15 years ago this February, a young comedian by the name of Bill Hicks died tragically of pancreatic cancer at the age of 32. His talent and innate funniness have since touched future generations and inspired many comedians since.
In October 1993, just four months before Hicks died, his monologue on The David Letterman Show was cut in its entirety after Letterman and CBS deemed it unsuitable for the show’s audience.
This video shows the performance in full after Letterman decided to finally make amends and have Bill’s mother, Mary, on the show. Letterman also shows some class and respect in apologizing to Mary Hicks for the way her son was treated.
Obviously Letterman didn’t know at the time that Hicks was suffering from cancer. But we’ll never know whether that would have made any difference to his decision at the time. I’m just glad he did the right thing and finally aired the segment.
Some of the stuff Hicks says could be deemed offensive, and even more so 15 years ago. But there’s nothing that warranted the segment being banned, and above all, it’s all very funny indeed.
