freedom of speech it's a phrase that
gets a lot of attention these days in
vacations of liberal philosophers come
up to defend that conservative speaker
or defend that radical right-wing
speaker or wait I'm noticing a pattern
here there are a lot of claims of
censorship wafting around the public
discourse an article after article of
think pieces claiming that the right to
speak your mind has become embattled to
give this context let's talk about a
different case of free speech and
censorship situation where someone faced
criminal charges for being offensive in
America this is the story of Lenny Bruce
the stand-up comic that went to bat to
fight censorship maybe through his story
we can see how to save freedom of speech
hi I'm Tristan is to step back
subscribed at the Bell notification to
get history every week Lenny Bruce the
famous comedian was born in a Jewish
family in Manola New York at five as
parents divorced and throughout his
childhood he lived with various
relatives most famously his mother was
Sally Marr who was a stage performer and
during his comedy career would be a
regular part of his life often giving
him opportunities and helping him get
his foot in the door so to speak at the
age of 16 in 1942 he joined the US Navy
and saw active duty fighting for the
Allies in North Africa and Italy his
time was cut short however when in 1945
he performed dressed in drag for a bunch of
shipmates and that got the commanding
officers very upset
the ship's medical officer was convinced
that Lenny Bruce was a homosexual and
discharged him although they didn't know
enough evidence to give him a
dishonorable discharge in 1945 and
afterwards that is when he decided to
get his career started he settled down
in New York City with the dream of
wanting to become a comedian however he
found differentiating himself in the
very crowded realm of New York comedy a
little difficult until he met a mentor
named Joe Ansis who helped him develop
his stream-of-consciousness style and
riding that line of vulgarity in just
two years later he had his first
stand-up gig but it was a very
millennial stand-up gig in which he was
basically performing for $12 and a plate
of spaghetti and also during his life he
got in trouble for a whole bunch of
things one case was where he worked at a
laundry in which he managed to nick a
few priests collars and used those
colors to run a scam for raising money
for a leper colony he gave out $2,000 of
what he raised to a leper colony which
apparently saved him from prosecution
but still yeah Lenny Bruce also had a
lot of trouble with drugs in 1961 he was
arrested for drug possession but that
wouldn't be the only time that drugs
would play an important part in his life
but I think the most famous thing that
Lenny Bruce is known for is obscenity he
had a very open free style
form of comedy that integrated satire
politics religion sex and vulgarity and
this is the time when people were doing
simple jokes about their cars or their
wives or whatnot he would go on these
long rants he would do comic routines or
do satirical interviews on themes that
other comedians weren't touching he
talked about jazz and then would move to
moral philosophy which would then move
to politics that moved to patriotism
religion law race abortion drugs and
sometimes even talked about the Ku Klux
Klan in 1957 he got a job for a
nightclub and was fired on his first day
because of his material often reviewers
of Lenny Bruce called him a
quote-unquote Sick comedian and not
not in like the modern day like oh man
that guy's sick it's like he's sick and
perverted Lenny Bruce responded of
course by saying that it was the society
that was sick not him he was blacklisted
often from TV with only a few exceptions
in which some of his famous friends
would call in huge favors to let him go
on TV but they would be with big
concessions to broadcast standards
he was also banned from several towns
and even barred entry to the United
Kingdom things really started to turn
bad for Lenny Bruce though when he was
arrested in 1961 on obscenity charges it
was in San Francisco and he was
acquitted but afterwards never since
then the FBI and various undercover cops
would be watching his shows and waiting
for him to step out of line and this
happened for several years until in 1964
Lenny Bruce was arrested charged and
convicted in an obscenity trial based on
a show he did in Greenwich Village that
was heard by undercover cops who went to
his show which if you're like an
undercover cop I imagine is one of the
better assignments you can get like go
to a comedy show and then arrest the guy
afterwards
I mean don't harass people but the other
part sounds fun
when his trial came up it was a test of
the limits of these obscenity laws and
people challenging their
constitutionality so many people came
out to support Lenny Bruce even lots of
famous entertainers artists writers and
educators even a high-profile
sociologist named Herbert Ganz
it was a big trial if he had been found
guilty Lenny Bruce would have lost
everything and everybody knew that the
New York City intellectual community
rallied behind his cause founding
something called the Emergency Committee
against the harassment of Lenny Bruce
over 80 celebrities sign this with the
statement whether we regard Bruce as a
moral spokesman or simply as entertainer
we believe he should be allowed to
perform free from censorship or
harassment some of the famous people who
cited included celebrities like Bob
Dylan and Elizabeth Taylor and Norman
Mailer and Susan Sontag even gore Vidal
and Woody Allen except there is a bit of
a sad ending to all this which is during
the trial on August 3rd of 1966 Lenny
Bruce was found dead in his hotel room
he had apparently died of a morphine
overdose and even today there is debate
over whether this was an accidental
overdose or suicide apparently the trial
itself had done quite a number on Lenny
Bruce's psychological health and he had
been suffering in the months before
after he died the funeral held forum was
massive there was over 500 people who
came out to pay respects maybe because
somebody with a sense of humor actually
put out ads that encourage people to
bring noisemakers and a packed lunch in
order to turn the funeral into a jovial
experience one of his friends Dick
Schaap who wrote for Playboy eulogized
Bruce with a memorable last line one
last four letter word for Lenny dead at
40 that's obscene and people have been
thinking a lot about it ever since to
the point where in 2003 this being a
first in New York's history George
Pataki actually gave him a posthumous
pardon for the obscenity crime and so
Lenny Bruce had quite a legacy he's
considered the inspiration for many of
