"Howl" and Other Obscenity

David sent along this collection of oldies. As noted in the introduction, they may be free of profanity. However, they sure are hard on Jews, wives, doctors, and women!

Remember the old-time Jewish comedians of Vaudeville days - Shecky Green, Red Buttons, Totie Fields, Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, and others? You may have only heard of them, but don't we all miss their kind of humour? Not a single swear word in their comic routines:

* A car hit an elderly Jewish man. The paramedic says, "Are you comfortable?" The man says, "I make a good living."

* The Doctor gave a man six months to live. The man couldn't pay his bill, so the doctor gave him another six months.

* Patient: "I have a ringing in my ears." Doctor: "Don't answer!"

* A drunk was in front of a judge. The judge says, "You've been brought here for drinking." The drunk says, "Okay, so let's get started."

*There is a big controversy on the Jewish view of when life begins. In Jewish tradition, the fetus is not considered viable until it graduates from law school.

*Q : Have you seen the newest Jewish-American-Princess horror movie?
A : It's called, "Debbie Does Dishes."

*Q : Where does a Jewish husband hide money from his wife?
A : Under the vacuum cleaner.

That led me to speculate that maybe comedy today is frequently profane because once you take out all the racism, sexism, homophobia, and other offensive content, you have a lot of space to fill.  Which led us to a further discussion, of obscenity.

Recently I read Allen Ginsberg’s poem, “Howl.” It contains only one profane word, but it’s spelled with asterisks instead of letters. It was really astonishing to me that Ginsberg’s work had to be examined by a federal judge (Hon. Clayton Horn, no relation to my husband’s family) as late as 1957 to be deemed not obscene and therefore lawful to publish. Ginsberg spoke at colleges, and I remember that when he was scheduled to appear at the University of Oregon, Vake asked Dean whether he expected to attend. Dean, who was a student there at the time, said “Of course!”

David was teaching at college around then, and recalls as follows: “Regarding Allen Ginsberg and Howl, I was teaching at Canisius College when he gave a lecture there in 1971 or 2. He was a great speaker. During the lecture, at one point during a Q&A, I believe, an English Teacher who was the furthest out to the left faculty member at the college inserted himself into the dialog. He stood up and scolded all of us who were there for being unappreciative of the Ginsberg’s presence in our midst saying, or rather shouting, something to the effect, “Don’t you understand? He is the world’s greatest living poet!” Ginsberg listened patiently to his little rant, recognizing him for the social idiot that he was, and then said “OK. Yeah, and (Pointing first at the speaker and then at someone else in the audience) you’re the worlds second greatest living poet, and you’re the third greatest living poet, and ..” At that point, the laughter from everyone assembled cut him off, the English prof sat down and shut up, and Ginsberg finished up.

I had an earlier experience with Ginsberg also when I was living in San Francisco. During the years I was there (January, 1961 – October, 1963), it was the height of the early Beat movement. Beat poets and various pretenders were all over the place, particularly frequenting the North Beach area South of Fisherman’s Wharf and the Marina area to the West of Coit Tower where I lived and worked. They would have impromptu public poetry readings in both areas, coupled with real and actual “Howling” which I understood to be related to one of their buddy’s poems with a similar name. The place where I worked during those years was in the Marina District and was named The Pierce Street Annex, the address of which was 3138 Fillmore Street. A half block away was a place called the Six Gallery, located at 3119 Fillmore Street where the poem Howl was first read as I understand it.”

That wasn’t David’s only encounter with men famed for their obscenity. He writes, The old days may not have used as much blue language, but like Lenny Bruce liked to say, four letter words like suck and fuck and other words associated with love and loving were far less evil and vile than words like kill, maim and even three letter words like war! Now that pot is legalized, maybe Lenny wouldn’t have spent so much time in jail! Of course, Lenny was a little far out there! I actually met him when I lived in San Francisco. We even dated the same girl at one point!

Such are the Sampsons' associations with fame.