"The women of Bikini Kill let guitarist Billy Karren be in their feminist punk band, but only if he's willing to just "do some shit." Being a feminist dude is like that. We may ask you to "do some shit" for the band, but you don't get to be Kathleen Hannah."--@heatherurehere


Friday, May 18, 2007

Bill Hicks and Michael Richards

Racism and Sexism: Old News
I know that in a lot of ways, the racist comments that Michael Richards made not so long ago have been forgotten, to a great degree. Maybe that's for the best--a conversation about racism for which Richards was one catalyst can continue without invoking Richards (or Imus, for that matter). And yet, one of the things that I found interesting about the clip of Richards' racist rant, was that the audience, who seemed to 'go along' for a few moments, eventually turned on him. Of course, it took the men who were the objects of Richards' vitriol standing up for themselves for things to turn around, and it sucks that the audience played along at all, but eventually Richards has to leave the stage (and what was left of his career, likely) in shame:

Michael Richards, Racist:


I ran across another comedian losing it because of a heckler. This happened a while ago--I can't figure out exactly how long ago, but because Bill Hicks has been dead since 1994, it's got to be at least 12 years old.

Bill Hicks, Sexist:



I was pretty disappointed to see Hicks act this way, frankly. He had some great material, could rant about the military industrial complex, about fundamentalist Christians and corporate rule in ways that would make one laugh and cry (he was the one who asked whether or not Christ would be happy if he came back and all of his followers were wearing crosses, and likened that to going up to Jackie Kennedy with a long-distance rifle lapel pin). But the more I watch of him, the more I see that he definitely had this weird conservative/misogynist streak when it comes to women, even when he wasn't being a jerk in the particular way he is in the above clip. But more than that, I'm disappointed that the audience not only went along with his rant, but egged him on. When he starts calling his heckler a cunt and a a bitch, pretty much the whole audience starts cheering. And, though this was a while ago, I wonder if things would be much different today--people are more likely to call out blatant racism than they are to call out blatant sexism, I think. (f Imus had said, "Those ho's" instead of what he did say, would there have been as much outrage? I think it's hard to say. Still it's disappointing to see a very funny, intelligent guy like Hicks was (in some ways) not only going on a misogynistic rant, and not only not being called on it, but being encouraged.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

if you watch the whole show, she was incessantly interrrupting the show. how would you have dealt with the heckler?

Jeff Pollet said...

Anonymous--
I'm not sure how the fact that she was a heckler or how I would handle a heckler in general matter, regarding my point that Hicks responded as a sexist jerk, and that he was encouraged to do that by his audience, whereas Richards responded as a racist jerk, and was shamed by his audience.

The guys bothering Michael Richards were (according to Richards) being loud and talking during the whole show, before becoming official hecklers--that they were doing this doesn't justify any racist attacks on them. Similarly, the Hicks' heckler was a heckler, but that doesn't justify sexist attacks on her.

As far as what I would do to a heckler, comedians have dealt with hecklers since there were comedians doing stand-up. If you go to enough comedy shows, you see that most of them deal with it in ways that are neither sexist nor racist.

Anonymous said...

bill is certainly not perfect and he apologized for his outburst, something the heckler did not do. subsequently, it was clear he was not proud of the episode and never encouraged its distribution.

his biggest transgression seems to be the use of the "c" word. to my knowledge, this is the only instance where this word is used in his body of work.

to characterize what hicks did as a "sexist attack" and to present this video as evidence of sexism does not acknowledge anything that preceded it. is there no line that a heckler can cross?

maybe it's relevant to ask whether initiating the conversation with demeaning remarks about bill's sexuality - "you suck" - was sexist.

there is no doubt that what hicks said can be characterized as sexist but should his response also be considered within the surrounding context of the conversation between him and the heckler? in this case, considering that remarks of a sexual nature were initiated by the heckler coupled with the incessant disruptions, it is difficult to label hicks as a sexist. the body of his material, although not uncritical of women, is often expressive of the great mother archetype.

Sassywho said...

jeff, omg i've never seen that.

anonymous, i'm not opposed to the word cunt, it's who chooses to use that word within the context that he was using it... as the ultimate insult. and raving on about her behavior as if it was indicative of her anatomy, is why it was a sexist rant.

Anonymous said...

i agree with you it was sexist. it was mean. so was the heckler.

does it make bill hicks sexist? does it make him a misogynist? it doesn't rule it out but it doesn't make it so.

geo said...

We are responsible for what words we use. Responding to hecklers may justify angry words at times.

Sexist, racist, homophobic - etc. responses say much more about Who is saying the words, rather than about who they are directed at in public settings.

What we say in private with those we are close to may in some instances be different.

How we use some words - like "the c word" in some instances might be different among friends or lovers or similar.

The "N" word - for those of us who are White, should perhaps never be used and perhaps People of Color may feel the same amongst Non-White People.

When we are angry and upset we often may say things we later regret. It is hard, though, to undo some things we can say.

Loaded words speak to the hurts that any of us may have. A person speaking may not be responsible for deep-felt hurts we have, but s/he can avoid triggering such hurts if s/he takes responsibility before any potential incident.

Thanks!

Sassywho said...

if the heckler had been a man, and hicks went off calling him a fag, and taunting him with a homophobic rant, it would have been met with a similar resonse today certainly, in 94 i'm not so sure. regardless he would still be a homophobe.

Anonymous said...

i feel like hicks is oppressing men with his suck your own cock sketch. that sketch definitely proves that hicks was a man-hater.

Anonymous said...

You know I thought the exact same thing about the Imus thing. But didn't voice it because I thought it may be offensive to do so.

I really don't think it would've been notice. I honestly don't. Well maybe it would have because the women are African American, But had they been white and called hoes there would NO way anyone would have cared.

I am not saying this to minimize the experience of racism by African American women. And I truly hope my statement did not do that.

Anonymous said...

No it doesn't make Hicks sexist. There's countless tales of Hicks standing up for women over his lifetime and actually empathising with women (hello his views on pro-life believers). Jeff, by what you write, you don't sound like someone who knows that much about Hicks so judging him by this one performance is somewhat poor.

It's very hard to hear on the audio what the woman actually said throughout the routine but I suspect it was hardly warm polite words. Hicks did lose it and you can tell he does actually regret how far he went. To me, he tried to up the ante on this woman. When you are faced with someone fucking your act up, ignoring that person isn't an option so upping the ante verbally was his choice.

Calling Hicks a mysogynistic Conservative is absolutely fucking laughable. He makes way more fun of men based on their respective genitilia over the course of his career. Do you want to accuse him of misandry based on that? He called countless people 'suckers of Satan's cock' fer chrissake.

The greater question is this: why should a performer have to face hecklers? Why is it seen as acceptable for people to go to a show, concert, sports game etc etc and hurl abuse at the performer? Go and watch any number of European soccer matches and you will see ordinary people, predominantly men, shouting at the referee, tellin ghim he's a fucking cunt, waving their fingers and gesticulating. Many times during live English soccer matches, the microphones by the side of the pitch will be turned off because the abuse from the crowd is clearly audible through your television set. You can go back to the Pacers-Pistons brawl in the NBA after fan John Green threw a cup of beer at Ron Artest. Many musicians can recall things being thrown at them. What gives an audience the right to do that? In the case of the female at the Hicks performance, what right does she have to keep mouthing off? Absolutely none. If she hated it that much, the easy way is to either ignore him or leave the club. Simple as that.