On February 5, 1999 Mitch made his fifth appearance on "The Late Night Show with David Letterman." Last July he was invited to return to the comedy festival "Just for Laughs" where he stole the attention of the industry, audiences, and press alike. His stand-out performances secured a development deal with FOX to create his own sitcom and prompted TIME magazine to include him as one of the next generation of comedy stars and The Hollywood Reporter to headline their review of the Festival, "Laughs are Loudest for Hedberg." Mitch also recently completed a reality show pilot for MTV.
Mitch passed away in March, 2005.
To say goodbye, I'd like to present one of my favorite Hedberg pieces:
I bought a doughnut and they gave me a receipt for the doughnut...I don't need a receipt for the doughnut - I'll just give you money and you give me the doughnut, end of transaction. We don't need to bring ink and paper into this. I can't imagine a scenario in which I would need to prove that I bought a doughnut...Some skeptical friend, don’t even act like I didn't buy a doughnut, I've got the documentation right here...oh wait it's back home in the file...under "D", for doughnut.
If you'd like to revel in the simple genius of Hedberg's odd observations like the above, Wikipedia has a page for him here.
As the comedy clubs often put on their marquees to mark the passing of a fellow comedian, "Make God laugh."
More on Hedberg here, here, and here.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Joanna
It is April Fool's tomorrow....and no one but this blog and comedy central has said anything more about it yet. Coincidence?
2 - Phillip Winn
Joanna, no. He was a comedian. That's why Comedy Central is a good source of info. Comedy, get it?
3 - chocolate fever
April fools..or sad sad day....
1st post ftw
4 - chocolate fever
or not...
comedy central is where i go for all my news
5 - M. Janosko
Howard Stern, this Blog, and Comedy Central are the only sources to this. Youd think SOME news market in america would cover this, at least briefly. Yet news.google.com shows this as the ONLY relevent result.
im no disbelieving it, but its a bit far fetched. even the venue hes playing at tonight is denying it.
6 - Joe
Big mistake being the first google news indexed source to run with this story. I have a direct line to someone at the Howard Stern Show who says this is a hoax. Guess who's taking the train up from Baltimore for tomorrow's show?
7 - Phil
An article from a few days ago mentioned he missed some dates - strange coincidence...
He was great.
8 - Jake
I hope this is a hoax, I had tickets and missed his show in December... WHY GOD WHY!!!!!!!!
PS: I hope with all my heart this is a hoax Mitch! I wont miss ur show next time yo!
I'm gonna go get a frozen banana out the freezer, save it for later. :(
9 - solace
more
10 - Wally Glenn
I like Mitch, he's funny. If this is a prank, it's a bit dark.
Speaking of pranks, if Mitch has died, make the most out of life and April 1st. Mitch would want it that way.
http://www.gwally.com/pranks/
11 - SCR
more
12 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Solace, USA Today just confirmed this. April Fools is April 1, only
13 - Kevin King
I just called the improve in Baltimore. They said allsohws are cancelled and refunds are available.
Good night funny man! You will be missed.
14 - Temple Stark
Enough with the long links lazy asses.
[a href="URL"] LINKWORD [ /a]
except replace [ and ] with < and >
15 - LegendaryMonkey
He was great.
Rest in peace, Mitch. Hang out with Bill Hicks.
16 - DrQu+xum
The Pioneer Press (here, free reg req) has reported on his death as well.
17 - nick
Google has added two more to their News search...
They mention a heart attack. Even though I'd love for this to be a pre-April Fool's day joke, I'm starting to think that may just be wishful thinking.
18 - Michael
Nooo!
19 - Tim
Just called the improv as well-- they confirmed that they had heard from his management company and were refunding tickets... news story online now says it happened wednesday morning. Sad -- had tickets for saturday night...
20 - Eric Olsen
thanks very much for all the input everyone
21 - Joe C.
USAtoday.com, search for mitch hedberg, they covere the story briefly.
22 - Jeff Clark
Dammit. This is so incredibly sad.
23 - Treetop
I went to see him last weekend in Richmond at the Funnybone, and he didn't make it to any shows Wed-Fri. So who knows what was going on.
24 - Brent
this sucks. i just saw him in Cleveland. not his best performance but he was so talented. sad to hear this today!
25 - Eric Olsen
hey Tom, great job, might be super to update with additional nfo, maybe an actual excerpt from your earlier reviews, etc. This is very big news and you and Jeff were there first.