I planned some films for the new censorship course I teach in the fall. I have to refresh myself and watch some of them again. There are remarkable elements I missed the first time. In Manufacturing Consent there is a scene where Noam Chomsky talks about being six years old and defending a fat classmate who was being bullied. Eventually, he didn’t continue standing up for him and later felt ashamed. He recalls it with language like one has to assist the underdog. In Bob Fosse’s Lenny, Milton Berle is portrayed as a creep. I wanted to know more about the details between them but my searching revealed something else, that Berle paid for his funeral when there were no funds. Same as Michael Jackson paying for David Ruffin’s and Alice Walker erecting a monument by Zora Hurston’s grave as did Janis Joplin for Bessie Smith which reads “the greatest blues singer in the world”. Also interestingly, the sound technician from the clubs where Lenny Bruce last worked, placed a microphone and cable in the grave during the funeral. I love the Bob Dylan song about him. Wonder if the South Park film, featuring Blame Canada, which is almost 25 years old and still so offensive, wonder if students will complain about me for screening these in order to discuss censorship. They might be freaked out and need to report me to the authorities. Hope so.