Clean Comedy

Since I work as a "clean comic" I am often asked to define or describe clean comedy. Which, to me, seems a bit backwards. The very question presumes that un-clean comedy is "the norm" when, in reality, it's not. Over the years comedy, like most art forms, has continually stretched the boundaries of the proverbial envelope and to many people the artform has become "less clean" than it once was. And yet, in many ways it hasn't.

I don't know that comedy is "clean" or "dirty" or "raunchy" so much as it is "obvious" or "blatant" or subtle." As a kid I remember seeing many comics on television who you would never classify as "dirty." Yet, if you listened to what they were talking about, there was no mistaking the content of their material. They were just clever and creative. As opposed to so much of entertainment today that is blatant and leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination.

Perhaps we have just become lazy in our entertainment content?

Which is easier? To show a man and woman completely naked rolling around on the floor having sex? Or create sexual tension in a scene through creative writing and story-telling with the same man and woman completely clothed? I would say it's easier to simply show two people naked because there is absolutely no creativity needed.

Same is true of our comedy. We can use all the obvious words and phrases in our act - words and phrases that everyone has heard a million times. Or, we can take 10 more minutes and see if there might be any other way to talk about sex, for example, than to take the obvious route.

There is a fantastic Denver comic who uses the phrases "having relations." We all know what he's talking about and for him, in his act, it works amazingly well. He tells us - without telling us - and everyone laughs.

In the coming weeks I may dialogue here about my thoughts on clean comedy so feel free to come back, read, comment or yell at the screen.

In the meantime - go tell a joke!