Word Crimes

5 January 2004


Comedian Lenny Bruce Receives Posthumous Pardon from New York State

Lenny Bruce was a funny fellow who died of a morphine overdose almost 40 years ago. New York Governor George Pataki (Republican) pardoned him over Christmas for a 1964 obscenity conviction. Too little too late, some might think, but the pardon was not about Mr. Bruce. It was about the State of New York correcting itself.

In the 21st century, where George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television" are used on the playgrounds of America and can be said on cable TV, it is hard to understand how Mr. Bruce's vulgarities could lead to arrest, let alone to criminal conviction. Yet for words (and only words) he used on stage in the spring of 1964, he was arrested for "word crimes" and sentenced on November 4 of that year. In particular, he was slammed by the judge for jokes about former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. He spent 4 months in jail, at Riker's Island, New York City.

Good taste is often the victim of free speech, and the world would be a far nicer place if each could avoid vulgarity and crudeness in speech and writing. Unfortunately, there are times and places where vulgar and crude words are needed to discuss vulgar and crude ideas -- which more often than not have to do with politics rather than biology. The word is child to the act, not the other way round. Mr. Bruce understood that and called things by their true names. Many people did not like that. They had the right to resist his ideas, and his verbiage. They did not have the right to imprison him.

There are two generations of American comedians who are standing on Mr. Bruce's shoulders -- including Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, Dennis Miller and John Leguizamo. While it is hard to imagine George Burns, Groucho Marx or Bob Hope saying "shit" on stage, it is truly obscene that Mr. Bruce went to jail for merely uttering such words.

As Governor Pataki said in signing the pardon, "Freedom of speech is one of the greatest American liberties and I hope this pardon serves as a reminder of the precious freedoms we are fighting to preserve." No fucking kidding.

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