What is Clean Comedy?
When I ask this question in comedy classes, typically the most common answer is “Telling jokes without cussing.” I also might get answers like, “Comedy that isn’t crass.” or “Not talking about sex”. Here’s the most generic answer.
Clean Comedy is Non-Offensive comedy.
That’s it! That is the most basic and generic answer to the question.
But you see the problem right?
Just like humor is subjective, so is offensiveness. Some people are offended by curse words, others are offended by political jokes (unless it aligns with their opinions) and others might be offended by jokes at the expense of a certain type of people….And in any given audiences, you likely will have many different opinions in the crowd of “What is offensive”
So that’s fun.
A good clean comedian knows how to read the room and color within the lines to keep it non-offensive and funny to the entire room. In this post I’ll share the “generic” types of clean, and then in my next post, I’ll give some tips about working clean based on my own experience as a comic, and from years of producing clean shows in a variety of venues.
Here are the 3 Levels of Clean Comedy
“Club Clean”
Typically this is basically your set with VERY LITTLE TO NO cussing and without overly crass jokes.
You might get away with a damn or hell once or twice, but definitely stay away from bitch and fuck. And, much like a PG-13 movie, you’ll want to limit how many times those words slip. Honestly, any time I am in any type of clean, even as broad as a “club clean” I choose not to use any kind of cussing.
Be like the OG Will Smith (Before he slapped Chris Rock) and tell yourself you don’t need to cuss in your records!
Also with crass humor, in club clean rooms you can probably talk about sex, or “relations” or whatever you want to call it…but just know much like your language, there is a thresh-hold here too. For example, you could probably talk about “bringing a lady home” but please for the love of God don’t show us with the stool what you did to her.
Also can we please just stop humping stools for comedy in all rooms, clean or not? Those poor stools….
Typically what I tell people for club clean is that these are rooms where basically you don’t want to cuss in. There might be exceptions to this rule, depending on who you are, who THEY (the audience) are, and what your joke is, but that’s being general.
“Family Friendly”
These are rooms where it isn’t uncommon for children to be present. Or teenagers. Or maybe parents bring their young adults to. By the way, it’s not the kids you have to worry about…it’s whether or not the parents feel comfortable laughing at your jokes WITH their kids present! (Kids usually could care less and either will love it or hate it regardless of your routine)
Generally speaking, in this type of room there are just 2 rules. No cussing, and no “Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.”
When I say cussing, I mean what’s considered cussing in the environment you find yourself performing. I had a comic ask me once, “What about British cuss words?” In a show in TN…I said I have no clue what a British cuss word is, and if we don’t know it’s a cuss word, it’s probably fine. But most rooms in Tennessee would consider Damn, Fuck, Bitch, Shit, Hell as cuss words…but “a cuss word” is any word that is offensive, so you can also add to that list the N word, the C word, all the slurs, you should probably stay away from anal, I’ve learned to take out a joke with “incest” in it…and the list literally goes on and altars depending on the room you are in.
The point…You probably know what words not to say. It’s not about if YOU find the words offensive, it’s about what THEY find offensive. Because in any clean room, once you offend an audience member…they will probably tune you out for the rest of your set. In many clean rooms, it’s honestly better to be “not funny” then to be “offensive”.
Rock and Roll is fine, but generally in these rooms too stay away from any joke that references sex explicitly or glorifies substance abuse of any kind. (Just the ones that are taboo like drugs and getting drunk…caffeine and fast food are currently still okay.)
The challenge however is that clean rooms will like you better if you get CLOSE to the line and don’t cross it. Once you cross it, they hate you, but the closer you get BEFORE crossing it they’ll love you more. So, if worded correctly, innuendo can be a very powerful tool in a club clean or family friendly room.
But speaking of rooms where you should definitely keep the Innuendo Out, our third generalization of a clean comedy audience is…
“Squeaky Clean” or “Church Clean”
This is of course the kind of comedy we’re talking about when your booked for church shows, and a lot of corporate events (where they have an HR person or Boss waiting to get offended, and that’s the same person who hired you)
If Club Clean is basically “Don’t cuss”
And if Family Friendly is basically “Don’t cuss or say offensive things”
Squeaky Clean is “Don’t cuss, say offensive things, or anything that makes us THINK of offensive things.”
I think it’s fitting that it’s called Church clean because in the Bible there is a verse that say something like, “Don’t have even a hint of sexual immorality in your life” and in these kinds of shows you don’t even want to have a “hint” of something offensive in your set…otherwise someone will get butt hurt, it will shift the tone of the room, and then you probably have lost them and will hear about it later.
If you are doing a squeaky clean set it’s real simple…Don’t even bring up sex. Don’t do jokes that make fun of any people group. Don’t you dare talk about drugs…Let the people live in their world where none of these things exist. You came into their world to entertain, not to colonize them to what you think their life should and should not include.
This is the hardest form of clean to do, and for many it’s the least fun. Personally I can do it but it’s not my go-to, but if it’s for a good cause or the gig pays enough…I’ll play ball! But these aren’t the gigs I look for.
Other comics however, thrive in squeaky clean audiences because they themselves might be a “squeaky clean” person. And if that’s you, that’s totally fine! Perform to your audience, bring the laughs! And if that’s not you…that’s fine too, don’t take those gigs because it’ll be weird and uncomfortable for you and everyone you tell jokes to.
In my next blog post, I’ll share some specific tips and tricks for working clean. They’ll be based on my own observations of working clean but also from my observations of producing clean shows (And plenty of comics not working clean at my clean shows).
It should be stated here though, that the 3 categories I mentioned are GENERIC clean comedy categories…Every time you get booked for a clean show you should ask the booker, manager, or whoever, what they mean when they say “clean comedy” because I promise you will find a different answer in every room you work in!
Thanks so much for reading, and feel free to drop any comments or questions below. Have a great day!
