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