Over the past sixty years, the five funniest comedians have also sometimes paid a heavy price for being honest.
1) Lenny Bruce was prosecuted and arrested so many times for obscenity., but he also had a good nose to sniff out the hypocrisy in society. He died broke and strung out on heroin. A year after his death, one court overturned their verdict, and magically, his act wasn’t considered obscene anymore.
George Carlin had a similar battle over “Seven Dirty Words”. But he kept exposing the bull$#|t in society.
Richard Pryor followed a similar path as Carlin. In the late 60s, both were doing clean cut acts, appearing on Ed Sullivan, playing for middle class white audiences and making good money. Then around 1970, both said “I can’t do this anymore “, went underground, and their real comic genius emerged. Pryor was brutally honest about the faults of both black and white people.
Bill Cosby was the polar opposite. He wasn’t political, never cursed, and hit a goldmine talking about his childhood. In the 70s, he was criticized for not cursing like Richard Pryor. So Cosby started cursing (slightly), but it seemed phony.
It was only in recent years he fell from grace, mostly because he wasn’t honest.
Dave Chappelle stands in good company. I watched his special, where he talked about his trans friend Daphne. It seems a shame, the way things are going, comedy is all but dead.
People are too uptight, too sensitive, too politically correct, you can’t joke without someone getting offended.
For anyone who never saw it, on YouTube check out Lenny Bruce - Thank You Mask Man. Animated by Jeff Hale, very Sesame-like. Long before the Simpson, South Park, etc. this broke new ground.