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From Wondry, I'm Lindsay Graham and this is American Scandal.

Like many comedians, Lenny Bruce started his career telling traditional jokes. In the early 1950s, he could be heard on the radio doing celebrity impressions.

But as the decade wore on, Bruce grew tired doing the same old stick.

Toast war America elevated traditional values. The country laughed to shows like, I love Lucy and Father knows best.

Bob Hope, the biggest comedian at the time, was anything but edgy.

But Bruce saw a different America than the one portrayed in the mainstream.

He was a fan of the beat generation, a group that rejected propriety, embraced sex, drugs, and jazz.

Soon Bruce would weave all those things into his act, and comedy would never be the same.

He delivered skating monologues against people and institutions the nation held sacrosanct, religion, the role of women, even abortion laws.

Critics called him a sick comic, clubs refused to book him, and his act also got him in trouble with the law.

Bruce was arrested 15 times in less than two years, often for obscenity.

But after a comedy club staying in 1964, Bruce faced the trial of his lifetime.

It wasn't just Bruce on trial, it was the future of free speech in America.

Today we talk to Brett Gary about that trial. He's an associate professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University.

Here's our conversation.

Brett Gary, welcome to American scandal.

Thank you very much. Happy to be here.

Before we talk about Lenny Bruce the Man, I want to talk about the America he was performing in.

It's a very different country than it is today.

In many ways we think of this time as the, they leave it to beaver 50s America, but that clearly wasn't where Lenny Bruce was coming from.

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