A Bruce the Australlians didn’t like

I did not know this:

Wind back to September 1962, when the American comedian Lenny Bruce caused near hysteria with his first performance in Sydney. Bruce’s routine was littered with four-letter words and obscenities - including “the Lady Chatterley word”, as The Sun so delicately put it - and sent Sydney’s media into apoplexy.

Under the headline “Disgusted by ’sick’ jokes”, the paper reported that outraged audience members walked out of Bruce’s performance at Aaron’s Hotel and others heckled the comedian during an hour-long routine that included a blasphemous account of the crucifixion, racial references and a detailed story about how Bruce had used a prostitute to frame a judge.

The Sun’s theatre critic, Norman Kessell, wrote “it is reasonably certain that Sydney has never seen a public performance of such blasphemy and obscenity”, and mused that “it will be astonishing if the Chief Secretary’s Department allows it to continue”.

The department was not needed - the hotel’s manager, Nicholas Devery, cancelled Bruce’s contract after only one performance. Hastily arranged shows at Sydney University and the University of NSW were stopped by authorities, and ABC television dropped a planned interview. Newspapers bristled with indignation at the “sick” comedian.

Now a days you’d have to dress up like a dingo and eat babies to get called sick.