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110-483: Black comedy , also known as black humor , bleak comedy , dark comedy , dark humor , gallows humor or morbid humor , is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo , particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss. Writers and comedians often use it as a tool for exploring vulgar issues by provoking discomfort, serious thought, and amusement for their audience. Thus, in fiction , for example,

220-443: A Prophet . The 2016 biography of Frank Ray Perilli, The Candy Butcher , devotes a chapter to Perilli's ten-year collaboration with Bruce. Bruce released four albums of original material on Fantasy Records, later compiled and re-released as The Lenny Bruce Originals . Two later records were produced and sold by Bruce himself, including a 10-inch album of the 1961 San Francisco performances that started his legal troubles. Starting in

330-491: A capacity of 2,100, only 200 people attended, including a strong police presence, and Bruce gave what was described as a "subdued" performance. It was long rumored that a tape recording of the historic performance was made by police, but it was in fact recorded by local jazz saxophonist Sid Powell, who brought a portable tape recorder to the show. The tape was rediscovered in 2011 in the possession of Australian singer Sammy Gaha, who had acted as Bruce's chauffeur during his visit; it

440-404: A comic manner. Comedians like Lenny Bruce , who since the late 1950s have been labeled as using " sick comedy " by mainstream journalists, have also been labeled with "black comedy". Sigmund Freud , in his 1927 essay Humour ( Der Humor ), although not mentioning 'black humour' specifically, cites a literal instance of gallows humour before going on to write: "The ego refuses to be distressed by

550-577: A famous performance at the Berkeley Community Theatre in December 1965, which was recorded and became his last live album, The Berkeley Concert . The performance has been described as lucid, clear and calm, and one of his best. His last performance took place on June 25, 1966, at The Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, on a bill with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention . The performance

660-580: A far ridere su un argomento talmente drammatico di cui si ride perché non c'è altra soluzione possibile, si ha quella che nei cabaret di Berlino degli Anni '20 veniva chiamata la "risata verde". È opportuno distinguere una satira ironica, che lavora per sottrazione, da una satira grottesca, che lavora per addizione. Questo secondo tipo di satira genera più spesso la risata verde. Ne erano maestri Kraus e Valentin. Comedy Satire and political satire use comedy to portray people or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, thus alienating their audience from

770-584: A farm, Bruce joined the United States Navy at the age of 16 in 1942, with active service during World War II aboard the USS ; Brooklyn  (CL-40) in Northern Africa , Palermo in 1943, and Anzio, Italy , in 1944. In May 1945, after a comedic performance for his shipmates in which he was dressed in drag, his commanding officers became upset. He defiantly convinced his ship's medical officer that he

880-525: A friend of Bruce's, bought the negatives of the photographs "to keep them from the press". The official cause of death was "acute morphine poisoning caused by an overdose". Bruce's remains were interred in Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Mission Hills, California , but an unconventional memorial on August 21 was controversial enough to keep his name in the spotlight. Over 500 people came to

990-428: A low-budget burlesque romp; and a children's film, The Rocket Man , in 1954. In 1956, Frank Ray Perilli , a fellow nightclub comedian who later wrote two dozen successful films and plays, became Bruce's mentor and part-time manager. Through Perilli, Bruce met and collaborated with photojournalist William Karl Thomas on three screenplays ( Leather Jacket , Killer's Grave and The Degenerate ), none of which made it to

1100-616: A man who grasped things by reason and never by feeling, and who enclosed himself in skepticism; [...] Swift can rightfully be considered the inventor of "savage" or "gallows" humor. Des termes parents du Galgenhumor sont: : comédie noire, plaisanterie macabre, rire jaune. (J'en offre un autre: gibêtises). humour macabre, humeur de désespéré, (action de) rire jaune Galgenhumor propos guilleret etwas freie, gewagte Äußerung Walter Redfern, discussing puns about death, remarks: 'Related terms to gallows humour are: black comedy, sick humour, rire jaune. In all, pain and pleasure are mixed, perhaps

1210-490: A marionette to a hand puppet, and he became, really, a spirit of Britain — a subversive maverick who defies authority, a kind of puppet equivalent to our political cartoons ." In early 19th century England, pantomime acquired its present form which includes slapstick comedy and featured the first mainstream clown Joseph Grimaldi , while comedy routines also featured heavily in British music hall theatre which became popular in

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1320-528: A mistake or deformity not productive of pain or harm to others; the mask, for instance, that excites laughter is something ugly and distorted without causing pain. In the Middle Ages , the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings. It is in this sense that Dante used the term in the title of his poem, La Commedia . As time progressed, the word came more and more to be associated with any sort of performance intended to cause laughter. During

1430-404: A nightclub tour. During the trip, Honey was arrested for marijuana possession and prevented from leaving the island due to her parole conditions. Lenny took this opportunity to leave her again, this time kidnapping the then one-year-old Kitty. In her autobiography, Honey claimed Lenny turned her in to the police. She was later sentenced to two years in federal prison. Bruce's divorce from Honey

1540-473: A result, much of their art was intentionally amusing. A famous example is Marcel Duchamp 's Fountain (1917), an inverted urinal signed "R. Mutt". This became one of the most famous and influential pieces of art in history, and one of the earliest examples of the found object movement. It is also a joke, relying on the inversion of the item's function as expressed by its title as well as its incongruous presence in an art exhibition. The advent of cinema in

