Editing Bill Hicks (section)

===Censorship and aftermath===
In 1984, Hicks had been invited to appear on ''[[Late Night with David Letterman]]'' for the first time. He had a joke that he used frequently in comedy clubs about how he caused a serious accident that left a classmate using a wheelchair. [[NBC]] had a policy that no jokes about the handicapped could be aired, making his stand-up routine difficult to perform without mentioning words such as "wheelchair".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://socialistworker.org/2011/07/25/americas-outlaw-comic|title=America's outlaw comic|website=SocialistWorker.org|language=en|access-date=2020-02-03}}</ref>

On October 1, 1993, Hicks was scheduled to appear on ''[[Late Show with David Letterman]]'' on [[CBS]], where Letterman had recently moved. It was his 12th appearance on a Letterman late-night show, but his entire performance was removed from the broadcast. At that point, it was the only occasion where a comedian's entire routine was cut after taping.<ref name="Lahr">{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1993/11/01/1993_11_01_113_TNY_CARDS_000365503|title=The Goat Boy Rises|last=Lahr|first=John|date=November 1, 1993|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430075226/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1993/11/01/1993_11_01_113_TNY_CARDS_000365503?currentPage=all|archive-date=April 30, 2008|author-link=John Lahr}}</ref> His stand-up routine was removed from the show, Hicks said, because Letterman's producers believed the material, which included jokes involving religion and the [[Opposition to the legalization of abortion|anti-abortion]] movement, was unsuitable for broadcast.<ref name=Lahr/> Producer Robert Morton initially blamed CBS, which denied responsibility; Morton later conceded it was his decision.<ref name=Lahr/> Although Letterman later expressed regret at the way the situation had been handled, Hicks did not appear on the show again.<ref name= Lahr/> Hicks was undergoing chemotherapy at the time of his final ''Late Show'' appearance, unbeknownst to Letterman and most others outside of Hicks's family. He would die less than four months later.<ref>''True'', 2002, pp. 193–214</ref>

Letterman aired the censored routine in its entirety on January 30, 2009. Hicks's mother, Mary, was present in the studio and appeared on-camera as a guest. Letterman took responsibility for the original decision to remove Hicks's set from the 1993 show. "It says more about me as a guy than it says about Bill," he said, after the set aired, "because there was absolutely nothing wrong with that".<ref>{{Citation|last=Korn|first=Steven|title=David Letterman Airs the 'Lost' Bill Hicks Routine|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|date=February 3, 2009|url=http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/02/03/david-letterman/|access-date=January 15, 2009|archive-date=August 2, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090802095051/http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/02/03/david-letterman/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name = Letterman>{{cite news |last=Crosbie |first=Lynn |title=The Globe Review Column; Pop Rocks; A Pop-Culture Epiphany; David Letterman's Apology to Mary Hicks |newspaper=[[The Globe and Mail]] |date=February 3, 2009 |page=R1}}</ref>