Lol great find. Btw I was driven to make this video because Bill was an incredible spirit and talented force in the comic world/artistic world. He didn't hesitate to express his feelings regardless of public scrutiny he was true to his heart and his craft. Anybody who can respect creativity, or has been inspired should value artistic integrity and being sincere especially in their craft. Some who decide on a profession go down a path for the right reasons whether passion or survival initially well intentioned but later succumb to selling their souls (most politicians) and lose their sense of morality and some are natural born sociopaths. Never the less I made this in honor of Bill and feeling sickened by the blatant theft and out of my respect for artistic integrity and the sincerity that goes into an art form. I didn't intend for it to come off as a Hate Denis Leary video but that's how it turned out lol. There's a difference bettween theft and influence which is my next video defending zeppelin.
@@Fabulavevo The fact that he’s a no-talent hack that steals all his jokes in the most annoying way possible, and that instead of fessing up to that when it’s so blatantly obvious to anyone with ears, he keeps denying it and trying to bring down the careers of his jokes’ originators. He’s a first ballot Hall of Fame a-hole!
“On the theft of his material by Denis Leary: "I have a scoop for you. I stole his act. I camouflaged it with punchlines, and to really throw people off, I did it before he did.”
He's more like William hung from American idol, except later got to work with Robert de niro and was taken seriously in Hollywood for a minute. He prob. felt how I did when I went to lollapalooza and the guard let pass when I confidently flashed my non vip wrist band.
Incredible how Leary manages to dumb down what's already a very simple joke with the first one; "I go through two lighters a day" involves some threadbare amount of thinking on the audience's part to "get", so Leary just outright blurts out "I SMOKE A THOUSAND CIGARETTES A DAY"
Yeah he takes all the subtlety out of comedy which is what he is famous for and why I like him but I dont really think he's funny. He sells energy and Hicks sells comedy.
@@mikiex Bill even spoke on it at the time... “On the theft of his material by Denis Leary: "I have a scoop for you. I stole his act. I camouflaged it with punchlines, and to really throw people off, I did it before he did.” ― Bill Hicks
That's the concept that you guys don't get. This bits and premises where all part of the zeitgeist and talking points at every party and bar in the western world. The Judas priest law suit was every where - how many people off handed just said "idiots killing themselves where's the problem" - same with the Jim Fix story, same with throat smoking guy, he was everywhere. These bits are not profound or unique loads of comics where doing them - it was different time and much narrow social buzz to extract from but also a much broader appeal for comics so they all used the same premises - you need to watch 90s comedy , really watch it and you will agree. This only became an issue for Hick's and others when Leary broke through on MTV. There's no comparison, Hick's is a real comic, Leary is a performer- but no cure for cancer is a brilliant piece of work...its not about the ideas and bits its a character we all know .Leary showed himself up for what he was but that early work is not copying hicks its more like being part of the movement...where grunge bands copying each other? why don't you listen to Alice in Chains and Stone temple pilots back to back
@@christopherwinko1978 Better at deliveries? holy fuck what crack are you smoking? He is literally steamrolling through sentences to basically say nothing.
No, Leary wasn't capable of penning a joke of such complexity, and sophistication until his twenties . . . oh wait, never mind, Leary did not actually pen that joke at all. My bad.
Ikr? It's not even an actual joke. Bill's "2 lighters" joke works because the timing and phrasing make you briefly think he says "2 packs a day". Just to say 7000 a day isn't a punchline at all
There's like 2 mins of lifted material here. No Cure For Cancer was an 80 min set. Lock 'N Load from a few years later doesn't have any jokes lifted from Hicks.
God, Hicks' delivery is on such another level. You can see parts of him in so many comedians, I don't mean actually stealing like Leary, just people you knew must have grown up worshipping him.
Generally, if a comedian relies on shouting and making loud noises, their set is shit. If they were confident in their jokes and their ability to tell them, there would be no need for screaming.
I wouldn't completely agree with that. That "smoking out of both holes" shit was way funnier than Bill Hicks' take. HOWEVER: When you steal your premise/joke/punchline, being funnier doesn't matter, because the bottom-line is that you suck.
Yup same dude. Leary was just so much more popular. His shit was all over. I took me getting into Hicks to realize "wait a minute" Leary ripped all this shit off. Fucker!
I hated Leary from the start b4 I even knew he ripped of Hicks he just came across as a try hard who swore a lot in his act cause his delivery was shit ahh just a cringe fest
I'm ashamed that I ever once thought Leary is funny. I did as a teenager. But I only recently started watching Hicks and he was fucking awesome. I love the anti-intellectual bit about reading.