the counterculture comedians that
started to pop up after this period
people like George Carlin people like
his contemporary Richard Pryor even
Robin Williams and Chris Rock
he became a label of the counterculture
any symbol of the 1960s a time of social
and political upheaval because of his
trial the obscenity laws that
he fought against were quickly seen as a
contradiction with the first moment the
Constitution and comedy was never the
same his story's been immortalized time
after time in film onstage and in print
rolling stone and 2017 declared him the
third best comedian of all time the
effects of Lenny Bruce's of Sandy trial
was much more significant than just the
realm of comedy it was part of a
shifting consciousness in the 60s
towards the First Amendment of the US
Constitution itself a thing that has
always been and still is evolving to
talk about that I'm going to introduce
danielle from the channel the origin of
everything to talk about it thanks
Tristan so the meaning and
interpretation of freedom of speech
outlined in the First Amendment just
like the rest of the US Constitution has
had varying meanings over time but at
its heart the portion of the First
Amendment that relates to free speech
clearly says that Congress cannot pass
laws abridging the freedom of speech or
of the press although the law reads as
extremely broad there have been notable
exceptions to this rule over time like
children in school perjury or lying
under oath and you guessed it obscenity
but Bruce's struggles with the
restrictive obscenity laws of the 1960s
also parallel a time of increased
interest and activism regarding free
speech in the US for example in 1964
students at the University of California
Berkeley were active in the Free Speech
Movement on their campus that was
largely centered on the freedom to
promote share and spread ideas about the
civil rights movement happening across
the country but the current standing
rule for obscenity laws and obscenity
decisions in the u.s. regarding free
speech is determined today by the US
Supreme Court's ruling in 1973's Miller
versus United States which established a
three prong test to determine if
material was considered obscene first
whether the average person applying
contemporary community standards would
find that work taken as a whole appeals
to the pure interest second whether the
work depicts or describes in patently
offensive ways sexual conduct
specifically defined by the applicable
state law and third whether the work
taken as a whole lack serious literary
artistic political or scientific value
well that's it for now and I'll turn it
back over to you Tristan thanks Danielle
after you watch like share and subscribe
to this channel be sure to go over and
go check out a few episodes of the
origin of everything if you like step
back it will be right up your alley
now Lenny Bruce has become an icon in
modern day discussions about freedom of
speech that we really need to discuss if
we're going to do the whole conversation
justice if you've spent any time on the
Internet in the last few years you might
be under the impression that freedom of
speech and comedy itself is under threat
because people are censoring them this
suppression comes in the form of
criticizing them on Twitter or not
asking them to come speak at their venue
or by protesting when their money pays
for you to come and talk anyway despite
their objections however this isn't a
fair comparison Lenny Bruce's obscenity
charges weren't just because he was a
high-profile comedian who used foul
language it was also because he spoke
frankly about his experiences enduring
anti-semitism he spoke in his acts in
support of the civil rights movement he
even brought Lo and critiques religious
authorities Lenny Bruce talked about how
people didn't see the oppressed and
lacked empathy for their position you
know what was not considered obscene in
this period racist characters for one or
overtly sexist tropes and stereotypes
those were completely family-friendly
content the 60s like now were a time
when language and cultural norms were
experiencing a major overhaul today
marginalized people are increasingly
getting a voice and may seem pretty
significant ch's down on the most
vulnerable they want a comedy that makes
the comfortable uncomfortable and not
one that mocks the already nervous and
freedom of speech has done a lot of good
even in these times it protected Stephen
Colbert as he mocked the President to
his face on live television in 2006 it
saved the Dixie Chicks when they
criticized a war
it even kept Kathy Griffin out of prison
for what I would think is a tasteless
joke government censorship is real it
exists and it is terrifying but putting
a gag rule on climate change in a state
that is less than a hundred years from
being underwater and getting called out
for oppressive language on Twitter are
very different things and these
call-outs are leading to productive
public conversations anyway speech is a
powerful thing it's why we need to
protect it from government censorship
and also use it responsibly I'll put a
link to a conch points video series on
free speech I think you will really like
if you are interested in this discussion
however I will give the last words on
this to a quote from GQ magazine from
Patton Oswalt a lot of the arguments and
tantrums that I'm hearing from the
so-called Un-PC crowd are not different from the arguments from baggy pants
seltzer bottle comedians when people like Lenny Bruce
and Richard Pryor came along why don't
we got to talk about the president and
stuff like that why can't you just talk
about my mother-in-law my new car that
doesn't work basically someone going I
don't want to be reminded of where my
talent and creativity has plateaued so
now I'm gonna fight to stop time so that
I can still be relevant and that exact
same is happening now with the unpeople
my comedy career got ruined because of
political correctness no it didn't you
just weren't funny and now you're trying
to find an excuse as to why it got shut
down
just a reminder if you haven't yet you
should check out the origin of
everything over there they unpack things
taken for granted in modern society and
unwrap its historical roots it's one of
my favorite channels on YouTube and I
really think that if you like step back
you will love the origin of everything
I want to thank twelve-tone for the
theme song thought slime for the voice
of Patton Oswalt and patrons Don and
Kerry Johnson : money Garrak Kwan
Michael Kirchner Scott Smith and James
McNiece come back next time for more
step back if I could get the audio by
about Monday that'd rule oh sorry
Tristan I probably wasn't supposed to
read that part
