Cigarette warning labels
Denis Leary , compared with Bill Hicks
A chain-smoking comic mocks the Surgeon General warnings printed on cigarette packs.
Leary sneers at the warnings in general as part of a combative pro-smoking persona. (paraphrase)
No Cure for Cancer, 1993find on YouTube ↗
“there's a different warning on each pack. Mine saying: "Warning; Smoking may cause fetal injury, or premature birth." "Fuck it! Found my brand." Just don't get the ones that say lung cancer, you know. Shop around.”
Stand-up act (pre-1993)quote source ↗find on YouTube ↗
Same target, cigarette warnings, in the same smoker persona; Hicks's shop-for-your-disease payoff isn't on record in Leary's version.
- Premise 32/40
- Structure 12/30
- Punchline 8/30
- Premise32/40Both smokers mock the Surgeon General warnings; Hicks specifically targets each pack listing a different disease.
- Structure12/30Hicks builds to shopping for a tolerable warning; Leary's sneer is general and unspecified.
- Punchline8/30Hicks's fetal-injury and shop-around payoff has no counterpart in Leary on record.
Setup
A chain-smoking comic takes on the Surgeon General warnings.
Setup
A smoker notes each pack carries a different warning.
Turn
He sneers at the warnings generally, in a combative persona.
Turn
He picks his brand by which warning he can live with.
Punchline
Not on record.
Punchline
Fetal injury is fine; avoid lung cancer packs, shop around.
Scores and beats are our editorial reading of the public record, not a ruling.
Context
When and where
Hicks's cigarette-warning bit is in Relentless (recorded 1991 in Montreal, released 1992). Leary's smoking material is on No Cure for Cancer (1993). Plagiarism Today lists cigarette warnings among the jokes Hicks said were copied.
What followed
This joke overlap was part of a wider charge that Leary had copied Hicks's whole smoking, snarling persona. At least three comics have said so on the record, and Hicks once joked he quit smoking to see whether Denis would too.
Receipts
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Denis Leary by Dominick D, CC BY-SA 2.0; Bill Hicks by Angela Davis (Angela D.) from Austin, TX, USA, CC BY 2.0