Say what you will about Sam Kinison, who died in a car accident in 1992, but the loud, loutish comedian wasn't driven by an excessive need to be loved. At the height of his fame in the mid-'80s, Kinison traded in angry observations that were often as frustratingly simpleminded as they were honest. When Kinison hit his mark, he could be extremely funny, in an uncomfortable sort of way, but when he missed, he seemed like a mere shock comic. Bad women, and it seemed there were no other kind, were Kinison's primary targets, but the religious right and homosexuals also received a good portion of his ire. Offstage, he led a fascinating life, one in which a deeply religious background and an abandoned career as a minister preceded his comedy work. There's plenty of talk about that, and other aspects of Kinison's life—the drugs, the various wives, etc.—in the new documentary Sam Kinison: Why Did We Laugh? There's just not a whole lot of insight into his character. Friends and relatives, including Jay Leno, Judy Tenuta, the ever-present Larry King, and Kinison's mentor Rodney Dangerfield, all pay tribute, but what's missing is a real sense of what made him tick, or even a clear idea of Kinison's biography. Furthermore, so much of the film is taken up by clips of the comedian performing—most of them drawn from a single cable special—that simply renting one of his concert videos seems like it would provide just as much of a revelation.