A show booked into Peterborough’s Showplace Theatre in April advertised itself as the No Foul Language Standup Comedy Tour. The cutline is “100% Funny, 0% Profanity,” and the show was taped by CBC’s radio series Laugh Out Loud. Seven experienced comedians participated in the show, but none were household names.
At first glance, this seems like a clever piece of marketing. Nothing wrong with that. I’d do it myself if I thought it would work. But the organizers of the event went one step further than crowing about the great show they’d be putting on. They attacked other “dirty” comics for being somehow inferior to the “clean” show that they were promoting. One of the comics and organizers, Denis Grignon, said in the press release, “This proves that it’s possible to create a show — a very funny standup show — that doesn’t have to alienate anyone with profanity.” Implying that “clean” comedy occupies some sort of moral high ground.
This has been a debate that has raged on for decades in the standup world, ever since Lenny Bruce. Some comics and audiences feel that it’s “easier” to be dirty and that self-imposed rules on language indicate a higher form of creativity.
This kind of bias unleashed the tigers on social media. Local comics Darren Frost and Kenny Robinson have a tour of their own called Rank and Vile that works from the opposite point of view. The duo went after the organizers hard on social media, acknowledging the possibility of coexistence in the comedy world, while slamming them for their smugness and conservatism.
Personally, I love dirty comics. I love clean comics. I love it when either group is funny. But my clubs have always had the reputation of a free-speech zone, and you will, in all likelihood, hear some raunchy words. But these edgy words are often connected to edgy ideas.
Foul language is often about anger and frustration, two excellent topics for comedy and satire. I know the work of the Peterborough seven, and it isn’t just their language that is benign. It may be clean, but it’s also reassuring and corporate and family-friendly, which is not what you would say about such great clean comics as Steven Wright, Emo Phillips, Jon Stewart and Dennis Miller — who are clean and yet very threatening to the status quo.
I once said to Jerry Seinfeld that he must have hated the very profane Sam Kinison. “No,” protested Seinfeld. “I love him. I just can’t do that kind of comedy myself. It’s not who I am.”
There’s no doubt that the No Foul Language show has a place in the comedy world, but I think they will forever be in the minority.
If you work cruise ships, you have to work clean. If you get a corporate booking, you have to keep it clean. You still can’t say any of George Carlin’s “seven dirty words” on network television.
A lot of highly talented “dirty” comics do make the adjustments necessary to adapt to these lucrative markets. But it isn’t anything they look forward to.
They don’t feel they’re better comics for it. And it doesn’t mean you’ll be seeing them on a tour called No Foul Language.