RIP Mitch Hedberg

Dude was one of the weirder comics I'd ever seen, but damn if he wasn't funny as hell. He had the most unique delivery ever.
 
When you stand in the lunch meat section for too long, you start to get pissed off at turkeys. You see like, Turkey Ham, Turkey Pastrami, Turkey Bologna. Someone needs to tell the Turkey's; man, just be yourself. I already like you little brother, you do not need to emulate the other animals... you got your own thing going!

6 years to the day tomorrow, 3/30/2006 will forever live with 12/18/1997 (Chris Farley's Death) as my main reason to never do coke or heroine... much less the two mixed together.... Two of the most brilliant comedic people of their time both die of a Speedball OD.... fuck any drugs but pot....
 
Great talent - I was fortunate enough to see him live a couple of times - he has certainly been missed.
 
Best bit is getting in a fight with your girlfriend inside a tent.

“I got into an argument with a girlfriend inside of a tent. That's a bad place for an argument, because then I tried to walk out and slammed the flap. How are you supposed to express your anger in this situation? Zipper it up really quick?”
 
[quote name='Clak']As sad as it is, he wouldn't have been half as funny without the drugs probably.[/QUOTE]

You know that could have been to help him get on stage and do what he did.
 
The drugged out manner was part of his persona. It's something that comedians develop as it best fits the type of comedians that they are. While Mitch was probably like that most of the time in real life as well, that's not necessarily true for all comics.
 
I've noticed his hands seemed to shake a lot, I don't know if that was him doing it or if it was the drugs.
 
[quote name='Anexanhume']The drugged out manner was part of his persona. It's something that comedians develop as it best fits the type of comedians that they are.[/QUOTE]

I've heard that elsewhere, maybe people see his delivery as a stoner persona because of his OD. I never took his delivery as "drugged out." Maybe it's just me. I always took it as a guy getting over a reluctance to stand in front of a bunch of people.

On one of his albums he kind of addresses that with the tongue firmly in cheek, in the bit where he says something along the lines of, "Who the f*** am I? I'm MITCH HEDBERG, that's who." He chuckles to dismiss it, but he clearly wasn't comfortable being featured. I think that discomfort is at the heart of his delivery, not some kind of laid back, awkward, confused stoner thing.

And that's enough 2c psychology from me.

He was a good dude. Troubled chemically, but a guy who managed to entertain with insight and intelligence. It's rare, and when somebody pulls it off, it's special. Thanks again, Mitch.
 
I had a parrot. The parrot talked, but it did not say "I'm hungry," so it died.
I saw this wino, he was eating grapes. I was like, "Dude, you have to wait."
Is a hippopotamus a hippopotamus or just a really cool opotamus?
A burrito is a sleeping bag for ground beef.
I saw a sheet lying on the floor, it must have been a ghost that had passed out... SO I KICKED IT!
 
aw I miss him! ...I used to party with the guy back in my hometown. This was around 1999 - 2000... He would come do shows at the Westward Ho Comedy Gallery regularly and then hang afterward with the improv troupe I was in at the time. And yea.....DRUUUGS! Lots of them...mostly pot and meth. He might of done harder stuff, but I didn't see it. Him on stage..that's what he was like all the time. I was surprised he survived as long as he did.

...yea some of my favorites:

My friend asked me if I wanted a frozen banana, I said "no, but I want a regular banana later, so... yeah."

I was gonna have my teeth whitened, but then I said fuck that, I'll just get a tan instead.

When you go to a restaurant on the weekends, it's busy, so they start a waiting list. They start calling out names, they say "Dufrene, party of 2. Table ready for Dufrene, party of 2." And if no one answers, they'll say their name again. "Dufrane, party of 2." But then if no one answers they'll just go right on to the next name. "Bush, party of 3." Yeah... what happened to the Dufrenes? No one seems to give a shit. Who can eat at a time like this? People are missing! You fuckers are selfish. The Dufrenes are in someone's trunk right now, with duct tape over their mouths. And they're hungry - that's a double whammy. We need help. Bush, SEARCH party of 3! You can eat once you find the Dufrenes.
 
[quote name='Spanky']You know that could have been to help him get on stage and do what he did.[/QUOTE]

I don't think that's it at all. With how many one-liners or really short jokes he had, you have to write A LOT to get that many good ones. For every good one, he probably had 20 in a notebook somewhere that weren't funny. The getting on stage part is fairly easy. Writing funny jokes is the hard part. Maybe he was perma-wasted for writing and performing, but I would find that unlikely.

He was certainly a unique, incredibly talented comedian though.
 
"They say the recipie for 7Up is lemon and lime. I tried to make it at home, there's more to it than that. 'Hey, Mitch, you want some more homemade 7Up?' 'Not until you figure out what the fuck else is in it!'"

"I wrote a letter to my dad, and I wanted to write 'I really enjoy being here,' but I accidentally wrote 'rarely' instead of 'really,' but I still wanted to use it so I wrote 'I rarely...drive steamboats, dad. There's a lot of shit you don't know about me. Quit tryin' to act like I am a steamboat operator.'"
 
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