Off-color humor
Encyclopedia
The term off-color humor (also known as vulgar humor or crude humor) is an Americanism
used to describe jokes, prose
, poems, black comedy
, blue comedy, insult comedy
, cringe comedy
and skits
that deal with topics that are considered to be in poor taste or overly vulgar by the prevailing morality
of a culture
. Most commonly labeled as "off-color" are acts concerned with sex
, a particular ethnic group
, or gender
. Other off-color topics include violence
, particularly domestic abuse; excessive swearing or profanity
; "toilet humor"; national superiority
or inferiority
, dead baby jokes, pedophilic
content, and any other topics generally considered impolite
or indecent. Generally, the point of off-color humor is to induce laughter by evoking a feeling of shock and surprise in the comedian's audience. In this way, off-color humor is related to other forms of postmodern humor, such as the anti-joke.
, primarily by its most famous contributor and representative, Aristophanes
. His work parodied some of the great tragedians of his time, especially Euripides
, using sexual and excremental jokes that received great popularity among his contemporaries.
Dirty jokes were once considered subversive and underground, and rarely heard in public. Comedian Lenny Bruce
was tried, convicted, and jailed for obscenity
after a stand up performance that included off-color humor in New York City
in 1964. Comedian and actor Redd Foxx
was well known in nightclubs in the 1960s and 1970s for his raunchy stand-up act
, but toned it down for the television shows Sanford and Son
and The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour, stating in the first monologue of the latter show that the only similarity between the show and his nightclub act was that "I'm smoking".http://207.36.165.13/foxx.html American society has become increasingly tolerant of off-color humor since that time. Such forms of humor have become widely distributed and more socially acceptable, in part due to the mainstream success in the 1970s and 1980s of comedians like Dolemite
, Andrew Dice Clay's "The Dice Man
", and Richard Pryor
.
In the 1990s and modern era, comedians such as George Carlin
and Dave Chappelle
use shocking content to draw attention to their criticism of social issues, especially censorship
and the socioeconomic divide. The highly-praised television show South Park
also popularized the use of offensive humor, for which the show has become infamous. The Aristocrats
is perhaps the most famous dirty joke in the US and is certainly one of the best-known and most oft-repeated among comedians themselves.
, sexual humor in particular is known as "non-veg" humor, contrasted with the "veg" jokes that are more acceptable in polite company. The use of the term "non-veg" is probably a reference to the carnal nature of sexual humor, and can be viewed in the context of the prevalence of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dietary preferences in India.
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
used to describe jokes, prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
, poems, black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
, blue comedy, insult comedy
Insult comedy
Insult comedy is a comedy genre in which the act consists mainly of offensive insults directed at the performer's audience and/or other performers....
, cringe comedy
Cringe comedy
Cringe comedy is a comedy genre that uses awkward and embarrassing situations to cause audiences to feel uneasy. This genre is particularly prominent in British comedy and has been popularised by comic acts such as Rowan Atkinson, Harry Enfield, Steve Coogan, and Ricky Gervais.-On film:Humour based...
and skits
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
that deal with topics that are considered to be in poor taste or overly vulgar by the prevailing morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
of a culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
. Most commonly labeled as "off-color" are acts concerned with sex
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
, a particular ethnic group
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, or gender
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
. Other off-color topics include violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
, particularly domestic abuse; excessive swearing or profanity
Profanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
; "toilet humor"; national superiority
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
or inferiority
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
, dead baby jokes, pedophilic
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
content, and any other topics generally considered impolite
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
or indecent. Generally, the point of off-color humor is to induce laughter by evoking a feeling of shock and surprise in the comedian's audience. In this way, off-color humor is related to other forms of postmodern humor, such as the anti-joke.
History
Off-color humor was used in Ancient Greek comedyAncient Greek comedy
Ancient Greek comedy was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece . Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy...
, primarily by its most famous contributor and representative, Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
. His work parodied some of the great tragedians of his time, especially Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
, using sexual and excremental jokes that received great popularity among his contemporaries.
Dirty jokes were once considered subversive and underground, and rarely heard in public. Comedian Lenny Bruce
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider , better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist...
was tried, convicted, and jailed for obscenity
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
after a stand up performance that included off-color humor in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1964. Comedian and actor Redd Foxx
Redd Foxx
John Elroy Sanford , better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American comedian and actor, best known for his starring role on the sitcom Sanford and Son.-Early life:...
was well known in nightclubs in the 1960s and 1970s for his raunchy stand-up act
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
, but toned it down for the television shows Sanford and Son
Sanford and Son
Sanford and Son is an American sitcom, based on the BBC's Steptoe and Son, that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977....
and The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour, stating in the first monologue of the latter show that the only similarity between the show and his nightclub act was that "I'm smoking".http://207.36.165.13/foxx.html American society has become increasingly tolerant of off-color humor since that time. Such forms of humor have become widely distributed and more socially acceptable, in part due to the mainstream success in the 1970s and 1980s of comedians like Dolemite
Rudy Ray Moore
Rudy Ray Moore was an American comedian, musician, singer, film actor, and film producer. He was perhaps best known as Dolemite , the uniquely articulate pimp from the 1975 film Dolemite, and its sequel, The Human Tornado...
, Andrew Dice Clay's "The Dice Man
Andrew Dice Clay
Andrew Dice Clay is an American comedian and actor who played the lead role in the film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.Clay has been in several movies and has released a number of stand-up albums...
", and Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...
.
In the 1990s and modern era, comedians such as George Carlin
George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....
and Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle
David Khari Webber "Dave" Chappelle is an American comedian, screenwriter, television/film producer, actor, and artist. Chappelle began his film career in the film Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993 and continued to star in minor roles in the films The Nutty Professor, Con Air, and Blue Streak. His...
use shocking content to draw attention to their criticism of social issues, especially censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and the socioeconomic divide. The highly-praised television show South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
also popularized the use of offensive humor, for which the show has become infamous. The Aristocrats
The Aristocrats (joke)
"The Aristocrats" is an exceptionally transgressive dirty joke that has been told by numerous stand-up comedians since the vaudeville era...
is perhaps the most famous dirty joke in the US and is certainly one of the best-known and most oft-repeated among comedians themselves.
Veg and non-veg jokes
In IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, sexual humor in particular is known as "non-veg" humor, contrasted with the "veg" jokes that are more acceptable in polite company. The use of the term "non-veg" is probably a reference to the carnal nature of sexual humor, and can be viewed in the context of the prevalence of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dietary preferences in India.