1650-517: A retouched photograph appearing to show Bruce giving a fascist salute . The venue owners cancelled the rest of Bruce's performances, and he retreated to his Kings Cross hotel room. Local university students (including future OZ magazine editor Richard Neville ), who were fans of Bruce's humor tried to arrange a performance at the Roundhouse at the University of New South Wales , but at the last minute

1760-1304: A spese di chi è più ricco e potente di te. Io sono specialista nella risata verde, quella dei cabaret di Berlino degli anni Venti e Trenta. Nasce dalla disperazione. Esempio: l'Italia è un paese dove la commissione di vigilanza parlamentare Rai si comporta come la commissione stragi e viceversa. Oppure: il mistero di Ustica è irrisolto? Sono contento: il sistema funziona. racconto di satira grottesca [...] L'obiettivo del grottesco è far percepire l'orrore di una vicenda. Non è la satira cui siamo abituati in Italia: la si ritrova nel cabaret degli anni '20 e '30, poi è stata cancellata dal carico di sofferenze della guerra. Aggiungo che io avevo spiegato in apertura di serata che ci sarebbero stati momenti di satira molto diversi. Satira ironica, che fa ridere, e satira grottesca, che può far male. Perché porta alla risata della disperazione, dell'impotenza. La risata verde. Era forte, perché coinvolgeva in un colpo solo tutti i cardini satirici: politica, religione, sesso e morte. Quello che ho fatto è stato accentuare l'interazione tra gli elementi. Non era di buon gusto? Rabelais e Swift, che hanno esplorato questi lati oscuri della nostra personalità, non si sono mai posti il problema del buon gusto. Quando la satira poi riesce

1870-630: A stripper led him to pursue schemes designed to make as much money as possible. The most notable was the Brother Mathias Foundation scam, which resulted in Bruce's arrest in Miami , Florida , in 1951 for impersonating a priest. He was soliciting donations for a leper colony in British Guiana (now Guyana ) under the auspices of the "Brother Mathias Foundation", which he had legally chartered—the name

1980-535: A subversion of audience's expectations, so that amusement is founded on unpredictability , separate from a logical analysis of the situation. The humour derived gets its appeal from the ridiculousness and unlikeliness of the situation. The genre has roots in Surrealism in the arts. Surreal humour is the effect of illogic and absurdity being used for humorous effect. Under such premises, people can identify precursors and early examples of surreal humour at least since

2090-464: A sympathetic character. Aristotle divides comedy into three categories or subgenres: farce , romantic comedy , and satire . On the other hand, Plato taught that comedy is a destruction to the self. He believed that it produces an emotion that overrides rational self-control and learning. In The Republic , he says that the guardians of the state should avoid laughter, "for ordinarily when one abandons himself to violent laughter, his condition provokes

2200-460: A violent reaction." Plato says comedy should be tightly controlled if one wants to achieve the ideal state. Also in Poetics , Aristotle defined comedy as one of the original four genres of literature . The other three genres are tragedy , epic poetry , and lyric poetry . Literature, in general, is defined by Aristotle as a mimesis , or imitation of life. Comedy is the third form of literature, being

2310-628: Is a preposition, come is a verb"; that the sexual context of 'come' was so common that it bore no weight; and that if someone hearing it became upset, he "probably can't come". Although the jury acquitted him, other law enforcement agencies began monitoring his appearances, resulting in frequent arrests under obscenity charges. Bruce was arrested again in 1961 in Philadelphia for drug possession, and again in Los Angeles two years later. The latter arrest took place in then-unincorporated West Hollywood , and

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2420-616: Is an acknowledged coping mechanism. It has been encouraged within these professions to make note of the context in which these jokes are told, as outsiders may not react the way that those with mutual knowledge do. A 2017 study published in the journal Cognitive Processing concludes that people who appreciate dark humor "may have higher IQs, show lower aggression, and resist negative feelings more effectively than people who turn up their noses at it." Examples of black comedy in film include: Examples of black comedy in television include: Examples of gallows speeches include: Military life

2530-625: Is derived from the Classical Greek κωμῳδία kōmōidía , which is a compound of κῶμος kômos (revel) and ᾠδή ōidḗ (singing; ode). The adjective "comic" (Greek κωμικός kōmikós), which strictly means that which relates to comedy is, in modern usage, generally confined to the sense of "laughter-provoking". Of this, the word came into modern usage through the Latin comoedia and Italian commedia and has, over time, passed through various shades of meaning. The Greeks and Romans confined their use of

2640-429: Is full of gallows humor, as those in the services continuously live in the danger of being killed, especially in wartime. For example: Workers in the emergency services are also known for using black comedy: There are several titles such as It Only Hurts When I Laugh and Only When I Laugh , which allude to the punch line of a joke which exists in numerous versions since at least the 19th century. A typical setup

2750-789: Is not only a genius, he is the man who originated slapstick comedy. We in Hollywood owe much to him." American vaudeville emerged in the 1880s and remained popular until the 1930s, and featured comedians such as W. C. Fields , Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers . Surreal humour (also known as 'absurdist humour'), or 'surreal comedy', is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causal reasoning, producing events and behaviours that are obviously illogical . Constructions of surreal humour tend to involve bizarre juxtapositions, incongruity, non-sequiturs , irrational or absurd situations and expressions of nonsense . The humour arises from

