Clean Comedy is Hard

Jerry Seinfeld, on working dirty vs. clean:

"if you have a bit, and it's got swear words in it, and it gets a huge laugh, it may or may not be funny. But if you have a bit that has no swear words, and it gets a huge laugh, it's definitely funny. Maybe it's like a spice that a cook might use in a recipe that has a very strong flavor."

A well-timed four-letter word in a more circumspect age would often garner huge laughs from a surprised audience. Now that formerly taboo subjects are family-hour fodder, the shock is gone. Skilled "dirty" comedians recognize the difference:

Gilbert Gottfried, known for the weapons-grade raunch of his often-hilarious TV-roast monologues, says when he was starting out in comedy, he'd skip vulgarities to see if his lines were fundamentally funny.

"I'd say 'have sex with' rather than the four-letter word. I wanted to see which bits actually worked by themselves," he says.

IMHO, raunchiness obscures humor like pyrotechnics in a concert: put the singer on a stage alone with a guitar or piano or no accompaniment at all, and let's view the talent without all the bells and whistles.

Photo from Jeff's Blog

But back to comedy: in a jaded age comedians like Jim Gaffigan are attracting notice.

Jim Gaffigan works clean. He resists profanity. He doesn't rip celebrities with crude insults. He won't reveal everything you didn't want to know about his sexual urges and private parts. At a time when comedy is as filthy as it's ever been—the industry euphemism is "edgy"—Mr. Gaffigan, working clean, has become one of the hottest comedians in the country.

Like any artist, however, Jim Gaffigan strains against typecasting:

" 'Clean' and 'family-friendly' are supposedly these positive attributes," he says. "But I sometimes feel like it's an asterisk next to my success, or whatever. Maybe I'm being sensitive. I just want to be known as funny. I mean, when you hear about a family-friendly restaurant, you know it's going to be horrible."

Let's not be in such a hurry to evolve, Jim. You're still ahead of your competition. © 2013 Stephen Yuen