Major funding for Backstories provided by an anonymous donor, the National Dama for

the Humanities and the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.

From Virginia Humanities, this is Backstories.

Welcome to Backstories, the show that explains the history behind today's headlines.

I'm Joanne Freeman.

I'm Nathan Connelly, and I'm Brian Ballot.

If you're new to the podcast, we're all historians, and each week, along with our

colleague Ed Ayers, we explore a different aspect of American history.

This week, Backstories exploring the history of American profanity.

So be warned, there will be profane language.

And as historians, we're also mindful of the history of violence and oppression, so

there'll be certain words that even we won't say.

This whole tit's ass, cocksucker, schmuck, motherfucker, prick, putts, bawling, clap,

fag, piss, and son of a bitch.

Those were the words police charge comedian Lenny Bruce with saying during a 1962 performance.

Josh Lambert actually gets to say those say words without much consequence today.

It is pretty fun to do it as dispassionately as I can as if, you know, I do it all the

time.

He's a scholar of obscenity, academic director of the Yiddish Book Center, and author

of the book, Unclean Lips, Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture.

Lambert says Lenny Bruce developed a reputation as a so-called sick comic in the 1950s and

60s by pushing the bounds of what could be said out loud in the public square.

...