There are certain skits from early episodes of SNL that I defy you to find anything funny about. Pedophilia jokes… mastectomy jokes... offensive… but not funny. Offensive can be funny… just not always. So much of comedy is dated. So much of it is has to be understood in the social context of the time. The laughs come from discomfort, the pleasure in breaking social taboos. What’s nice about this piece is that they provide a context for Bruce’s comedy, very succinctly. It takes comedy seriously, taking a scholarly approach that still manages to remain conversational. They explain the social context in the late fifties and I think even beyond it, Lenny Bruce still stands up. He is funny and when he isn’t ha-ha funny, he’s still interesting. And what’s different about his version of stand up is you can hear the wheels in his mind spinning… making it up, like impromptu conversation, as he performs. It’s so different than a lot of the slick, honed stuff you hear today. The piece provides an arc, too, that ends melancholically with many of Bruce’s sad obsessions, drug problems, and legal nightmares. Nicely done. Break out those old Alan Sherman records and devote some programming to comedy.
Wow. I am 30 or so years old, and all the information I had stored in my brain about Lenny Bruce was mostly gleaned from Kid Rock and REM songs. I had no idea about the struggle Lenny Bruce went through. For the most part I knew he was a junky and a comedian. I guess these days it is easy to take free speech for granted (more or less). The clips of his act that were included in this piece seem so tame compared to what I hear on my local rock station in the morning, not to mention what anyone can hear when watching the television at any time of the day. I feel like I have learned something, and that I have a lot to think about (and be thankful for) now as well. The sound in this piece was excellent and the music at the end moving, and was the perfect backdrop to the sadness I felt. It has a historical feel too it and I greatly enjoyed it.
EDIT: I could not stop thinking about Lenny Bruce all day and spent most of my working hours trying to learn more about him over the internet and checking to see what my local library had available on him.
When I first saw the subject, I thought, yes, there's something people should hear about in these times - are younger people really aware of where the first amendment was in those years? Then when I listened, a strange feeling came over me, as I wondered, why does it seem so long ago now, yet so close again? Why does what Lenny Bruce had to go through (serious harrassment over the uttering of words in public among consulting adults - never mind sticks and stones!) - seem to fade disturbingly in shock value when set again the backdrop of the current climate? How far we've come - and fallen back again! The piece is elegantly done - the comedy clips are clean and crisp - and message is, to me, slightly understated. Let listeners make their own conclusions. Yes, he yelled fire in a crowded theatre. Because there was, as the interviewee said, "a fire." Did anyone put it out?
Comments for Lenny Bruce Gets Busted
Produced by Jonathan Mitchell
Other pieces by Jonathan Mitchell
Rating Summary
3 comments
Jonathan Goldstein
Posted on January 30, 2005 at 02:16 PM | Permalink
Review of Lenny Bruce Gets Busted
There are certain skits from early episodes of SNL that I defy you to find anything funny about. Pedophilia jokes… mastectomy jokes... offensive… but not funny. Offensive can be funny… just not always. So much of comedy is dated. So much of it is has to be understood in the social context of the time. The laughs come from discomfort, the pleasure in breaking social taboos. What’s nice about this piece is that they provide a context for Bruce’s comedy, very succinctly. It takes comedy seriously, taking a scholarly approach that still manages to remain conversational. They explain the social context in the late fifties and I think even beyond it, Lenny Bruce still stands up. He is funny and when he isn’t ha-ha funny, he’s still interesting. And what’s different about his version of stand up is you can hear the wheels in his mind spinning… making it up, like impromptu conversation, as he performs. It’s so different than a lot of the slick, honed stuff you hear today. The piece provides an arc, too, that ends melancholically with many of Bruce’s sad obsessions, drug problems, and legal nightmares. Nicely done. Break out those old Alan Sherman records and devote some programming to comedy.
Kari Chapin
Posted on January 20, 2005 at 05:01 AM | Permalink
Review of Lenny Bruce Gets Busted
Wow. I am 30 or so years old, and all the information I had stored in my brain about Lenny Bruce was mostly gleaned from Kid Rock and REM songs. I had no idea about the struggle Lenny Bruce went through. For the most part I knew he was a junky and a comedian. I guess these days it is easy to take free speech for granted (more or less). The clips of his act that were included in this piece seem so tame compared to what I hear on my local rock station in the morning, not to mention what anyone can hear when watching the television at any time of the day. I feel like I have learned something, and that I have a lot to think about (and be thankful for) now as well. The sound in this piece was excellent and the music at the end moving, and was the perfect backdrop to the sadness I felt. It has a historical feel too it and I greatly enjoyed it.
EDIT: I could not stop thinking about Lenny Bruce all day and spent most of my working hours trying to learn more about him over the internet and checking to see what my local library had available on him.
Marjorie Van Halteren
Posted on January 16, 2005 at 10:24 AM | Permalink
Review of Lenny Bruce Gets Busted
When I first saw the subject, I thought, yes, there's something people should hear about in these times - are younger people really aware of where the first amendment was in those years? Then when I listened, a strange feeling came over me, as I wondered, why does it seem so long ago now, yet so close again? Why does what Lenny Bruce had to go through (serious harrassment over the uttering of words in public among consulting adults - never mind sticks and stones!) - seem to fade disturbingly in shock value when set again the backdrop of the current climate? How far we've come - and fallen back again! The piece is elegantly done - the comedy clips are clean and crisp - and message is, to me, slightly understated. Let listeners make their own conclusions. Yes, he yelled fire in a crowded theatre. Because there was, as the interviewee said, "a fire." Did anyone put it out?