Joseph von Sonnenfels (1732–1817) 1770 an Joseph II.:

Nevertheless, the conviction is not so common that obscene jokes and antic farces still have so many and such powerful adherents who prefer the convulsion of their lungs to the education of the nation and by stealthy means make all endeavours to smother the first burgeonings of good taste. […] Are there not more sections of the lower class of citizen which the state is obliged to provide with recreation after a day of arduous labour? Would it be a matter of indifference to send this part of the citizenry either to a mountebank’s show, where they must perforce listen with disgust to the follies of a buffoon and his bawdy sallies, or to provide a civilized entertainment where their minds may be cheered without their decency being put to the blush? The man of the middling class needs this to an even greater degree than the nobility, that the State should seek to provide him with decent entertainment.