Guardian Unlimited | Arts features | Last laugh: John Lahr's tribute to Bill Hicks
"It seems like they would support sexual thoughts, you know, perhaps even have a centrefold in the Bible. Miss Deuteronomy. Turn offs: floods, locusts, smokers. I actually did that joke in Alabama, right. These three rednecks met me after the show, man. 'Hey, buddy! Come here. Hey, Mr Comedian! Come here. Hey, buddy, we're Christians, we don't like what you said.' I said, 'Then forgive me.' It seemed so obvious. You know? But we've gotta have an enemy, man. I'm tired of enemies; I'll be honest with you. I'm sick of enemies. I got no fucking enemies, K? K. It's a strange world; I don't know what we choose, why we choose the things we do as a collective. You ever wondered that? You know what I mean, the fact that we live in a world where John Lennon was murdered, yet Milli Vanilli walks the fucking planet. You know? Bad choice. Just from me to you, it wasn't a good one. But isn't that weird, we always kill the guys who try to help us. Isn't that strange, that we let the little demons run amok, always? John Lennon: murdered. John Kennedy: murdered. Martin Luther King: murdered. Gandhi: murdered. Jesus: murdered. Reagan... wounded. You know. Bad fucking choice."
At the Vic theatre, Chicago, November 1990
"It seems like they would support sexual thoughts, you know, perhaps even have a centrefold in the Bible. Miss Deuteronomy. Turn offs: floods, locusts, smokers. I actually did that joke in Alabama, right. These three rednecks met me after the show, man. 'Hey, buddy! Come here. Hey, Mr Comedian! Come here. Hey, buddy, we're Christians, we don't like what you said.' I said, 'Then forgive me.' It seemed so obvious. You know? But we've gotta have an enemy, man. I'm tired of enemies; I'll be honest with you. I'm sick of enemies. I got no fucking enemies, K? K. It's a strange world; I don't know what we choose, why we choose the things we do as a collective. You ever wondered that? You know what I mean, the fact that we live in a world where John Lennon was murdered, yet Milli Vanilli walks the fucking planet. You know? Bad choice. Just from me to you, it wasn't a good one. But isn't that weird, we always kill the guys who try to help us. Isn't that strange, that we let the little demons run amok, always? John Lennon: murdered. John Kennedy: murdered. Martin Luther King: murdered. Gandhi: murdered. Jesus: murdered. Reagan... wounded. You know. Bad fucking choice."
At the Vic theatre, Chicago, November 1990