Don’t be ashamed. It’s just proof of genuinely good comedy. Dumb, immature kids would find Leary funny and wouldn’t understand Hicks’ comedy. I was the same way... Then you grow up, get smarter and your sense of humor matures. And boom, Hicks is hilarious and Leary sounds like a hack. The true idiots are the ones who grow up and think people like Leary are funny.
Lol don't be ashamed. I honestly don't know what it's like to have heard leary before hicks.. but I heard that Joe Rogan did, and thought he was a comic machine, until hicks showed weeks later with the same material and thats when he learned from other comics Denis was a joke thief. If anything it's a testament to bill's material.
Ch ch ch. Excuse me sir, what you readin for? Well you stumped me.. not what am I reading but what am I reading for? I guess I read for a log of reasons but I'd say the main reason is.....
@@daviddemaria3982 He actually had the nerve to discuss Louie CK's asshole joke with him to pull more ideas out of Louis, and then then he stole the whole bit.
Leary already had like 5 acting credits in Hollywood movies and was signed on to star in 3 or 4 upcoming movies by the time he did No Cure For Cancer in 1993. I love Bill Hicks, but his act that was heavy on government conspiracies, psychedelic drugs, religion and spirituality was really not mainstream friendly at all, and that's fine. Bill didn't wanna compromise on any of that which is commendable, but Denis was able to streamline his angry, rant at the world routine into something much more mainstream with his stand-up act and early acting roles, and then quickly evolved into a pretty well-rounded actor that wasn't reliant on those rapid-fire rants anymore.
@@Bubba__Sawyerso mediocrity got him "mainstream acclaim"? Also in today's world being told the mainstream loves you should be a death sentence! Who wants to follow the herd?
Check out the one called '"rarely seen bill hicks 7", around the 12:20 mark...my personal favorite Leary rip-off...the cocaine joke. That's the one that broke my back.
He never outright "stole" any material - more "adapted" it - but he certainly allowed his influences to get the better of him. Kind of like Tarantino does in movies - difference is of course QT acknowledges his influences whereas Leary did not. Fine line between stealing material and adapting your influences. I mean very few comedians are "original" - it all comes from influences. The broader the influences the more original the content. Leary was clearly heavily influenced by Hicks - and I wouldn't be surprised if that was his only influence in comedy (save from taking a few bits from lower level circuit comics).
Denis Leary lifted segments of Bill Hicks act, re-worded it and perfomed it at a faster tempo which led to people referring to him as Bill Hicks on speed. Material such as "jim fix, cigerette warnings, and heavy metal records backwards are just a few examples of entire segments he lifted from Bill Hicks act - he simply re-worded it. He also lifted the mock shooting of himself at the end of his show directly from Bill Hicks shows aswell as hick's "famous people dying" segment. I remember a few years ago a few friends came round to my house for a meal. Afterwards we sat down and played xbox. We got into a discussion and they happened to mention by pure chance Denis Leary's stand up show called "no cure for cancer". When i told them that Denis Leary had stole alot of stuff off Bill Hicks they wouldn't believe me. So i started playing them my private collection of Bill Hicks stand up dvds and bootleg vhs tapes and i skipped to the parts that i knew Leary had stole. Being die hard Denis Leary fans they knew his material off by heart. When they saw Bill Hicks performing Learys act they thought the shows must have been done afterwards. I then showed them the exact dates the Hicks shows were performed as its written on the inside sleeve of the dvds and bootleg vhs tapes that i own. I proved to them that Hicks shows were done years before Learys. They were forced to admit i was right. (Grudgingly).
“On the theft of his material by Denis Leary: "I have a scoop for you. I stole his act. I camouflaged it with punchlines, and to really throw people off, I did it before he did.” -Bill Hicks
It’s not even just the fact that he completely rips Hick’s off, it’s that he so fucking bad at delivering jokes. He desperately wants to be funny and desperately tries to be funny, but he isn’t. He doesn’t have any natural gift for it. It’s all forced. Leary delivers every punchline like a 8 year old in school who immediately follows it up with “DO YOU GET IT? HUH? HUH?” Anyone can say “funny things”. Only a comedian can say things funny.
Thanks for the info. Found the video and listened especially at 12:20 for it. Too, bad. Bill Hicks left too soon and this guy stole sets from him and made a lot stealing from others as well.
I've seen much worse specials, but the thievery makes it pretty detestable. Still, before I knew I wouldn't say it was a terrible special. Just not on par with Hicks, or C.K, or Murphy, or Pryor, of any other heavyweights.
Plenty remember Leary. Someone made an "I'm an asshole" reference to him lately cus of his role in the older Spiderman movie in relation to the new Spiderman movie. You're out of touch haha.
I love Bill Hicks, but he became famous about 10 years or so after he died when a few of his shows finally got released on DVD. Meanwhile Leary had a pretty successful career in Hollywood, even having several starring roles, and would go on to write and star in an award winning drama series that ran for 7 seasons. So you, as a fan of stand-up comedy may be more familiar with Bill Hicks, but Denis Leary is FAR more known to the mainstream.
