show was pre-taped Jan. 26th (with Bill’s mom as a guest) and will air Friday, January 30th on your local CBS affiliate. We’d like to acknowledge and thank Bill’s many fans and everyone who has had a hand in keeping Bill’s comedy and philosophy alive. We hope everyone can tune in and experience what you may have missed or what you barely remember — Bill Hicks performing for a national audience on network television.”
UPDATED: Just watched it. I gotta give Letterman enormous credit. What a mensch. Though he didn’t admit he removed the piece because one of his sponsors was…a Pro-Life group. Anyway, Mary Hicks ruled all. You can watch all of Letterman’s segment right here. Here’s Bill Hick’s final censored TV appearance and marvel at his prescient genius.