2860-425: Is otherwise a serious commentary on the state of foreign relations serves to frame the segment comically, creating a serious tone underlying the comedic agenda presented by Stewart. Comedy may be divided into multiple genres based on the source of humor, the method of delivery, and the context in which it is delivered. The different forms of comedy often overlap, and most comedy can fit into multiple genres. Some of

2970-437: Is that someone badly hurt is asked "Does it hurt?" – "I am fine; it only hurts when I laugh." The term was part of the language before Freud wrote an essay on it—'gallows humor.' This is middle European humor, a response to hopeless situations. It's what a man says faced with a perfectly hopeless situation and he still manages to say something funny. Freud gives examples: A man being led out to be hanged at dawn says, 'Well,

3080-483: The Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts radio program. Lenny did a piece inspired by Sid Caesar , "The Bavarian Mimic", featuring impressions of American movie stars (e.g., Humphrey Bogart , James Cagney , and Edward G. Robinson ). Bruce's early comedy career included writing the screenplays for Dance Hall Racket in 1953, which featured Bruce, his wife Honey Harlow , and mother Sally Marr; Dream Follies in 1954,

3190-671: The Australian comedian Paul Hogan , famous for Crocodile Dundee . Other centres of creative comic activity have been the cinema of Hong Kong , Bollywood , and French farce . American television has also been an influential force in world comedy: with American series like M*A*S*H , Seinfeld and The Simpsons achieving large followings around the world. British television comedy also remains influential, with quintessential works including Fawlty Towers , Monty Python , Dad's Army , Blackadder , and The Office . Australian satirist Barry Humphries , whose comic creations include

3300-571: The Three Stooges , Abbott and Costello , Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis , Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller during the mid-20th century, to performers like George Carlin , Bill Cosby , Joan Rivers , Robin Williams , and Eddie Murphy toward the end of the century. Hollywood attracted many international talents like the British comics Peter Sellers , Dudley Moore and Sacha Baron Cohen , Canadian comics Dan Aykroyd , Jim Carrey , and Mike Myers , and

3410-447: The word "comedy" to descriptions of stage-plays with happy endings. Aristotle defined comedy as an imitation of men worse than the average (where tragedy was an imitation of men better than the average). However, the characters portrayed in comedies were not worse than average in every way, only insofar as they are Ridiculous, which is a species of the Ugly. The Ridiculous may be defined as

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3520-457: The "art of reprehension", and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or to the troubling beginnings and happy endings associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century , the term "comedy" gained a more general meaning in medieval literature . In the late 20th century, many scholars preferred to use the term laughter to refer to the whole gamut of

3630-413: The 100 greatest stand-ups of all time, above Woody Allen (4th) and below Richard Pryor (1st) and George Carlin (2nd). Both comedians who ranked higher than Bruce considered him a major influence. Pryor said that hearing Bruce for the first time "changed my life"; while Carlin said that Bruce was a "brilliant comedian" who influenced him as much as a man in his moral thinking and attitudes as he did as

3740-568: The 1850s. British comedians who honed their skills in music hall sketches include Charlie Chaplin , Stan Laurel and Dan Leno . English music hall comedian and theatre impresario Fred Karno developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue in the 1890s, and Chaplin and Laurel were among the comedians who worked for his company. Karno was a pioneer of slapstick , and in his biography, Laurel stated, "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie [Chaplin] and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it". Film producer Hal Roach stated: "Fred Karno

3850-511: The 19th century, such as Lewis Carroll 's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass , which both use illogic and absurdity ( hookah -smoking caterpillars , croquet matches using live flamingos as mallets, etc.) for humorous effect. Many of Edward Lear 's children stories and poems contain nonsense and are basically surreal in approach. For example, The Story of

3960-553: The Four Little Children Who Went Round the World (1871) is filled with contradictory statements and odd images intended to provoke amusement, such as the following: After a time they saw some land at a distance; and when they came to it, they found it was an island made of water quite surrounded by earth. Besides that, it was bordered by evanescent isthmuses with a great Gulf-stream running about all over it, so that it

4070-586: The French humour noir ) was coined by the Surrealist theorist André Breton in 1935 while interpreting the writings of Jonathan Swift . Breton's preference was to identify some of Swift's writings as a subgenre of comedy and satire in which laughter arises from cynicism and skepticism , often relying on topics such as death. Breton coined the term for his 1940 book Anthology of Black Humor ( Anthologie de l'humour noir ), in which he credited Jonathan Swift as

4180-593: The Middle Ages, the term "comedy" became synonymous with satire , and later with humour in general. Aristotle's Poetics was translated into Arabic in the medieval Islamic world , where it was elaborated upon by Arabic writers and Islamic philosophers , such as Abu Bishr , and his pupils Al-Farabi , Avicenna , and Averroes . They disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms, such as hija (satirical poetry). They viewed comedy as simply

4290-659: The Neapolitan stock character of Pulcinella . The figure who later became Mr. Punch made his first recorded appearance in England in 1662. Punch and Judy are performed in the spirit of outrageous comedy — often provoking shocked laughter — and are dominated by the anarchic clowning of Mr. Punch. Appearing at a significant period in British history, professor Glyn Edwards states: "[Pulcinella] went down particularly well with Restoration British audiences, fun-starved after years of Puritanism . We soon changed Punch's name, transformed him from

