Sunday 3 August 2014

The downfall of Lenny Bruce


I really did not intend to carry on waffling about the last three posts, but I really cannot begin this light-hearted one without a mention of the news that we all woke up to this morning, which contained what we had really suspected all along.

The Israeli soldier, Lt. Goldin, who was 'kidnapped' by Hamas in Gaza the day before yesterday, was not in fact captured at all, but killed in action along with the other 63 soldiers who have died there since the latest invasion.

The attempts to free him from his captors resulted in the death of about 200 more Palestinians during the destruction of many civilian buildings, including yet another school. The student's text books - some in English - are strewn amongst the tangled debris, and the Israeli media is saturated with the spectacle of hundreds of tearful people mourning Lt. Goldin's death, with blue and white Israeli flags flying overhead.

Netanyahu broadcast to the world - in English - that Hamas should not think that that Israel will not do whatever it takes to protect its people, and react with the strongest possible force in its attempt to free Lt. Goldin.

I wonder if he really believed that Hamas and the rest of Palestine did not already know that Israel would respond with quite a lot of force to a handful of hot-heads firing rockets at them, and I wonder if he believed Hamas when they said that they did not know where Lt. Goldin was, but suspected he had been killed as the others had - possibly during an air-strike by Israel in an attempt to 'find' him?

If you are bored with these observations about what is happening there right now, then I apologise, but I am finding it difficult to concentrate on anything else at the moment, even though I am as weary of it as you probably are. I would like to think that there is nothing more to be said about it, but each day brings fresh topics to an increasingly desperate situation, and the British Home Office is starting to become inundated with emails asking what the official British position is, to a somewhat silent and non-committal government.

Lenny Bruce destroyed his brilliant career as a comedian by losing his sense of humour.

Locked into a battle between the US authorities and his own demon addictions, his nightly shows became two-hour, humourless tirades which - though highly interesting and observant to begin with - quickly bored his audience, who wondered why they had payed money to turn up and listen to it all without so much as a giggle.

He had been arrested on stage for using language that is perfectly acceptable in today's stand-up routines, and spent the rest of his short-lived acts making very sound and accurate observations about it, in a highly articulate, philosophical manner. The trouble is, like I say, he lost his sense of humour. He just couldn't give up and admit the unfair way he had been beaten by a much more powerful force than he was.

He had right on his side, and thought that he would ultimately win the argument with words alone. He was wrong, and he was wrong because he bored people away from him by not leaving it be.

The last truly funny thing he said was about the way the words, "Fuck you" were used as abuse, when everything pointed in the direction of it being a very caring thing to say to someone, if you took the meaning of the words literally. He recounted a fictitious or hypothetical phone-call to his mother, and it went something like this:

"Hi Mom - it's so lovely to speak to you! We haven't spoken in ages, how are you doing? Are you well? I love you so much and I can't wait to see you again! Fuck you, Mom, fuck you!" 

Well, fuck you and your mother, and we will speak of more pleasant things in the future, if I haven't already bored you to death.

36 comments:

  1. sometimes you have to write what is stuck in your head before you can even begin to contemplate something else to post. Its like unblocking a blockage.
    And your posts are never boring, far from it.

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    1. To me, it's like trying to get a starving person to appreciate a good painting.

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  2. Thank fuck for that... I have been praying for a candlestick post for 48 hours now

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    1. The next thing you're going to get is an erect carrot. Do with it as you will.

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    2. Let's see the colour of your money

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    3. I can't wait to see the title.

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    4. 'Quelle Surprise', was the title which John has given it. Cynic.

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  3. Israeli soldier is killed. Israel says we will continue to attack until you stop attacking us. Hamas says we shall never stop attacking you. Back to square one.

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    1. Yes, that's the justification. Hamas is criminally irresponsible for giving them the excuse, but - like we keep saying - they are not likely to back down until they either run out of rockets, or there is nobody left to fire them. They will end up with no habitable territory left to defend soon.

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    2. And all the inhabitants will be dead.

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  4. Not bored with it at all Tom. It's an awful situation that is on my mind too.

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    1. I suppose it is on everyone's mind, unless they live in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan or any of the other places that we have tried to help out using force in the last few years - they have other preoccupations.

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  5. Our dumb ass Congress passed 'emergency funding' ($225M) for Israel's Iron Dome system right before they left for their undeserved 5 week summer break. Fucking idiots.

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    1. They are WORSE than the "Do Nothing" group in the 1940s. I'm furious.

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    2. I really don't blame the Israelis for protecting their children with some free sophisticated defence systems, but I don't understand why the Palestinian children are not so well protected. A child is a child, is it not?

      I've just lost a follower - I wonder if it is the subject matter, or me telling them, 'fuck you'?

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    3. A child is a child. But not to some fundamentalists.

      Probably both - but the rest of us are here. Aren't you glad? (erm, maybe you shouldn't answer that)

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    4. NO child should have to be hurt...ever. I just don't understand how we can pick and choose who we help and who we don't. It makes me very sad.....

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    5. When the Israelis run out of ammunition, they ask the USA for more. When Hamas run out of rockets, they ask everyone else.

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    6. I gained a follower. Perhaps she did a straight swap.

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    7. I've yet to look to see who it is/was.

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  6. Agree with all of this Tom. Despair threatens to engulf me. So can I lighten the proceedings with a funny joke which I read in the paper.
    A man wrote about his five year old's end of term first report from school. It said that his command of language was really very good and that he was the only child in the class who could supply a word to rhyme with bucket.

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    1. So he failed on maths then? That's two words, isn't it?

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  7. I think your last four blog posts have been great posts and I go along with everything you've been saying. The pain just goes on.

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    1. Thank you Moll - I hope I get a bit more boring in the near future.

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  8. Oh, and I have been meaning to ask you, Tom - what is your favorite beer?

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    1. That's what the Coors representative asked me in Canada, when Coors where sponsoring my night out as a sculptor there.

      He told me he had to go, but asked what I would be doing for the rest of the evening, and I said, "Drinking Molson."

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    2. I don't think I have had that in a coon's age.

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    3. In a WHAT? Wash your mouth out.

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    4. Yes, I am having enough trouble sorting out racist abuse to my beautiful, young. black girlfriend here in Bath, without having to make judgements here.

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    5. Sometimes you white folks over compensate.

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    6. We're not allowed to do anything else Carol.

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    7. I know that Carol didn't mean it like that, which is why I said I didn't want to have to make judgements here - 'here' being a public space.

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  9. You're not boring me Tom...some things need to be said.

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  10. Oh Tom, you speak so much sense. Thank you.

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