Clean comedy

Clean comedy is a comedy genre that is generally free of ribaldry: racism, rape jokes, pejoratives, profanity, obscenity, incest, illicit drugs, off-color humor, toilet humor, explicitly sexual content, and similarly objectionable material.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] Comedians may try to circumvent clean-comedy restrictions by using innuendos, euphemisms, doublespeak, double entendres, and gender-neutral language. Clean comedy is not necessarily unprovocative.^[5]

Clean comedy is considered by some to be a higher form of comedy than bits that rely on the shock of profanity or sexual content to elicit laughs.^[1]^[6] Bob Newhart said in a The Wall Street Journal interview that getting laughs from clean material "is harder. It's just harder...I got a certain satisfaction out of getting a response from the audience and knowing I'd done something that may be harder."^[7] David Brenner said "Many who rely on dirty humor do so because vulgar language helps sell weak jokes."^[5]

^ ^a ^b Goodale, Gloria; Wood, Daniel B. (9 July 2016). "Why clean comedy is becoming big business". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
^ Corely, Jerry. "Corporate Comedy". Jerry Corley's Comedy Clinic. Stand Up Comedy Clinic. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
^ Ellis, Iain (8 February 2018). "Haven't You Learned How to Take a Joke? The Comedy-on-Campus Debates". popMATTERS: Culture. Retrieved 10 February 2019. Thus, college comedians can mock those groups "liberal" students deride—Evangelical Christians, Scientologists, working-class rural males—yet they dare not even flirt with jokes about race, gender, and sexuality.
^ Chris Fleming (comedian), Michael Moynihan (Vice News), Jason Meier (Emerson College booker), Kat Michael (Simmons College booker), Katy Hamm (Lesly University booker), Judy Gold (comedian) (24 May 2018). College Campuses Can Be Minefields For Comedians (HBO) (YouTube) (Streaming). Boston: VICE News Tonight: HBO. Event occurs at 3:32-3:39. Retrieved 8 February 2019. [A college circuit comedian] can talk about [their] experience, but [they] can't make fun of someone else's identity.
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference WSJ12106 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Bauer-Wolf, Jeremy (30 August 2018). "College Comedy: Provocative Yet… PC?". INSIDE HIGHER ED. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
^ Cite error: The named reference WSJ31413 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[csmonitor-1] Goodale, Gloria; Wood, Daniel B. (9 July 2016). "Why clean comedy is becoming big business". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 11 February 2019.

[2] Corely, Jerry. "Corporate Comedy". Jerry Corley's Comedy Clinic. Stand Up Comedy Clinic. Retrieved 11 February 2019.

[3] Ellis, Iain (8 February 2018). "Haven't You Learned How to Take a Joke? The Comedy-on-Campus Debates". popMATTERS: Culture. Retrieved 10 February 2019. Thus, college comedians can mock those groups "liberal" students deride—Evangelical Christians, Scientologists, working-class rural males—yet they dare not even flirt with jokes about race, gender, and sexuality.

[4] Chris Fleming (comedian), Michael Moynihan (Vice News), Jason Meier (Emerson College booker), Kat Michael (Simmons College booker), Katy Hamm (Lesly University booker), Judy Gold (comedian) (24 May 2018). College Campuses Can Be Minefields For Comedians (HBO) (YouTube) (Streaming). Boston: VICE News Tonight: HBO. Event occurs at 3:32-3:39. Retrieved 8 February 2019. [A college circuit comedian] can talk about [their] experience, but [they] can't make fun of someone else's identity.

[WSJ12106-5] Cite error: The named reference WSJ12106 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[6] Bauer-Wolf, Jeremy (30 August 2018). "College Comedy: Provocative Yet… PC?". INSIDE HIGHER ED. Retrieved 10 February 2019.

[WSJ31413-7] Cite error: The named reference WSJ31413 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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