George Carlin met Lenny Bruce in 1960, after doing an imitation of him during a stand-up show in Los Angeles. Bruce got such a kick out of it that he actually helped Carlin, who was new in town, get a contract with a talent agency afterward. The two would cross paths again two years later at the Gate of Horn club in Chicago on December 5, 1962. Bruce had been arrested for obscenity a couple of times by then and wouldn’t make it through his performance that night without adding yet another arrest to his growing record.
For his part, Bruce believed that it was his religious jokes that got him pinched. One of the bits he did at the Gate of Horn involved Jesus visiting St. Patrick’s Cathedral and being confused by its interior, because, as Bruce put it, “his route took him through Spanish Harlem, and he was wondering what the hell fifty Puerto Ricans were doing living in one room when that stained glass window is worth ten G’s a square foot.” Another joke that made it into the police report following that evening’s arrest involved Adolf Eichmann talking about stringing President Harry Truman up “by the balls.” The manager of the club was warned by the head of the vice squad that if Bruce ever used a four-letter word on stage or spoke against religion again, he would arrest everybody in attendance.
According to Carlin, who was hanging out in the crowd, “He actually said the classic policeman thing, he said, ‘The show’s over. Alright, the show’s over.” When the 25-year-old Carlin was asked for his ID later on, he made the mistake of telling the officer, “I don’t believe in ID.” For that, he was dragged out by his collar and thrown into the back of the police truck. “And Lenny was in there,” Carlin explained. “He knew me—I’d visit him a little backstage—and he says, ‘What did you do, what are you here for?’ I said, ‘I told him I didn’t believe in ID.’ And he said, ‘Schmuck.’”
It wouldn’t be the last time either comedian would be arrested. Bruce was arrested several times on obscenity charges after the Carlin show and found guilty in two of his trials, including the Gate of Horn case. Bruce died in 1966 and was posthumously pardoned by George Pataki almost 40 years later. Carlin, on the other hand, was charged with obscenity for performing his “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” routine at Summerfest in Milwaukee in 1972, but the case was thrown out later that same year; the court ruled that his language was indecent rather than obscene.
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