http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2009/01/29/8191/burying_the_hatchet...

Finally!

ok, link didn't work. here ya go.

The Bill Hicks routine controversially dropped from the David Letterman show will finally be aired on the programme – 15 years after the comic's death.

The outspoken comedian’s mother Mary will be making an appearance on tomorrow night’s show on America’s CBS network to introduce the footage – and bury the hatchet with the chat show host.

Hicks went to his grave outraged at what he saw as Letterman’s betrayal in dropping the hard-hitting routine in October 1993.

In what would have been his 12th appearance on the show, Hicks tackled Christianity, politics and the anti-abortion movement, including the line: ‘If you’re so pro-life, do me a favour: don’t lock arms and block medical clinics. If you’re so pro-life, lock arms and block cemeteries.’

At the end of the show Letterman acknowledged the controversial nature of the routine, saying: saying, ‘Bill, enjoy answering your mail for the next few weeks.’

Producers later told Hicks that the segment would be dropped from that night’s broadcast, saying that the network’s broadcasting standards watchdogs felt it was unsuitable for their viewers. However, it later transpired it had been the Letterman producers – not CBS – who insisted on the cut. And among the adverts aired during the show following the one in which Hicks had been due to appear was one for a pro-life moment.

Hicks expressed his feelings of betrayal in a handwritten, 39-page letter to John Lahr of The New York, in which he added that he his requests for a tape of his performance had been ignored.

Less than five months later, Hicks was dead – at the age of 32 – from pancreatic cancer.

His mother returned to David Letterman’s show on Monday to tape an interview to mark the 15th anniversary of her son’s death, in a segment that set to include that censored performance. The original master recordings were destroyed, but only after one copy was sent to Mary Hicks, but it has never been seen before now.

fucking awesome

awesome, thanks for the info

holy shit. This marks the third time in ten years that I've had any desire to watch television.

I am getting George Carlin and Bill Hicks memorial B&W portraits on my left forearm once I save up the dough.

Friday, January 30
Mary Hicks (Stand-up comedian Bill Hicks' mother)
The Gaslight Anthem (CD, "The '59 Sound")

tomorrow????
FUCK!!!!!!
i'll be on stage doing stand-up!
fuck! i need to get dvr!

Do a Bill Hicks tribute.

good call.

Hicks was a god.

we're gonna miss him,
we're gonna miss him.

well,so long, wish you well.
Told us how you weren't afraid to die, now swallow long.

damnit i need to somehow remember to watch this

Just watched this, very funny stuff.

Very sad watching this considering he had already been diagnosed with cancer at this point.

Sucks that geniuses like Bill Hicks and George Carlin are gone, yet Larry The Cable Guy and Dane Cook still have successful careers.

bennyhillifier


Here it is.

backed

i can see why this was banned. too full of awesome.

there are still some funny guys out there, man. david cross, doug stanhope, and patton oswalt all crack me up

Drugs ruin your pancreas.

Bill Hicks... another guy who was correctly bitter, but his solutions sucked because he refused to educate himself.

I rooted for the cancer.

Ohh believe me, those 3 all crack me up every time I watch/listen to them. It's just upsetting that Dane Cook and Larry The Cable Guy are both millionares who sell out arenas

the dude was a comedian not an activist. those "solutions" were his opinions. get a sense of humer dude.

great routine, still relevant after all this time. I thought the Gaslight Anthem were pretty cool too

thanks to dogbite for posting the vid. me and orgy were both pissed we were missing this.

amazing.

I've heard most of the material before on any of the million Hicks albums I have, but still great.

Me three.

That was awesome. He's one of the most consistently relevant comedians ever. He was gone too soon.

did anyone watch Craig Fergeson after? FUCKING HIGH LARRY US
he opened with a puppet fox doing Arthur Browns Fire