TV Reviews : The Inside Track of Comic Bill Hicks

Would comic Bill Hicks--at least the Hicks we knew from club and TV appearances--have wanted to be remembered with a one-hour testimonial? It doesn’t quite seem in keeping with his unsentimental style, and perhaps it would have been a better tribute to simply air one of his performances, such as his brilliant HBO “One Night Stand” special.

But “It’s Just a Ride” on Comedy Central manages for the most part to avoid becoming maudlin, and the interviews--with his parents, old friends and fellow comics, including Jay Leno and David Letterman--do offer a few interesting insights, even if some points are made a bit too often.

Best of all, though, are the clips of Hicks. By the end of the hour show, it’s clear that comedy has lost one of its few vital figures, one who just seemed to be hitting his stride.

Hicks died of pancreatic cancer in February at just 32 years old. Although other comics fancy themselves truth-tellers, Hicks’ version of the “truth” was a trenchant and provocative one, and it was always delivered unflinchingly.

The sanctimony of nonsmokers, the hypocrisy of the religious right, the selling-out of rock ‘n’ roll--all were targets for Hicks. He attacked the Persian Gulf War when it was less than fashionable to do so. In one of his best extended bits, he rants about how the powers that be control people through television.

“Go back to sleep, America. You are free . . . to do as we tell you. Here’s some ‘American Gladiators.’ Here’s 56 channels of it. Go back to sleep, America.”

“A little dark poet,” Hicks calls himself in one clip. “The jokes are meant to kill,” says New Yorker critic John Lahr, who wrote an extensive profile of Hicks not long before the comic died. Hicks wasn’t always right, he wasn’t lovable, but he was almost always thought-provoking.

For those unfamiliar with Hicks, the short clips at the beginning of the program probably don’t allow sufficient time to get into the rhythm of his angry riffs. But by the second half, in even this imperfect but watchable showcase, it should be clear to any fan of comedy why he will be missed.

* “It’s Just a Ride” airs at 11 p.m. Sunday on cable’s Comedy Central.