I recently saw an interesting exchange on Twitter between someone named Ben Marcus and the stand-up comic Michelle Wolf. Mr. Marcus, who may be the acclaimed author with that name or may be a different Ben Marcus, wrote…
Vulgar comedy is just that — vulgar. It's tired. Grownups telling dirty, cheap jokes to appear edgy. Why do you think Seinfeld and Ellen have done so well? Because they are clean. They don't stoop to being dumb and vulgar. It's tired. So….
Well, I can't argue with his first point. Vulgar comedy is vulgar. When the man's right, he's right. And I'd certainly agree that some who tell dirty, cheap jokes are trying to appear edgy in lieu of just making people laugh. Last time I was at the Comedy Store, I saw a few who checked all those boxes…but they did make people laugh. Which brings me to Michelle Wolf's reply to him…
You know who's also incredibly successful? "Vulgar" comedians.
She's right, too. The suggestion that comedians should work clean because Seinfeld and Ellen work clean is kayoed by the fact that Dave Chappelle is successful, Jim Jefferies is successful, Kevin Hart is successful, Michelle Wolf is successful, etc. There's a long list of millionaire comedians Mr. Marcus would probably consider vulgar.
Ms. Wolf would be even righter if she'd inserted the word "some" into that tweet. If you want a real insight into the world of stand-up comedy, don't just see the best people. Go to some Open Mike Nights. I can pretty much guarantee you won't enjoy them and might sit through three or four before you even so much as chuckle.
If you have the slightest bit of empathy in you, your heart will break for a couple of the folks who get up there. You can see dreams shatter in real time…like those of some guy who has always been pretty amusing around his friends, saying witty and funny things. Maybe some of them even said to him, "You oughta be a professional comedian." On at least one occasion and probably more, that auditioner saw someone on TV who didn't make them laugh and so said to himself or herself, "If that loser can get on TV, I oughta be a professional comedian."
So they write an act and they perhaps try it out on that least-accurate barometer of funny…their friends. They may even break it in somewhere where it doesn't matter…and of course, that doesn't matter. But at some point, they take it to some place that is or resembles a real comedy club — a stage where professionals work — and they get on that stage, having imagined the raucous laughter that will follow each and every line…
…and two jokes in, they're thinking, "Say…this isn't as easy as I thought it was."
In those cases, even the "f" word can't save them. Vulgarity can't save them. One time, I even saw a guy who, five or six jokes in, suddenly began doing jokes out of George Carlin's act. I think what happened was that his original jokes bombed and he still had a few minutes up there before they gave him the "get-off-the-stage" signal so he thought, "Well, maybe it's the audience."
So he did some Carlin jokes and when they didn't get laughs either, he left the stage thinking, "It's just a crappy audience. My jokes are just as good as George Carlin's." I'm guessing that it didn't dawn on him that doing George Carlin's material doesn't make you George Carlin nor would working clean, a la Seinfeld or Ellen. That guy could have split himself in two, done both parts in "Who's on First?" and not gotten a single giggle.
In the Twitter exchange above, Mr. Marcus is correct that some comics are vulgar and trying to appear edgy. Ms. Wolf is correct that some comedians Mr. Marcus would call "vulgar" make audiences love them and laugh at them and new comedians are going to follow in their well-compensated footsteps. And I think I'm correct that it's all about what makes an audience laugh. If a comedian can do that and the jokes aren't stolen, that comedian is doing the job right. Even if some people think they're telling dirty, cheap jokes to appear edgy.
