You can actually toggle the visibility of posts from hellbanned users. Under your account settings, turn on 'showdead'.

I leave it turned on, because while hellbanned users don't often contribute a lot, many of their posts are still interesting.

For example, take losethos, who is afflicted with schizophrenia and writes his own operating systems so he can make music with God. (You'll have to turn on showdead to see his comments): http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=losethos

For what it's worth, I believe losethos is now posting as SparrowOS, and that account is also dead. It's a tragic case, really, because LoseThos/SparrowOS is a fascinating piece of software, but its author is definitely on the fringes on non-software matters.

https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=SparrowOS

He changed nicks, still hellbanned:

http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=SparrowOS

I hope you don't find someone who has schizophrenia and hellbanned funny. Because that would be pathetic, and you would be heartless.

I no doubt misinterpreted your comment.

Not at all - I'm very sorry I gave that impression!

Rather, I find it to be a interesting window into the mind of a highly intelligent programmer afflicted with a tragic mental disorder. I enjoy reading his comments because I feel it allows me to understand, if only in a tiny way, what he's going through (although maybe this is simply hubris on my part).