Bill Hicks is probably the greatest comedian of Generation X. The only competition for that title might be Chris Rock, and both of them are automatic candidates for any top ten list of all-time-best stand-ups. Yesterday we marked the 23rd anniversary of Hicks’ death from pancreatic cancer on February 26, 1994. Of course, Hicks was funny, but, more importantly, he wasn’t afraid to be not funny when making a point about hypocritical politics, the evils of war and racism, the possibilities of higher consciousness. That said, Hicks always had another zinger at hand and his ability to snap from raunchy to real serious and back again was nearly without match — only Carlin might’ve taken the Texan at that kind of quick-draw contest.

Celebrating the man and his amazing body of work, here’s an epic 200 video playlist featuring Hicks’ greatest stand-up specials along with interviews, albums, and documentaries…

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It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since George Carlin won a posthumous Grammy for the album version of his last HBO Comedy Special, It’s Bad for Ya. I wasn’t able to confirm these facts, but I’m almost positive that George was the first comedian to do an HBO Comedy Special and that his count at a dozen plus two holds the record for most shows of the kind.

Carlin was prolific. He was also intensely focused while simultaneously being intellectually facile and emotionally intense. Carlin’s mastery of language is unsurpassed in comedy and it’s that quality that puts him at the top of the funny guy list for me.

Carlin’s last special aired a little over a year before the comedian’s death and one could forgive a man in his ’70′s for missing a step or two. Here’s the thing — George didn’t miss any steps in his last special.

It’s Bad for Ya ranks with the best of Carlin’s live specials, plus it won that Grammy. Here, George describes American life as “…a whole lot of bullshit that needs to be detected and avoided.” These, then, are George’s last words on american bullshit…

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When comedian Mitch Hedberg died from a heroin and cocaine overdose in 2005, it cut short the career of one of the most interesting stand-up comedians since Bill Hicks. Hedberg combined contemporary stoner observations with the brevity and timing of an old school one-liner comic to hilarious effect, and his star was on the rise: He appeared on Late Night with David Letterman ten times as well as on That ’70′s Show. He released two CD’s and signed a half a million dollar sitcom deal with Fox, but then it all ended in a hotel room in New Jersey.

What’s not as well known is that Hedberg wrote, directed, produced and starred in a 1999 comedy feature called Los Enchiladas. The flick premiered at Sundance, but has never been distributed. IMDB has the skinny…

About a half dozen slacker dudes dwell at their jobs at Los Enchiladas, the local Mexican sit-down joint. The 2 folks in “management” are both into their own authority and fill their days creating wild & stupid rules for the working folk. By mid-film, however, the manager has fled the cops after beating the crap out of a competing restaurant’s dancing gyro… and the “Chef” has jumped ship to join a beatnik poet’s groups which specializes in exotic menu-writing. This leaves the minimum-wage crowd to run the place as they see fit…. and they see a lot of debauchery, booze, and free steak in their future.

This no-budget fast food spoof is genuinely hilarious and a must-see for fans of Hedberg. It’s outrageously quotable — my personal favorite is “The venison burrito is a slut.” Hedberg plays a drifter who’s written a book called The Drifter’s Handbook which “…tells you how to get around. How to get from town to town.” Keep your ears open for snippets of Hedberg’s live show in the dialog, and keep your eyes peeled for performances by Hedberg’s comedian pals including Dave Atell, Todd Berry, Felicia Michaels and Marc Maron.

A work print of the film hit the torrents in 2011 and now, of course, it’s on YouTube…

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20 years ago, comedian Bill Hicks died of pancreatic cancer and the greatest comic of his generation disappeared forever. Hicks was working on a new CD when he experienced the first symptoms of the disease that would take his life. That project found Hicks mixing his stand-up with his own musical recordings to create a concept record he described as “my Dark Side of the Moon.” The posthumous release tells the story of the great earthquake that will shear California from the West Coast, creating a new Utopia in Arizona Bay.

In honor of the man and his raging, relentless art here is Arizona Bay in its entirety…

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Please subscribe to my YouTube channel where I archive all of the videos I curate at Insomnia. Click here to check out more Counter Culture posts.