@@Jesus.X Jesus all you people are so snotty like the man’s dead he’s not going to be crying about his material being stolen because he’s 6 feet in the fucking ground
True (assuming LCK's account is true) - but I am glad that song exists. It is a great song (even if you hate the artist you can appreciate the art). LCK's version was a stand up routine and Leary adapted it into a song. Still stealing material for sure (and from a relatively unknown artist at the time) - but I think there's a fine line between "stealing" and being "influenced".
@@Weird-City not in Leary's case. Art imitates life, life imitates art and so forth but Leary literally steals material and adds no further value. He makes it worse. He is a comedian cuckoo. A fraud.
As a Brit it is genuinely impossible to watch Leary. We hate that style. Even if he was the best at that style he'd be terrible, but he's even a failure at being a clown.
@@Fabulavevotrust me and him when we say that hyper act doesn't work here. The only one that does it is Russell Howard and the only people who think it's in any way endearing is young über liberal girls. Not women.
I only did stand up comedy for about 5 years, and I left comedy partially because of this reason. I was obsessed with originality, yet I’d have to change my set because someone stole my joke.
I'm also willing to bet another reason you left is that our current culture no longer rewards originality. Too much risk....must worship that almighty algorithm!
I only did stand up comedy for about 5 years too and I also left comedy partially for this reason. I too was obsessed with originality, yet I'd also have to change my set because someone stole my joke.
I didn’t even know that guy from that firefighter show was a comedian. But I’ve listened to Bill Hicks since I was 12.. no joke. And that was 16 years ago..
Plenty of people do because they've seen him a ton of great movies and an award winning tv drama that ran for 7 seasons. His career in Hollywood was already taking off by the time he did No Cure For Cancer in 1993, which feature a few of the bits he lifted from Hicks. Never mind the rest of the set being uniquely different.
There is only (one) real comedian who was waking the sleeping masses that 99% of this Millennial Generation haven't a clue about (George Carlin) and of course Bill.
Before the internet..... he just thought he would get away with it. If it wasn't on T.V, you hadn't gone to the show and you couldn't get it on video... You never knew and never would..... 30 years later..... Here it is... This copying, stealing is soooo bad.
Leary got famous before Hicks and probably thought he was stealing some nobody's material. That is what Led Zeppelin did with obscure blues and rock musicians' material. I love Zeppelin's and Leary's works, but they are thieves.
@@JW-qx3xr I'm a huge Zeppelin fan and have to admit several of the songs were lifted. Dazed and Confused, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, etc. I don't think Stairway was copied though. That suit was frivolous.
this explains why Denis Leary is completely irrelevant and probably hasn't had a comedy tour in over a decade, because he has to steal jokes to have an act and in today's age you are going to get caught if you do
Well folks, it’s called an act for a reason. Actors rarely write their own scripts. Leary is a good actor and mimic. And he did write rescue me and very good series that mimics life as a fire fighter. R.I.P. Bill Hicks.
Haha, sorry guys that was not my intention. Maybe if i had seen Leary first who knows.. id prob. feel the same way. If anything thats a testiment to Bill.. his material was good even when delivered with less substance. Altho not from my perspective, possibly because i saw it after Bill and was immediately disgusted by his blatant disregard for artistic integrity, and his own fellow comedian and "friend." thats why i made this. I wanted to stand up for artistic integrity.. Bill Hicks was a great comic in his own right. Started comedy at such an early age of 12 or 13 sneeking out of his bedroom window to do stand up, he was def. a unique talent. Something tells me Leary saw Hicks effect and unique style on stage and rather than being inspired to become a better comedian he decided just to steal it. He did it to louis c.k and others throughout his career. I only wish there were a video of someone standing up to Leary the way Joe Rogan stood up to Carlos Mencia. I think Denis was one of the most agregious thefts in the history of comedy, even worse than Mencia.
His entire "I'm an asshole" thing he lifted from Louis CK. To be fair, Denis did get Louis' permission to lift it. The whole 'asshole' thing was one joke in Louis' set, and Louis famously scraps his entire set after a bit and writes all new material. So Denis asked if he could have that one bit and Louis said "sure".
1. Were they the only two comedians who used this subject matter (Yul Brynner, throat cancer, Judas Priest, Jim Fixx, etc.) in their stand-up routines at the time? 2. Who did their jokes first? Some of the Denis Leary footage looks older than the Bill Hicks footage when similar jokes were made.
Comedians "borrowing" from each other is common enough, but this is blatant theft made all the more evident with the film splices. It also proves what many of us already knew. Bill Hicks was a consummate comedian, hands down.