4400-653: The Truth (1998), directed by Robert B. Weide and narrated by Robert De Niro , was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature . Episode 12 of Season 1 of Liberty on Trial in America: Cases That Defined Freedom , aired on January 3, 2020, explored the ways in which Bruce and the First Amendment affected each other. In 2004, Comedy Central placed Bruce at number three on its list of

4510-608: The US to Europe and back. In 1959, while videotaping the first episode of Hugh Hefner 's Playboy's Penthouse , Bruce talked about his Navy experience and showed a tattoo he received in Malta in 1942. After a short period living with his father in California, Bruce settled in New York City, hoping to establish himself as a comedian. However, he found it difficult to differentiate himself from

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4620-539: The United States . In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Bruce third (behind Richard Pryor and George Carlin ) on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time. Bruce was born Leonard Alfred Schneider in Mineola , New York . His British-born father, Myron (Mickey) Schneider, was a shoe clerk; they saw each other very infrequently. His mother, Sally Marr (legal name Sadie Schneider, born Sadie Kitchenberg),

4730-417: The aims. "Comedy", in its Elizabethan usage, had a very different meaning from modern comedy. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays. The Punch and Judy show has roots in the 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte . The figure of Punch derives from

4840-663: The arresting officer was a young deputy named Sherman Block , who later became county sheriff. The charge this time was that the comedian had used the word "schmuck", an insulting Yiddish word that was also considered a term for "penis". The Hollywood charges were later dismissed. On December 5, 1962, Bruce was arrested on stage at the Gate of Horn folk club in Chicago. That year, he played at Peter Cook 's The Establishment club in London, and in April

4950-462: The charitable attitude towards people that is required for purposes of persuasion and co-operation, but at the same time maintains our shrewdness concerning the simplicities of 'cashing in. ' " The purpose of the comic frame is to satirize a given circumstance and promote change by doing so. The comic frame makes fun of situations and people, while simultaneously provoking thought. The comic frame does not aim to vilify in its analysis, but rather, rebuke

5060-771: The circus clown also continued, with such as Bozo the Clown in the United States and Oleg Popov in Russia. Radio provided new possibilities — with Britain producing the influential surreal humour of the Goon Show after the Second World War. The Goons' influence spread to the American radio and recording troupe the Firesign Theatre . American cinema has produced a great number of globally renowned comedy artists, from Laurel and Hardy ,

5170-483: The civilization of a country ... I take to be the flourishing of the Comic idea and Comedy, and the test of true Comedy is that it shall awaken thoughtful laughter." Laughter is said to be the cure for being sick. Studies show that people who laugh more often get sick less. American literary theorist Kenneth Burke writes that the "comic frame" in rhetoric is "neither wholly euphemistic, nor wholly debunking—hence it provides

5280-571: The club Strip City. Harlow found employment at the Colony Club, widely known as the best burlesque club in Los Angeles at the time. Bruce left Strip City in late 1954 and found work at various strip clubs in the San Fernando Valley . As master of ceremonies, he introduced strippers while performing his material. The Valley clubs provided the perfect environment for him to create new routines. According to his primary biographer, Albert Goldman, it

5390-444: The comedy is used to mock the victim. In the last cases, the victim's suffering is trivialized, which leads to sympathizing with the victimizer, as analogously found in the social commentary and social criticism of the writings of (for instance) Sade . Among the first American writers who employed black comedy in their works were Nathanael West and Vladimir Nabokov . The concept of black humor first came to nationwide attention after

5500-486: The comic, in order to avoid the use of ambiguous and problematically defined genres such as the grotesque , irony , and satire . Starting from 425 BCE, Aristophanes , a comic play and satirical author of the Ancient Greek Theater , wrote 40 comedies, 11 of which survive. Aristophanes developed his type of comedy from the earlier satyr plays , which were often highly obscene . The only surviving examples of

5610-416: The country. He was booked for a two-week engagement at Aaron's Exchange Hotel, a small pub in central Sydney, by American-born, Australia-based promoter Lee Gordon , who was by then deeply in debt, nearing the end of his formerly successful career, and desperate to save his business. Bruce's first show at 9 p.m. on September 6 was uneventful, but his second show at 11 p.m. led to major public controversy. Bruce

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5720-561: The current evidency to incorporate all instances of the comic in the analysis, while the classification in genres and fields such as grotesque, humour and even irony or satire always poses problems. The terms humour and laughter are therefore pragmatically used in recent historiography to cover the entire spectrum. That Comedy sprang up and took shape in connection with Dionysiac or Phallic ritual has never been doubted. Lenny Bruce Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce ,

5830-499: The day is certainly starting well.' It's generally called Jewish humor in this country. Actually it's humor from the peasants' revolt, the forty years' war, and from the Napoleonic wars. It's small people being pushed this way and that way, enormous armies and plagues and so forth, and still hanging on in the face of hopelessness. Jewish jokes are middle European jokes and the black humorists are gallows humorists, as they try to be funny in

5940-890: The definitive recipe for all punning' (Puns, p. 127). En français on dit « rire jaune », en flamand « groen lachen » Les termes jaune, vert, bleu évoquent en français un certain nombre d'idées qui sont différentes de celles que suscitent les mots holandais correspondants geel, groen, blauw. Nous disons : rire jaune, le Hollandais dit : rire vert ( groen lachen ); ce que le Néerlandais appelle un vert (een groentje), c'est ce qu'en français on désigne du nom de bleu (un jeune soldat inexpéribenté)... On voit que des confrontations de ce genre permettent de concevoir une étude de la psychologie des peuples fondée sur les associations d'idées que révèlent les variations de sens (sémantique), les expressions figurées, les proverbes et les dictions. Q: Critiche feroci, interrogazioni parlamentari: momenti duri per la satira. A: Satira è far ridere

