Social Question
Which comedian do you believe was secretly enlightened?
In Buddhist philosophy, a bodhisattva is an enlightened teaching master, someone who has held him- or herself back from that final step of total dispassion and Buddhahood in order to assist a suffering humanity. Humour has always been one of the more common ways of teaching people, and there have been many comedians and humourists who touched on some very profound truths amidst the laughter. Which comedians do you believe were actually enlightened masters who were secretly teaching people to think?
For me, I’d have to say Bill Hicks was a secret master. He taught deep and subversive lessons about the nature of the world, from a deep well of both anger and compassion. He considered his work so important that even while he was dying of cancer, in constant pain, he continued to tour from city to city.
“When you win [the US presidency], you go into this smoke-filled room with the twelve industrialist capitalist scum-f_cks who got you in there. And you’re in this smoky room, and this little film screen comes down, and a big guy with a cigar goes, ‘Roll the film.’ And it’s a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you’ve never seen before, that looks suspiciously like it’s from the grassy knoll. And then the screen goes up and the lights come up, and they go to the new president, ‘Any questions?’”—Bill Hicks
“You do a commercial, you’re off the artistic roll call forever. End of story. Okay? You’re another corporate f_cking shill, you’re another whore at the capitalist gang-bang, and if you do a commercial there’s a price on your head. Everything you say is suspect, and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink.”—Bill Hicks
Anyone else have any contenders? (Add quotations or links to YouTube videos of their material if you can.)
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