Not you, you miserable ingrates!

August 16, 2007 5:05 AM

Thank You Mask Man – a hilariously NSFW animated short film produced and voiced by Lenny Bruce – was previously FPP'd. But you can thank me for these videos of Bruce performing live, on The Steve Allen Show, in this unaired TV special, and in the 1953 movie Dance Hall Racket. [♪]
posted by Poolio (15 comments total)

More previous Bruce
posted by Poolio at 5:27 AM on August 16, 2007

I've never seen Lenny Bruce perform. Did PeeWee Herman deliberately copy his mannerisms?
posted by DU at 6:24 AM on August 16, 2007

I don't know DU... I'm no Pee Wee Herman expert, but I'd think the chances are pretty good... most every comedian that followed Bruce stole from and/or copied him, in one way or another.
posted by Poolio at 6:40 AM on August 16, 2007

First time I ever saw Thank You Mask Man, it was on Night Flight back in the 80's on USA. Brought back lots of memories.

Thank You Link Man.
posted by davelog at 6:50 AM on August 16, 2007

My favorite Bruce routine, and the one genrally considered by his critics his best: the Palladium.
posted by Postroad at 7:10 AM on August 16, 2007

Postroad - the only results that come up in a Google Search for "Lenny Bruce+Palladium" is a comment you made in the Michael Richards FPP. :)
posted by Poolio at 7:16 AM on August 16, 2007

Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting no such performance occurred (I know it did)... I just thought that Google result was kinda funny.
posted by Poolio at 7:32 AM on August 16, 2007

Poolio: How is Swear to Tell the Truth? It's playing tonight, & a friend wants me to go.
posted by Pronoiac at 10:59 AM on August 16, 2007

<blurb>
more info about it tonight, for people in & near San Francisco
</blurb>
posted by Pronoiac at 11:02 AM on August 16, 2007

Pronoiac - Suffice it to say, if I were in your shoes (or San Fran) I'd be going.
posted by Poolio at 12:16 PM on August 16, 2007

Poolio: Disc 1, Track 8.
posted by tellurian at 5:40 PM on August 16, 2007

I read Lenny's autobiography several years back. It was an interesting read up until the point where he got into his legal problems, at which point the book very rapidly nose-dived into head-noddingly boring descriptions of the minutiae of his case, copies of court documents, etc. I never finished the book.

He was one funny and brilliant social commentator, though, at his best, and needless to say he was well ahead of his time.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:42 PM on August 16, 2007

Thanks for the link, tellurian... hopefully a full recording will turn up on YouTube (or elsewhere) someday soon.
posted by Poolio at 5:57 PM on August 16, 2007

Lenny Bruce's best comedy routine was the Airplane Glue one. Close second is the Thank You Masked Man. Third is the one where Jesus and Moses came back and the Catholic Church hadn't a clue what to do with them.

"...at which point the book very rapidly nose-dived into head-noddingly boring descriptions..."

Unfortunately, that mirrors his career. When the Law began trying to shut him up the same way they did Capone (can't get him on what he's actually doing, so we'll get him on his inability to properly fill out paperwork), Lenny Bruce's 'comedy' routines became his OCD attempts to explain to his fans just exactly HOW The Man was keeping him down. We know so much about all that cuz he reported it in detail in his comedy routines. He saw perhaps the sick humor in how he couldn't really say anything on stage but talk about why he couldn't say anything. Except for the greatest diehards, his audience rarely saw the humor, and often went for the door before he could wrap it up.

He stopped being there to make people laugh. The audience was there for him. In that way, The Man did beat him down: Lenny stopped being funny.

Much more recently, a YouTuber called Renetto has been suffering a similar slope into The Unfunny. He used to be hilarious, but more recent videos depict Renetto as a 'serious family man' who complains about everything wrong about YouTube. He's not exactly biting the hand that feeds him. It's more like he points at when the hand that feeds him slaps people around. Noble, but unfunny. I wish Renetto would put the tinfoil back on his head and talk in that obnoxious voice. Back then he was funny.
posted by ZachsMind at 6:43 PM on August 16, 2007

Poolio: Search for "lenny bruce" palladium, not "lenny bruce palladium." (With apologies if I misunderstood.)
posted by Pronoiac at 9:24 AM on August 17, 2007