Leonard Alfred Schneider, better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which contained satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon in 2003.
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most important stand-up comedians of all time. Pryor won a Primetime Emmy Award and five Grammy Awards. He received the first Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998. He won the Writers Guild of America Award in 1974. He was listed at number one on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him first on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.
Paul Krassner was an American writer and satirist. He was the founder, editor, and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine The Realist, first published in 1958. Krassner became a key figure in the counterculture of the 1960s as a member of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and a founding member of the Yippies, a term he is credited with coining.
The Fugs are an American rock band formed in New York City in late 1964, by the poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of The Holy Modal Rounders. Kupferberg named the band from a euphemism for fuck used in Norman Mailer's novel The Naked and the Dead.
William Saluga was an American comedian and founding member of the improvisational comedy troupe Ace Trucking Company. He appeared on several television programs, including Seinfeld.
Jonathan Joseph Heder is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the title character of the 2004 comedy film Napoleon Dynamite. He has also appeared in the films Just Like Heaven, The Benchwarmers, School for Scoundrels, Blades of Glory, Mama's Boy, When in Rome, and as Roy Disney in Walt Before Mickey. He also provided voice work for the animated films Monster House, Surf's Up, and Pinocchio, as well as the Napoleon Dynamite animated series.
Ace Trucking Co. is a comedy science fiction series that featured in the comic 2000 AD from 1981 to 1986. Created by writers John Wagner and Alan Grant and artist Massimo Belardinelli, it followed the misadventures of a space trucking company headed by Ace Garp, a pointy-headed alien who spoke in a kind of futuristic CB radio slang. The title was lifted from Ace Trucking Company, a 1970s improvisational comedy group whose membership had included Fred Willard, Patti Deutsch, Michael Mislove, George Memmoli, and Bill Saluga.
Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg was an American counterculture poet, author, singer, cartoonist, publisher, and co-founder of the rock band The Fugs.
The Harrad Experiment is a 1973 coming-of-age film about a fictional school called Harrad College where the students learn about sexuality and experiment with each other. Based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Robert Rimmer, this film deals with the concept of free love during the height of the sexual revolution, which took place in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Patricia Deutsch Ross, known as Patti Deutsch, was an American actress who was well known as a recurring panelist on the 1970s game shows Match Game and Tattletales.
This Is Tom Jones is an ATV variety series starring Tom Jones. The series was exported to the United States by ITC Entertainment and was networked there by ABC.
Ike Barinholtz is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his starring roles in the comedy series MADtv (2002–2007), Eastbound & Down (2012), The Mindy Project (2012–2017), Bless the Harts (2019–2021), The Afterparty (2022), and History of the World, Part II (2023). In February 2023, he won the inaugural primetime season of Celebrity Jeopardy!, winning US$1,000,000 for charity and placed as a semifinalist in 2024 Tournament of Champions.
Stroker Ace is a 1983 American action comedy sport film directed by Hal Needham and starring Burt Reynolds as the eponymous Stroker Ace, a NASCAR driver.
The Fugs is a 1966 album by The Fugs, described in their AllMusic profile as "arguably the first underground rock group of all time". The album charted number 95 on Billboard's "Top Pop Albums" chart. The album was re-released on CD in 1993 as The Fugs Second Album on the Fantasy label with five additional tracks: two live performances and three tracks recorded for Atlantic in 1967 for an album that was never released. In its review of the re-release, AllMusic finds them "very ahead of their time lyrically" and compares them to the punk band Dead Kennedys, both lyrically and in their shared "weakness for crude humor".
Kevin Chapman is an American actor known for playing an assortment of characters ranging from the obnoxious brother Terrence Garrity in FX's Rescue Me to street enforcer Val Savage in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River. He also appeared in the film Sunshine Cleaning (2008), portrayed Detective Lionel Fusco on the CBS crime drama Person of Interest (2011–2016), Freddie Cork on Brotherhood (2006–2008), and guest starred in 24 (2002–2003).
Roscoe's House of Chicken 'N Waffles is an American soul food restaurant chain that operates seven locations in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was founded by Herb Hudson in 1975. The Los Angeles Times has referred to Roscoe's as "such an L.A. institution that people don't even question the strange combo anymore." The New York Times refers to it as a "beloved soul food chain." The original location in Long Beach, California remains open.
George Memmoli was a founding member of the improv troupe Ace Trucking Company and an actor. He was known for his corpulent presence in his roles, weighing as much as 450 pounds.
Jean-Paul Manoux is an American actor, director and writer. He is perhaps best known for his work on multiple Disney television series. He played S.T.A.N. the android in Aaron Stone, both Curtis the Caveman and Vice Principal Hackett in Phil of the Future, and voiced Kuzco in The Emperor's New School. Before fame, Manoux was a contestant on Jeopardy!, Family Feud, and Wheel of Fortune. He also starred in the CTV sitcom Spun Out.
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight is a 1971 American crime comedy film directed by James Goldstone and written by Waldo Salt, based on the 1969 novel of the same title by Jimmy Breslin, which in turn was based on the life of gangster Joe Gallo. The film stars Jerry Orbach, Leigh Taylor-Young, Jo Van Fleet, Lionel Stander, Robert De Niro and Irving Selbst. The film was released on December 22, 1971, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
"Word Association", also called "Racist Word Association Interview,""Racist Word Association" and "Dead Honky", is a Saturday Night Live sketch first aired on December 13, 1975, featuring Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase.
