# Was Lenny Bruce \*actually\* funny, or was he just offensive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-lenny-bruce-actually-funny-or-was-he-just-offensive/229561 "2004-02-16T22:33:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-lenny-bruce-actually-funny-or-was-he-just-offensive/229561/41 "2011-11-22T05:09:38Z")
A lot of the humor in St. Lenny’s— uh, _Bruce_’s routines came from the reflexive titter of shock that arises when hearing something you know you aren’t supposed to, especially when it’s something you’ve secretly thought yourself for years, but never articulated. Some said he was more of a “stand-up philosopher.” And Lenny Bruce was no leftist–he was libertarian through and through. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-lenny-bruce-actually-funny-or-was-he-just-offensive/229561/42 "2011-11-22T08:15:14Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > We’re using different definitions about what his prime was. > > Bruce started stand-up in 1947. He worked all the way through the 50s, and it’s those years, primarily the last half of the decade, that are supposed to be his prime. He put out a bunch of highly edited albums before 1960, although I’ve never heard any. Some of the routines have been repeated on other albums, but from what I’ve read they’re as bad a representation of what his live act was like as the recording we have of the Beatles in Hamburg were of their early days. > > By early 1961 (not 62), when the Carnegie Hall album was recorded, Bruce was already heavily into his drug downfall. His arrests didn’t start until later in the year, but from accounts he was going downhill fast. The CD “Lenny Bruce Originals Vol. 1” is from 1958 (Fantasy FCD-60-023.) I got it from one of our big used CD stores around here. It is interesting because it has some real standard dreck, as well as good stuff. “Interview with Dr. Sholem Stein” goes on for 8 interminable minutes. Bruce plays a boring Jewish scholar with some theory about the link between Judaism and Calypso music. There is a very standard “wow, we have hifi” track, better than the Spike Jones one but not as good as the Flanders and Swann hifi bit. It has the Ike one I mentioned, and some weird stuff, but it also has Father Flottsky, Religion Incorporated and Non-skeddo. The Thank You Masked Man CD has stuff ranging from 58 - 62 (and the video mentioned above.) It has a Lawrence Welk bit (he meets a hipster) which is also kind of standard - Stan Freberg did Wunnerful, Wunnerful. It is from '58. Captain Whackencracker from '59 is a standard evil kid show host bit. His Godfrey appearance was good - he did impressions of celebrities if they were speaking German, but I doubt anyone would remember him without the later stuff, drugs or no. Now in the Bruce universe everyone is Jewish, even the Pope and everyone is in show business, even Hershie the Monster, so I might like those bits more than some. On average, though, I find the Carnegie Hall concert better than the '58 stuff. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-lenny-bruce-actually-funny-or-was-he-just-offensive/229561.md?page=2)