6050-549: The establishment. Bruce took the stage as "Lenny Marsalle" one evening at the Victory Club as a stand-in master of ceremonies for one of his mother's shows. His ad-libs earned him some laughs. Soon afterward, in 1947, just after changing his last name to Bruce, he earned $ 12 and a free spaghetti dinner for his first stand-up performance in Brooklyn . He was later a guest—and was introduced by his mother, calling herself Sally Bruce—on

6160-399: The face of situations which they see as just horrible. At least, Swift's text is preserved, and so is a prefatory note by the French writer André Breton, which emphasizes Swift's importance as the originator of black humor, of laughter that arises from cynicism and scepticism. When it comes to black humor, everything designates him as the true initiator. In fact, it is impossible to coordinate

6270-540: The fugitive traces of this kind of humor before him, not even in Heraclitus and the Cynics or in the works of Elizabethan dramatic poets. [...] historically justify his being presented as the first black humorist. Contrary to what Voltaire might have said, Swift was in no sense a "perfected Rabelais." He shared to the smallest possible degree Rabelais's taste for innocent, heavy-handed jokes and his constant drunken good humor. [...]

6380-418: The housewife and "gigastar" Dame Edna Everage , for his delivery of Dadaist and absurdist humour to millions, was described by biographer Anne Pender in 2010 as not only "the most significant theatrical figure of our time ... [but] the most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin ". By 200 BC, in ancient Sanskrit drama , Bharata Muni 's Natya Shastra defined humour ( hāsyam ) as one of

6490-417: The joke is being told by the threatened person themselves or by someone else. Black comedy has the social effect of strengthening the morale of the oppressed and undermines the morale of the oppressors. According to Wylie Sypher , "to be able to laugh at evil and error means we have surmounted them." Black comedy is a natural human instinct and examples of it can be found in stories from antiquity. Its use

6600-525: The late 1960s, other unissued Bruce material was released by Alan Douglas , Frank Zappa and Phil Spector , as well as Fantasy. Bruce developed the complexity and tone of his material in Enrico Banducci 's North Beach nightclub, the hungry i , where Mort Sahl had earlier made a name for himself. Branded a "sick comic", Bruce was essentially blacklisted from television, and when he did appear, thanks to sympathetic fans like Hefner and Steve Allen , it

6710-413: The late 19th century, and later radio and television in the 20th century broadened the access of comedians to the general public. Charlie Chaplin , through silent film, became one of the best-known faces on Earth. The silent tradition lived on well into the late 20th century through mime artists like Marcel Marceau , and the slapstick comedy of artists like Rowan Atkinson (as Mr. Bean ). The tradition of

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6820-470: The local clergy's inability to expose him as an impostor. Later, in his semifictional autobiography How to Talk Dirty and Influence People , Bruce said that he had made about $ 8,000 in three weeks, sending $ 2,500 to the leper colony and keeping the rest. On October 4, 1961, Bruce was arrested for obscenity at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco, where he had used the word "cocksucker", and said that "to

6930-457: The midst of a severe blizzard, Bruce gave a famous performance at Carnegie Hall at midnight on February 4, 1961. It was recorded and later released as the three-disc set The Carnegie Hall Concert . In his posthumous biography of Bruce, Albert Goldman described that night: It's all a trip—and the best of it is you haven't the faintest idea where you're going! Lenny worshiped the gods of Spontaneity, Candor and Free Association. His greatest fear

7040-470: The modernist school." Honey and Lenny's daughter Kathleen ("Kitty") Bruce was born in 1955. Honey and Lenny had a tumultuous relationship with many serious domestic disputes, usually the result of serious drug use. They broke up and reunited over and over again between 1956 and Lenny's death in 1966. They first separated in March 1956, and were back together by July of that year when they traveled to Honolulu for

7150-400: The most divorced from a true mimesis. Tragedy is the truest mimesis, followed by epic poetry, comedy, and lyric poetry. The genre of comedy is defined by a certain pattern according to Aristotle's definition. Comedies begin with low or base characters seeking insignificant aims and end with some accomplishment of the aims which either lightens the initial baseness or reveals the insignificance of

7260-524: The most profound and cataclysmic change in our popular culture the last few years—matching the "new sound" in music—has been the kind of humor exemplified by the Smothers Brothers , Laugh-In , Woody Allen , and that whole breed, whose secret source of strength was the late dark angel, Lenny Bruce.      Bruce was the Gertrude Stein of comedians. Never popular himself—because he

7370-637: The next year he was barred from entering the United Kingdom by the Home Office as an "undesirable alien". In April 1964, he appeared twice at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village , with undercover police detectives in the audience. He was arrested along with club owners Howard and Elly Solomon, who were arrested for allowing an obscene performance. On both occasions, Bruce was arrested after leaving

7480-441: The nine nava rasas , or principle rasas (emotional responses), which can be inspired in the audience by bhavas , the imitations of emotions that the actors perform. Each rasa was associated with a specific bhavas portrayed on stage. In the case of humour, it was associated with mirth ( hasya ). The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it have been carefully investigated by psychologists. They agree

