George Carlin Watched Lenny Bruce's Trial. He Never Forgot What He Saw

In 1964, Lenny Bruce was tried for obscenity in New York. George Carlin was 27 years old, still doing safe television comedy, still wearing the suit. He followed the trial closely. He watched the machinery of institutional opposition work in real time — the way it consumed a man who had simply refused to stop saying what he thought. Eight years later, Carlin made his choice.