Austin Improv

I am guilty of cursing like a sailor on stage, possibly because I am a sailor or, perhaps, because I'm busy not thinking and monitoring what comes out of my mouth.

But I agree with Wes in that if my character doesn't use swears, then chances are I won't either.

I never curse because it's funny. Swear words and dick jokes aren't funny. However, a curse word that is an honest expression of an emotional state (surprise, anger, fear, whatever) will get a huge laugh. NOT because doo doo and pee pee is funny, but because honest emotional reactions to situations are funny.

Also, with all this hip hop froo-frah, let us not forget that every major American musical art form has come primarily from African-American communities and has later been co-opted by whites, legtimized and made "high brow" after an initial rejection by both the black and white status quo. People decried Jazz and rock 'n' roll the same way they have been doing it to hip hop for years.

In fact, the energy and content of popular rap music has more in common with Chuck Berry and Little Richard or even the Beatles and the Rolling Stones than most popular modern rock today. Just because some black dude is singing or rapping a pop song about hanging out in da club doesn't make it less artistic. "Dumb Pop Songs" eventually become high art. And all American music comes from the ghetto. With the notable exception Yankee doodle Dandy.

Jastroch wrote:I never curse because it's funny. Swear words and dick jokes aren't funny.

Challenge!

Dave wrote:

Jastroch wrote:I never curse because it's funny. Swear words and dick jokes aren't funny.

Challenge!

Dick jokes are not funny, except for that one brilliant dick joke that Cargill had during the first Battle of the Sexes. Man...it still makes me chuckle thinking about it.

dick jokes and cussin' and abortin' are funny in two ways:

1) they fit the character and round out their language. we are laughing at the character and personality, perhaps laughing at ourselves for those naughty topics that made us into blathering giggling fools when we were teenagers.

2) they are purposefully uncharacteristic and pleasantly surprising. (example, cussin' grandma or dirty sexual 5 year-old)


in neither case are we really laughing at the dick joke, just the character's delivery. Jen Cargill is herself a hilarious personality, so I think it stays within the boundaries.

believe it or not, i usually try my best to avoid cursing on stage. i think too many people just do it because it is a quick and cheap laugh. hell, it CAN be funny to swear. even cheap swears sometimes catch me off guard and i laugh. i will use them on occasion out of fear or desperation. i also use curse words on purpose on stage. all words gain meaning through context.

that being said, i tend to lean toward shock or "oh, shit...did he really just...?" this is probably for selfish reasons. there is some gremlin inside me that LOVES shocking an audience every now and then. i get some sick pleasure out of hearing a resounding GASP!!! from everyone in the audience. i guess because i believe all ideas have validity and it is fun for me to present ideas that most people feel are taboo to admit outloud. the gasp comes because most people have at one time or another thought something similar, but have never said the words outloud. however, my least favorite thing to see on stage is "HEH, HEH, HEH...LOOK AT MY BONER!" god, what a pointless waste of time on stage. like most guys who were once 12, there was a time in my life when farting on a friend or making a giant dick out of snow were the highest forms of comedy. it just pisses me off when a grown-up person constantly uses dick/fart/poo/gross out jokes for the sake of a cheap laugh because he or she is not confident enough in either their abilities or the abilities of their fellow players.