7590-588: The object of their humor. Parody subverts popular genres and forms, critiquing those forms without necessarily condemning them. Other forms of comedy include screwball comedy , which derives its humor largely from bizarre, surprising (and improbable) situations or characters, and black comedy , which is characterized by a form of humor that includes darker aspects of human behavior or human nature. Similarly scatological humor , sexual humor, and race humor create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways, which can often be taken as offensive by

7700-448: The originator of black humor and gallows humor (particularly in his pieces Directions to Servants (1731), A Modest Proposal (1729), Meditation Upon a Broomstick (1710), and in a few aphorisms ). In his book, Breton also included excerpts from 45 other writers, including both examples in which the wit arises from a victim with which the audience empathizes, as is more typical in the tradition of gallows humor, and examples in which

7810-418: The origins of comedy are obscure because it was not treated seriously from its inception. However, comedy had its own Muse : Thalia . Aristotle taught that comedy was generally positive for society, since it brings forth happiness, which for Aristotle was the ideal state, the final goal in any activity. For Aristotle, a comedy did not need to involve sexual humor. A comedy is about the fortunate rise of

7920-683: The particular type of laughter that it arouses ( risata verde or groen lachen ), and said that grotesque satire , as opposed to ironic satire, is the one that most often arouses this kind of laughter. In the Weimar era Kabaretts , this genre was particularly common, and according to Luttazzi, Karl Valentin and Karl Kraus were the major masters of it. Black comedy is common in professions and environments where workers routinely have to deal with dark subject matter. This includes police officers , firefighters , ambulance crews, military personnel, journalists, lawyers, and funeral directors , where it

8030-534: The phrase which seems to become a cliche—he saw life as it is. Bruce's epitaph reads: "Beloved father—devoted son / Peace at last". Dick Schaap concluded his eulogy to Bruce in Playboy with the words: "One last four-letter word for Lenny: Dead. At forty. That's obscene". A memorial event was held at the Judson Memorial Church in New York City on August 12, which was "packed to overflowing" an hour before it

8140-399: The police directly in his comedy routine. These performances often included rants about his court battles over obscenity charges, tirades against fascism, and complaints that he was being denied his right to freedom of speech. He was banned outright from several U.S. cities. In September 1962, his only visit to Australia caused a media storm, although he was neither banned nor forced to leave

8250-497: The predominant characteristics are incongruity or contrast in the object and shock or emotional seizure on the part of the subject. It has also been held that the feeling of superiority is an essential factor: thus Thomas Hobbes speaks of laughter as a "sudden glory". Modern investigators have paid much attention to the origin both of laughter and of smiling, as well as the development of the "play instinct" and its emotional expression. George Meredith said that "One excellent test of

8360-416: The provocations of reality, to let itself be compelled to suffer. It insists that it cannot be affected by the traumas of the external world; it shows, in fact, that such traumas are no more than occasions for it to gain pleasure." Some other sociologists elaborated this concept further. At the same time, Paul Lewis warns that this "relieving" aspect of gallows jokes depends on the context of the joke: whether

8470-473: The publication of a 1965 mass-market paperback titled Black Humor , edited by Bruce Jay Friedman . The paperback was one of the first American anthologies devoted to the concept of black humor as a literary genre. With the paperback, Friedman labeled as "black humorists" a variety of authors, such as J. P. Donleavy , Edward Albee , Joseph Heller , Thomas Pynchon , John Barth , Vladimir Nabokov, Bruce Jay Friedman himself, and Louis-Ferdinand Céline . Among

8580-499: The recent writers suggested as black humorists by journalists and literary critics are Roald Dahl , Kurt Vonnegut , Warren Zevon , Christopher Durang , Philip Roth , and Veikko Huovinen . Evelyn Waugh has been called "the first contemporary writer to produce the sustained black comic novel." The motive for applying the label black humorist to the writers cited above is that they have written novels, poems, stories, plays, and songs in which profound or horrific events were portrayed in

8690-428: The same role. Self-deprecation is a technique of comedy used by many comedians who focus on their misfortunes and foibles in order to entertain. Stand-up comedy is a mode of comic performance in which the performer addresses the audience directly, usually speaking in their own person rather than as a dramatic character . The deliberate use by Menard of the term 'le rire' rather than 'l'humour' reflects accurately

8800-441: The satyr plays are by Euripides , which are much later examples and not representative of the genre. In ancient Greece, comedy originated in bawdy and ribald songs or recitations apropos of phallic processions and fertility festivals or gatherings. Around 335 BCE, Aristotle , in his work Poetics , stated that comedy originated in phallic processions and the light treatment of the otherwise base and ugly. He also adds that

8910-526: The screen, and the comedy material on his first three comedy albums. Bruce was a roommate of comedian Buddy Hackett in the 1950s. The two appeared on the Patrice Munsel Show (1957–1958), calling their comedy duo the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players", 20 years before the cast of Saturday Night Live used the same name. In 1957, Thomas booked Bruce into the Slate Brothers nightclub, where he

9020-570: The service to pay their respects, led by Spector. Cemetery officials tried to block the ceremony after ads for it encouraged attendees to bring box lunches and noisemakers. Delivering the eulogy, featured at the end of the documentary Lenny Bruce Without the Tears , the Rev. William Glenesk said: He was in a sense an evangelist, on a street corner. He was a man—up tight against an artificial world... who shattered its façades, and its hypocrisy, and—if you will pardon

