Until the Supreme Court changed the legal standard for obscenity in the early 1970s, comedians routinely faced the threat of arrest over raunchy material performed onstage.
Even afterward, comics could still face harassment by police on disorderly conduct charges. Andrew Dice Clay narrowly avoided arrest in Texas in 1990, opting to cancel his Dallas concert rather than risk violating the state's strict anti-obscenity laws.
"The Texas district attorney said, 'If you come to perform in Dallas, you will be arrested for obscenity,'" said former comic and comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff. "Obscenity laws were alive and well in Texas, the state that likes to pretend that it's all about freedom and liberty."
Here's a shortlist of comics who were arrested over material they said onstage.
Marty Wayne, 1946
In 1946, up-and-coming comedian Marty Wayne was arrested in Philadelphia for performing what was considered an "obscene" show including "filthy jokes and pantomime" at two local nightclubs.
"The way the newspapers described it was 'for his purple passages,' meaning dirty words," said Nesteroff. "In those days they didn't publish in the newspaper what they said, they just said 'arrested for obscenity.' And by the standards of today, it was probably a pretty mild comment."
The proprietors of the venues were fined $25.13 each and Wayne spent six months in prison. "If you have to get into the gutter and present filthy shows you might as well close up," Judge Harry S. McDevitt told him. "This man's sense of propriety is so low that I have no alternative but to send him to prison. You are not fit to be an entertainer."
Lenny Bruce, 1961-1964
Bruce and his stand-up were targeted by police for much of the early 1960s. He was arrested a whopping five times.
In 1961, the comedian was arrested and later acquitted of obscenity charges in San Francisco. The following year, he was arrested twice in Los Angeles and once in Chicago on claims of obscenity. Only the Chicago charges stuck.
Hoping for reprieve, Bruce took his act to New York City in 1964 and was summarily targeted there as well by undercover cops and district attorney investigators who attended two of his performances. Armed with material gleaned from his act, the D.A. convinced a grand jury to indict Bruce on obscenity charges, which he disputed.
When investigators testified with hand-written notes they'd taken from Bruce's act, he said "I'm going to be judged by his bad timing, his ego, his garbled language."
Bruce was sentenced to four months in prison. He later appealed the conviction but died of a morphine overdose before he could appear before an appellate court.
George Carlin, 1972
Carlin was arrested on disorderly conduct charges at Milwaukee Summerfest in 1972 for performing his classic bit "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television."
The charges were eventually dropped, with Judge Raymond E. Gieringer dismissing the case and upholding Carlin's right to free speech despite the indecent language.
"By the time Carlin was arrested, most of the federal obscenity laws had been overturned as unconstitutional," said Nesteroff. "This was the same era that 'Deep Throat' was coming out and suddenly there was a proliferation of adult movie theaters and bookstores and pornography became a thing for the first time. And so the battle was kind of lost, but a lot of these police departments were still overseen by real old-fashioned dudes who didn't like that. Because the charges were always thrown out, eventually police departments gave up on trying to enforce any kind of obscenity laws."
Richard Pryor, 1974
Although obscenity laws had been overturned in the early 1970s, Pryor was arrested in 1974 for violating a "foul language" ordinance.
"(He) was arrested in Virginia for swearing onstage, the same year 'Blazing Saddles' was released, a movie that he co-wrote," said Nesteroff. "All the words that are in 'Blazing Saddles' are the same words that he got arrested for saying onstage."
"He was playing a huge concert when he was arrested for [what they called] disorderly conduct because obscenity laws didn't stand up in court," he added. "So when police would bust somebody for obscenity they would issue a different charge."
Pryor turned himself in and was released on a $500 bond.
Bowley and Wilson, 1981
Obscure comedy team John Bowley and John Wilson were arrested onstage in 1981 for "telling obscene jokes and singing dirty ditties."
The comedians, who had been performing the same show for 12 years and specialized in novelty songs, were arrested after a woman called to complain about her 16-year-old daughter being exposed to vulgarity while visiting their club, Bowley and Wilson's Easy Parlor.
"They did (a song) called 'The Fart Song' and the Dallas police arrested them," said Nesteroff. "They were facing a year in prison for doing 'The Fart Song.'"
The comedians were apprehended alongside the club owner and charged with misdemeanor obscenity charges, facing up to a year in jail.
"I'm not doing anything that's obscene or immoral," said Bowley. "I'm doing a comedy routine. The show is written and produced to be funny, it is not written to be dirty."
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