I enjoyed Hicks' CDs when I was in my 20s. They were always a bit repetitive but I generally enjoyed them. Thinking back to some of those routines, the Iraqi war stuff was great and there weren't many people doing stuff as clever at that at the time, at least I don't recall them. I enjoyed his punching up stuff more than the punching down stuff. I have nothing to back this up, but I wonder if that was more a "if the audience is behind you, you're facing the wrong way" kinda thing. In other words, he never seemed to be one to want an audience on his side for an entire show and at some point, after agreeing with him for 20 minutes or whatever, he'd switch and say something crass or offensive so you end up not knowing what to think because you agreed with the guy 30 seconds ago. Stand-up comedians don't always believe everything they say.