9130-708: The stage. A three-judge panel presided over his widely publicized six-month trial, prosecuted by Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Richard Kuh , with Ephraim London and Martin Garbus as the defense attorneys. Bruce and Howard Solomon were found guilty of obscenity on November 4, 1964. The conviction was announced despite positive testimony and petitions of support from—among other artists, writers and educators— Woody Allen , Bob Dylan , Jules Feiffer , Allen Ginsberg , Norman Mailer , William Styron , and James Baldwin , and Manhattan journalist and television personality Dorothy Kilgallen and sociologist Herbert Gans . Bruce

9240-659: The stupidity and foolery of those involved in the circumstances. For example, on The Daily Show , Jon Stewart uses the "comic frame" to intervene in political arguments, often offering crude humor in sudden contrast to serious news. In a segment on President Obama 's trip to China, Stewart remarks on America's debt to the Chinese government while also having a weak relationship with the country. After depicting this dismal situation, Stewart shifts to speak directly to President Obama, calling upon him to "shine that turd up." For Stewart and his audience, introducing coarse language into what

9350-524: The subgenres of comedy are farce , comedy of manners , burlesque , and satire . Some comedy apes certain cultural forms: for instance, parody and satire often imitate the conventions of the genre they are parodying or satirizing. For example, in the United States, parodies of newspapers and television news include The Onion , and The Colbert Report ; in Australia, shows such as Kath & Kim , Utopia , and Shaun Micallef's Mad As Hell perform

9460-402: The subjects of the joke. A comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society (usually upper-class society) and uses humor to parody or satirize the behavior and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms and focuses on the foibles of those who are falling in love. Dean Rubin says the word "comedy"

9570-466: The term black comedy can also refer to a genre in which dark humor is a core component. Cartoonist Charles Addams was famous for such humor, e.g. depicting a boy decorating his bedroom with stolen warning signs including "NO DIVING – POOL EMPTY", "STOP – BRIDGE OUT" and "SPRING CONDEMNED." Black comedy differs from both blue comedy —which focuses more on crude topics such as nudity , sex , and body fluids —and from straightforward obscenity . Whereas

9680-446: The term black comedy is a relatively broad term covering humour relating to many serious subjects, gallows humor tends to be used more specifically in relation to death, or situations that are reminiscent of dying. Black humour can occasionally be related to the grotesque genre. Literary critics have associated black comedy and black humour with authors as early as the ancient Greeks with Aristophanes . The term black humour (from

9790-573: The thousands of other show business hopefuls who populated the city. One place where they congregated was Hanson's, a diner where Bruce met Joe Ancis, who had a profound influence on Bruce's approach to comedy. Many of Bruce's later routines reflected his meticulous schooling at the hands of Ancis. According to Bruce's biographer Albert Goldman , Ancis's humor involved stream-of-consciousness sexual fantasies and references to jazz. He also gained notoriety for his focus on controversial subjects, black humour, obscenity, and criticism of organized religion and

9900-597: The university's vice-chancellor rescinded permission to use the venue, with no reason given, and an interview Bruce was scheduled to give on Australian television was cancelled by the Australian Broadcasting Commission . Bruce remained largely confined to his hotel, but eight days later gave his third and last Australian concert at the Wintergarden Theatre in Sydney's eastern suburbs. Although it had

10010-419: Was "precisely at the moment when he sank to the bottom of the barrel and started working the places that were the lowest of the low" that he suddenly broke free of "all the restraints and inhibitions and disabilities that formerly had kept him just mediocre and began to blow with a spontaneous freedom and resourcefulness that resembled the style and inspiration of his new friends and admirers, the jazz musicians of

10120-523: Was a stage performer and dancer who had an enormous influence on his career. Bruce grew up in Bellmore, New York and attended Wellington C. Mepham High School . For some of his high school years, he lived at Dengler's Farm on Wantagh Avenue in Wantagh, New York. Bruce's parents divorced before he was 10, and he lived with various relatives over the next decade. Bruce was Jewish. After spending time working on

10230-413: Was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy that combined satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon in 2003. Bruce forged new paths in comedy and counterculture . His trial for obscenity was a landmark of freedom of speech in

10340-433: Was due to get underway. It was attended by prominent members of the arts community, many of whom also performed, and included Allen Ginsberg , Joe Lee Wilson , Jean Shepherd , Charlie Haden , and The Fugs ; Paul Krassner officiated. On December 23, 2003, 37 years after Bruce's death, New York Governor George Pataki granted him a posthumous pardon for his obscenity conviction.      Perhaps

10450-589: Was experiencing homosexual urges, leading to his dishonorable discharge in July 1945. However, he had not admitted to or been found guilty of any breach of naval regulations, and successfully applied to change his discharge to "Under Honorable Conditions ... by reason of unsuitability for the naval service" . During the Korean War era, Bruce served in the United States Merchant Marine , ferrying troops from

10560-466: Was finalized in 1959. He had an affair with jazz singer Annie Ross in the late 1950s. Comedienne Lotus Weinstock was Bruce's girlfriend and fiancee at the time of his death. Bruce had a severe drug addiction in the final decade of his life, using heroin , methamphetamine and Dilaudid daily, and suffering numerous health problems and personal strife as a result. His death was caused by an overdose. Bruce's desire to help his wife stop working as

