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Samuel 'Sam' B. Kinison (December 8, 1953 - April 10, 1992) was an American stand-up comedian, famous for his raunchy humor and wild, colorful outfits. A former revival-style preacher, his standup routines were most often characterized by intense, angry ranting punctuated by a trademark primal scream.
Kinison might be considered a "rock and roll comedian" since he occasionally was accompanied by a touring band, as well as having a prodigious appetite for drugs including alcohol. In 1988, he had a hit song with his novelty version of the Troggs' "Wild Thing." He was an impressive vocalist; one of his albums featured four songs performed by him and his band, and during one notable Tonight Show performance, he delivered what began as a beautifully rendered version of Elvis Presley's "Are You Lonesome Tonight," but which descended into angry ranting during the spoken breakdown. He had a supporting role as a history teacher in the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield movie Back to School.
One of his more notorious comic routines included the suggestion that while giving cunnilingus one ought to lick the letters of the entire alphabet.
Even as Kinison sometimes seemed a romantic at heart, his routines mostly expressed a dim view of love, possibly as a result of a string of failed relationships. He was working to get himself clean and sober in the months immediately before his death and married his girlfriend Malika Souiri in 1992, but six days after the wedding, he was killed by a drunk driver. Ironically, Kinison had often minimized drunken driving in his comedic skits with statements like, "You're just trying to get home, right?"
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