The Amazing Hitchslap Index

Many (if not most) of the readers of Something Surprising will be familiar with the work of Christopher Hitchens.  Probably you will have seen him speaking, whether live or on one of the thousands of Youtube videos that are available.  Perhaps fewer will have come across a splendid series of clips of the great Hitch at work, uploaded to Youtube by an inspiring user called Loy Machedo.  This series of videos called 'Hitchslaps' (currently numbering 66 videos) distills many of the best moments from Hitchens, along with some great opponents from all around the world.

Loy Machedo - not to be judged! (source here)

If you have never looked at any of these I recommend that you might do a Google search for 'Youtube Hitchslap' and you will find a cornucopia of clips.  This series is so good that a few imitators have uploaded Hitchslaps of their own.  This seems a little unfair considering that the idea was created by Loy Machedo, and some of the competing series of Hitchslaps have already been taken down.  (You will not find any of them referenced in this index.)

When you look at the Hitchslaps, I predict a few things:

• You will find clips about many of the topics that atheists and skeptics study
• You will want to remember where to find them again in future to point them out to others
• You will just LOVE many of the things Hitch says, and
• You will find it almost impossible to find them again in future (even if you bookmarked them carefully).

Here is the solution to your problems!

In a series of posts over the next few weeks I am planning to generate the material for "The Amazing Hitchslap Index"  which will then reside here on Something Surprising as a resource for all you fans of Hitch. 

The intention is to generate a table of the best quotations (sometimes paraphrased) and the type of subject material covered in each Hitchslap, to list the people in the debates (where possible) and to list the other works and authors who Hitch calls as 'witnesses'.  By posting a few at a time over about 10 weeks I hope to collect your suggestions together and implement them in the final single document containing everything.

In the meantime, enjoy this Hitchslap which is the one most watched so far.

As the index progresses please leave your comments using your name or pseudonym and a link to your blog and I will credit to you in the final document.  Add things that I have missed and correct things that I have got wrong.

Keep an eye on this blog for the first installment, part 1 of the essential guide to the Hitchslaps, starting one day this week and then every week until the project is complete.


Hitchslap Index posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9