10670-456: Was fired the first night for what Variety headlined as " blue material ". This led to the theme of Bruce's first solo album on Berkeley -based Fantasy Records , The Sick Humor of Lenny Bruce , for which Thomas photographed the album cover. Thomas also photographed Bruce's other covers, acted as cinematographer on abortive attempts to film their screenplays, and in 1989 wrote a memoir of their ten-year collaboration, Lenny Bruce: The Making of

10780-612: Was getting his act down pat. On this night, he rose to every chance stimulus, every interruption and noise and distraction, with a mad volleying of mental images that suggested the fantastic riches of Charlie Parker's horn. The first flash was simply the spectacle of people piled up in America's most famous concert hall. In August 1965, a year before his death, Bruce gave his penultimate performance at San Francisco's Basin Street West , mainly talking about his legal troubles. The filmed performance

10890-440: Was heckled by audience members, and when local actress Barbara Wyndon stood up and complained that Bruce was only talking about America and asked him to talk about something different, a clearly annoyed Bruce responded, "Fuck you, madam. That's different, isn't it?" Bruce's remark shocked some audience members and several walked out. By the next day, several Sydney papers denounced Bruce as "sick"; one illustrated their story with

11000-565: Was his own invention, but possibly referred to the actual Brother Matthias who had befriended Babe Ruth at the Baltimore orphanage where Ruth had been confined as a child. While posing as a laundry man, Bruce stole several priests' clergy shirts and a clerical collar. He was acquitted because of the legality of the New York state-chartered foundation, the actual existence of the Guiana leper colony, and

11110-465: Was later published as How to Talk Dirty and Influence People . During this time, Bruce also contributed a number of articles to Krassner's satirical magazine The Realist . On August 3, 1966, Bruce was found dead in the bathroom of his Hollywood Hills home. The official photo taken at the scene showed him lying naked on the floor, a syringe and burned bottle cap nearby, along with various other narcotics paraphernalia. Record producer Phil Spector ,

11220-514: Was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for the role. It was based on the Broadway stage play of the same name by Julian Barry , which starred Cliff Gorman in his 1972 Tony Award -winning role. The main character's editing of a fictionalized film version of Lenny was also a major part of Fosse's own autobiopic, the 1979 Academy Award-nominated All That Jazz , where Gorman again played Bruce. The documentary film Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell

11330-450: Was not remembered fondly by Bill Graham , whose memoir describes Bruce as "whacked out on amphetamine "; Graham thought that Bruce finished his set emotionally disturbed. Zappa asked Bruce to sign his draft card , but the suspicious Bruce refused. At the request of Hefner and with the aid of Paul Krassner , Bruce wrote an autobiography that was serialized in Playboy in 1964 and 1965. It

11440-441: Was perfectly beautiful, and contained only a single tree, 503 feet high. In the early 20th century, several avant-garde movements, including the dadaists , surrealists , and futurists , began to argue for an art that was random, jarring and illogical. The goals of these movements were in some sense serious, and they were committed to undermining the solemnity and self-satisfaction of the contemporary artistic establishment . As

11550-556: Was released by Rhino Home Video in 1992 as The Lenny Bruce Performance Film . In 1951, Bruce met Honey Harlow , a stripper from Manila, Arkansas . They were married that year, and Bruce was determined to see her stop working as a stripper. The couple left New York in 1953 for the West Coast , where they found work as a double act at the Cup and Saucer in Los Angeles . Bruce joined a bill at

11660-407: Was sentenced on December 21, 1964, to four months in a workhouse ; he was set free on bail during the appeals process and died before the appeal was decided. Solomon, the owner of the club where Lenny was arrested, later saw Bruce's conviction overturned. Bruce appeared on network television only six times. In his later club performances, he was known for relating the details of his encounters with

11770-470: Was subsequently donated to the Lenny Bruce audio collection at Brandeis University . Bruce left the country a few days later and spoke little about the experience. Increasing drug use also affected Bruce's health and repeated arrests further caused deterioration to his mental health. By 1966, he had been blacklisted by nearly every nightclub in the U.S. as owners feared prosecution for obscenity. He gave

11880-530: Was too cryptic and too scatological for popular taste—he nevertheless influenced a whole generation of comics, just as Stein influenced Hemingway and that generation of writers. Her own work was a dead end (so was Bruce's), but out of that compost grew the buds of a flourishing school. – Syndicated columnist Sydney J. Harris , November 5, 1969. Bruce was the subject of the 1974 biographical drama Lenny , directed by Bob Fosse and starring Dustin Hoffman , who

11990-582: Was widespread in middle Europe , from where it was imported to the United States. It is rendered with the German expression Galgenhumor (cynical last words before getting hanged). The concept of gallows humor is comparable to the French expression rire jaune (lit. yellow laughing ), which also has a Germanic equivalent in the Belgian Dutch expression groen lachen (lit. green laughing ). Italian comedian Daniele Luttazzi discussed gallows humour focusing on

12100-451: Was with great concessions to Broadcast Standards and Practices . Jokes that might offend, like a routine on airplane- glue-sniffing teenagers that was done live for The Steve Allen Show in 1959, had to be typed out and pre-approved by network officials. On his debut on Allen's show, Bruce made an unscripted comment on the recent marriage of Elizabeth Taylor to Eddie Fisher , wondering, "Will Elizabeth Taylor become bar mitzvahed?" In

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