Rest in Peace

Now Playing - Mitch Hedberg


I wasn't paying much attention to the world around me until I got an email when I got home from work. Steve Hofstetter wrote his column a few days early because he felt he just had mto write today. A comic known as the thinking man's comic, Hofstetter heard that one of his comedy inspirations had passed away. That was Mitch Hedberg.

"I got an ant farm, them fellas didn't grow shit."

Mitch has one of the most unique deliveries in the business, bringing the deadpan musings of Steven Wright with the outlandish hilarity of Harland Williams. At 37, I feel that he was an HBO special away from being one of the household comedy names that people always look forward to hearing new material from.

"I think Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem, there's a large blurry monster running around the country"

Personally, I think that Hedberg had verything in place to make a huge comedy run. They say that the difference betwen cult success and mainstream success is that two million people see something mainstream once, but cult success means two thousand people see it hundreds of time. Hedberg had the best of both worlds, a deeply committed fanbase (if you don't believe me, see how many comics have already wrote something about him on their websites, despite the fact he died less than 24 hours ago) and a group of people whose admiration grows with every appearance on Conan O'Brian.

"I know alot about cars, I can look at a car's headlights and know exactly which way it's coming."

This has to be one of the first times in my life that I recall a comic dying in the prime of his life, as so many others seem to without an obvious weight problem. An admitted drug user "I used to do drugs... I still do, but I used to, too," perhaps that had to do something with his untimely death at 37. I just get sick and tired of seeing so many talented people in music and comedy die long before their time.

"My lucky number is four billion, it doesn't come in handy when gambling 'come on four billion!' fuck, seven... hey, I'm gonna need more dice."

Now playing - Mitch Hedberg