Lenny Bruce (13 October 1925 – 3 August 1966), born Leonard Alfred Schneider, was an American stand-up comic and political satirist.

Quotes

• Life is a four-letter word.
  • Lenny Bruce[]
• In the Halls of Justice, the only justice is in the halls.
  • Lenny Bruce[]
• If I get busted in New York, the freest city in the world, that will be the end of my career.
  • Lenny Bruce []
• A Jew, in the dictionary, is one who is descended from the ancient tribes of Judea, or one who is regarded as a descendant from that tribe. That's what it says in the dictionary, but you and I know what a Jew is: One Who Killed Our Lord... there should be a statute of limitations for that crime.

in Lenny Bruce Without Tears 1972

• I want to perform an unnatural act.

in - Lenny as the Lone Ranger, in Thank You Mask Man'

• If something about the human body disgusts you, the fault lies with the manufacturer.

Alternative: If God created the Body, and the Body is dirty, then the fault lies with the Manufacturer.

can be seen/heard in Lenny Bruce: Swear to tell the truth 1998

• Are there any niggers here tonight? Could you turn on the house lights, please, and could the waiters and waitresses just stop serving, just for a second? And turn off this spot. Now what did he say? "Are there any niggers here tonight?" I know there's one nigger, because I see him back there working. Let's see, there's two niggers. And between those two niggers sits a kike. And there's another kike— that's two kikes and three niggers. And there's a spic. Right? Hmm? There's another spic. Ooh, there's a wop; there's a polack; and, oh, a couple of greaseballs. And there's three lace-curtain Irish micks. And there's one, hip, thick, hunky, funky, boogie. Boogie boogie. Mm-hmm. I got three kikes here, do I hear five kikes? I got five kikes, do I hear six spics, I got six spics, do I hear seven niggers? I got seven niggers. Sold American. I pass with seven niggers, six spics, five micks, four kikes, three guineas, and one wop. Well, I was just trying to make a point, and that is that it's the suppression of the word that gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness. Dig: if President Kennedy would just go on television, and say, "I would like to introduce you to all the niggers in my cabinet," and if he'd just say "nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger" to every nigger he saw, "boogie boogie boogie boogie boogie," "nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger" 'til nigger didn't mean anything anymore, then you could never make some six-year-old black kid cry because somebody called him a nigger at school.

- From Julian Barry's screenplay for "Lenny"

can be seen/heard in Lenny Bruce: Swear to tell the truth 1998

• Take away the right to say "fuck" and you take away the right to say "fuck the government."

cited in FUCK

• The role of a comedian is to make the audience laugh, at a minimum of once every fifteen seconds.

referred to by Paul Krassner in Lenny Bruce: Swear to tell the truth 1998

• I'm not a comedian. I'm Lenny Bruce.

as quoted by Paul Krassner in Lenny Bruce: Swear to tell the truth 1998

• You can't put tits and ass on the marquee!...Why not?...Because it's dirty and vulgar, that's why not!... Titties are dirty and vulgar?...Okay, we'll compromise. How about Latin? Gluteus maximus, pectoralis majors nightly...That's alright, that's clean, class with ass, I'll buy it...Clean to you, schmuck, but dirty to the Latins!

in The Carnegie Hall Concert 1961,

• Let me tell you the truth. The truth is what is, and what should be is a fantasy. A terrible, terrible lie that someone gave to the people long ago.

as quoted by Paul Krassner in Lenny Bruce: Swear to tell the truth 1998

Quotes about Bruce

• Lenny Bruce's legacy is freedom of speech and telling it as it is, getting your life and putting it out on the table, telling everyone about it.
  • Eddie Izzard (comedian and actor) speaking on BBC Radio Two's documentary about Bruce.

• One last four-letter word for Lenny: Dead. At forty. That's obscene.
  • Dick Schaap, sportswriter, broadcaster, and author, in a eulogy for Bruce published in Playboy magazine

• That's what happened to Lenny Bruce. He got angry, and then he wasn't funny any more.
  • Tom Lehrer, satirist and songwriter.

External links