Salon.com has an article listing the top 10 comedians they consider to be the successors to Lenny Bruce’s throne.
Here’s their list in reverse order:
10. The Upright Citizens Brigade
9. Louis CK
8. Chris Rock
7. Eddie Izzard
6. Sacha Baron Cohen
5. David Cross
4. Sarah Silverman
3. Aaron McGruder
2. Rick Shapiro
1. Howard Stern
My issues with Stern’s being chosen as #1 are as follows: (1) For as long as I can remember, going back to the early 80s when he’d appear on Letterman, Stern has been a tremendous self-promoter who has repeatedly invoked Bruce’s name, calling himself the successor. You can’t be a successor just because you say you are; (2) Many other radio personalities (including Chicago’s Steve Dahl) were doing Stern’s act before Stern. He’s not a groundbreaker, he’s just the loudest and most succesful one; (3) Salon compares Stern’s “persecution” to Bruce’s: bad move. Lenny believed in the legal system and did everything he could to get the system to change. He fought the hypocrisy within the system, not the system itself. All Stern does is whine about his being at the wrong end of lawsuits.
It’s this third point that makes me look at this entire list and immediately disqualify every single one of these comics: I don’t see any of these people truly bucking the system from within (with one almost-exception, discussed below). They are people who are sometimes funny, shocking and offensive in discussing certain subject matter (primarily racism and sexism), but I don’t see a single one of them at the other end of a conflict with the Powers That Be, and trying to change the way the Powers That Be think by working within the system. That is what Lenny Bruce was all about.
The closest exception I can find is Aaron McGruder, author of the comic strip The Boondocks. This strip is centered on a group of African-American city kids adjusting to life in the white suburbs. It’s alternately (and simultaneously) political, culturally-aware, and very angry. Sometimes it’s just not funny– but more often than not it makes you think. In a survey of Chicago Tribune comics readers, The Boondocks came out as a “least favorite” because of its attitude and subject matter, but the paper continues to run it, showing that a powerful media company (traditionally a conservative one) can have the courage to distribute an alternative viewpoint. And to McGruder’s credit, his strip stayed in the paper without his toning down his style.
There’s a difference between just being offensive (which is ridiculously easy) and being offensive with a purpose. Read Ralph Gleason’s liner notes from Lenny’s Berkeley Concert LP to learn what Lenny was really about. (Sorry about the misprints in that link– I couldn’t find a cleaner copy on the ‘net.)