"I'll die young, but it's like kissing God"
February 24, 2007 11:58 PM   Subscribe

Lenny Bruce -Swear to Tell the Truth 1995 documentary of the rise and fall of the patron saint of samizdat 1:40 nsfw language nudity via
posted by hortense (15 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Long Live Lenny!

And thanks for the post, hortense.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:02 AM on February 25, 2007


I thought that was Solzhenitsyn.
posted by stavrogin at 1:19 AM on February 25, 2007


"by popular acclaim, Lenny Bruce is the new patron saint of American Samizdat" amberglow gets a mention there
posted by hortense at 2:00 AM on February 25, 2007


yeah - i saw this on BBC4 in the UK a few years back, and been looking for a repeat since. it's a great documentary
posted by toffee at 5:53 AM on February 25, 2007


Lenny is great but that American Samizdat site simply takes a strong leftist view (nothing wrong with that per se) without offering any solutions to anything. It is what I call the Ralph Nader approach: this and that are bad but I can not tell you what I would do that would change things.
Bruce got in real trouble when the Church came down on him in Chiocago, with of course cooperation via the police and elected officials. Little has changed. This being said, I now wait for my detractors to denounce me. Hint: go to the site and show me where I am wrong.
posted by Postroad at 6:19 AM on February 25, 2007


The 1974 Bob Fosse film, Lenny, with Dustin Hoffman in the lead, is a classic.
posted by Kerim at 6:43 AM on February 25, 2007


Postroad writes "It is what I call the Ralph Nader approach: this and that are bad but I can not tell you what I would do that would change things."

Not to derail ... Say what you will about Nader, but one thing that did set him apart was his practical solutions to the problems he outlined.
posted by krinklyfig at 7:38 AM on February 25, 2007


A week or so ago Newsweek ran a feature article on "Boomer Humor" that cited Mad magazine and the Three Stooges as major influences but didn't even mention Lenny Bruce. I sent them a letter basically saying that if Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato (as Whitehead said), post-Vietnam American humor is a series of footnotes to Bruce.
posted by Creosote at 10:50 AM on February 25, 2007


Well, western humor since VN may as you say be a series of footnotes to Bruce, but don't forget Richard Pryor.
posted by donfactor at 12:05 PM on February 25, 2007


Well, western humor since VN may as you say be a series of footnotes to Bruce, but don't forget Richard Pryor.
posted by donfactor at 12:05 PM on February 25, 2007


Sorry about that, don't know how it happened.
posted by donfactor at 12:06 PM on February 25, 2007


Wow - thanks, hortense - I need to bookmark for viewing another time, but this is a great find.
posted by madamjujujive at 6:02 PM on February 25, 2007


I just want to recommend Tony Hendra's book Going Too Far as both an excellent overview of "Boomer Humor" and as a source of some interesting observations about Bruce. Oh, and thanks for the post!
posted by hell toupee at 7:28 AM on February 26, 2007


Post, AmSam does what you and i and many do---alerts and connects you to information/sites you might want to know about. That's enough, especially when it's things we otherwise wouldn't have heard.
posted by amberglow at 10:36 PM on February 28, 2007


Postroad, AmSam posted an apology to you.
posted by hortense at 11:50 PM on February 28, 2007


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