Lenny

Active from 1947 to 1966, footage of Lenny Bruce performing is... well there is not a lot of it. But the scattered clips on Youtube and other video sites provide enough context to start to understand his distinctive style/cadence and constant fascination with censorship.

Lenny was an early example of a comedian turned social satirist and his questioning of what makes something obscene became the focus of his work after his 1961 and 1964 arrests for obscenity. His act included material on class and race relations in america at a time when this was far from the norm, and against a backdrop of constant cultural upheaval.

Also he kind of looks like Kramer.

The legality of obscenity

Lenny was eventually banned outright from several U.S. cities, and in 1962 was banned from performing in Sydney, Australia. At his first show there, Bruce took the stage, declared "What a fucking wonderful audience" and was promptly arrested.

By 1966 he had been blacklisted by nearly every nightclub in the United States, as owners feared prosecution for obscenity.

Influence

But this all was of course long before my time, and what Lenny represents most to me is the influence behind George Carlin and Jon Stewart, two very different comics who are both well known for social/political criticisms and in Carlins case a lack of faith in the way things are.

Looking at influences the other way, the major influence behind Lenny Bruce was a little known comic named Joe ancis who Lenny Bruce called "the funniest man in america". Joe was a longtime pal of Rodney Dangerfield, who was said to be too scared to get onstage and never did stand-up.

Lenny is the most widely-recalled examples of the transition of comedians from just entertainers to social satirists as well.

And for most comedians today, that is the legacy of Lenny Bruce. He fought the law and the law won, but it was pretty exhausted after that and only a certain few comedians would find themselves arrested for their act in the following years.

Jon Stewart once said of Lenny:

"He didn't step over the line just to step over the line.There was method to his madness. Nowadays too many comedians are just saying, 'Look what I can get away with."

On December 23, 2003, 37 years after his death, Bruce was granted a posthumous pardon for his obscenity conviction by New York Governor George Pataki.