Hicks missed

Comedy fans' favourite dead comic

Bill Hicks has been voted the most-missed comedian – by a huge margin.

More than twice as many comedy fans said they would liked to have seen the rebellious American stand-up live than any other dead comedian.

His enduring popularity explains the deluge of recordings released even now, 12 years after his death from pancreatic cancer. The latest, Sane Man, comes out next month.

Second in the poll of Chortle readers was Tommy Cooper, followed by Richard Pryor – demonstrating a wide range of tastes.

The full top ten is

  1. Bill Hicks
  2. Tommy Cooper
  3. Richard Pryor
  4. Peter Cook
  5. Spike Milligan
  6. Lenny Bruce
  7. Eric Morecambe
  8. Mitch Hedberg
  9. Tony Hancock
  10. Ronnie Barker

The survey of almost 1,000 comedy fans  was taken as part of the voting for the Chortle awards, whose winners will be announced next Monday.

Published: 14 Mar 2006

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