Editing Bill Hicks (section)

==Material and style==
Hicks' performance style was seen as a play on his audience's emotions. He expressed anger, disgust, and apathy while addressing the audience in a casual and personal manner, which he likened to merely conversing with his friends. He would invite his audiences to challenge authority and the [[existential]] nature of "accepted truth". One such message, which he often used in his shows, was delivered in the style of a news report (to draw attention to the negative slant news organizations give to any story about drugs):

{{cquote|Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration—that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather.<ref>Extract from ''[[Revelations (Bill Hicks)|Revelations]]'', London, 1993. The extract is part of the concluding track to the album,''It's Just a Ride'', in which he essentially outlines his world view.</ref>}}

American philosopher and [[ethnomycology|ethnomycologist]] [[Terence McKenna]] was a frequent source of Hicks' most controversial psychedelic and philosophical counter-cultural material; Hicks infamously acted out an abridged version of McKenna's "[[Stoned Ape]]" model of human evolution as a routine during several of his final shows.<ref name="McKenna2013">{{cite web|last1=McKenna|first1=Terrence|title=Terrence Mckenna – The stoned ape theory|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnEKoFrx1rI |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/ZnEKoFrx1rI| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|website=YouTube|access-date=September 3, 2016|date=August 15, 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="StonedApe1993">{{cite web|title=Bill Hicks – The stoned ape- theory in 3 minutes|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hreGAxAjt1c |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/hreGAxAjt1c| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|website=YouTube|publisher=Anders Jacobsson|access-date=September 3, 2016|date=1993}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media |first= Bill |last= Hicks |author-link= Bill Hicks |year= 1997 |orig-year= November 1992 – December 1993 |title= [[Rant in E-Minor]] (CD and MP3) |time= 0:58 |chapter= Pt. 1: Ch. 2: Gifts of Forgiveness |at= Track 8 |publisher= [[Rykodisc]] |oclc= 38306915}}</ref>

Another of Hicks' most-delivered lines was given during a gig in Chicago in 1989 (later released as the bootleg ''I'm Sorry, Folks''). After a [[heckler]] repeatedly shouted "[[Play some Skynyrd|Free Bird]]", Hicks screamed, "[[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] had the right idea; he was just an underachiever!" Hicks followed this remark with a misanthropic tirade calling for unbiased [[genocide]] against the whole of humanity.<ref>True, Cynthia, ''American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story'', Pan Macmillan, 2008, p.127.</ref><ref>Hound, Rufus, ''Stand-Up Put-Downs'', Random House during 2011, p.59.</ref>

Much of Hicks' routine involved direct attacks on mainstream society, religion, politics, and consumerism. In an interview recorded after one of Hicks' shows in Santa Monica and aired as part of the six-episode [[BBC Two]] series [[Funny Business (TV series)|''Funny Business'']] in 1992, Hicks was asked if audiences got upset by what he said on stage. He responded by saying that occasionally audience members did not find his material funny but that not only would it be impossible to please everyone, it was not his responsibility to do so. He recounted an instance in which an audience member snidely told him "We don't come to comedy to think!" "Gee, where do you go to think?" mused Hicks. "I'll meet you there. We don't have to do this here!" When one of the interviewers then asked whether there was not a halfway point between pleasing and offending audiences, Hicks pushed back, replying "But my way ''is'' halfway between. I mean, this is a night club and, you know, these are adults, what do you expect? What you're going to see on TV? No. This isn't TV live. And also, it's my show. What am I supposed to do? Change my own outlook and my beliefs? To be what to them?" Arguing that to simply give audiences what they wanted would be a form of condescension, Hicks explained that his approach was instead to speak to audiences on equal footing, as though they were his friends. When one of the interviewers challenged that audiences just wanted to be entertained, an exasperated Hicks asked, "When did thinking not become entertaining? ... What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to go out and tickle them individually? We have to express an idea here."<ref>{{cite web |title=Bill Hicks BBC Interview [Clip from the 1992 BBC Two series "Funny Business"] |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoCezQAF5AA |website=YouTube |access-date=20 December 2024 |date=1992}}</ref>

Hicks was strongly against [[political correctness]], and jokingly stated that the politically correct should be "hunted down and killed".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://issuu.com/mcgill_tribune/docs/mcgilltribune.vol12.issue14/18|year=1993|title=Hicks is real funny|publisher=[[McGill Tribune]]}}</ref>

Hicks often discussed popular [[conspiracy theories]] in his performances, most notably the [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy|assassination]] of President [[John F. Kennedy]]. He mocked the [[Warren Report]] and the official version of [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] as a "lone nut assassin". He also questioned the guilt of [[David Koresh]] and the [[Branch Davidian]] compound during the [[Waco Siege]]. Hicks ended some of his shows, especially those being recorded in front of larger audiences as albums, with a mock "assassination" of himself on stage, making gunshot sound effects into the microphone while falling to the ground.