$#@%&*

What are your thoughts on swearing/cursing?

Go on, I'm listening.

Well sure. That makes sense.

Okay.

Thank you.

For the most part, I keep it clean on this blog. I don't usually find swearing necessary for my jokes, and I know it will make my mom mad. So I avoid it.

The same was true when I did real stand-up. It annoyed me when comics did sets in which the swear words got more laughs than the actual jokes. It's true that if you throw down some colorful language, some people are going to laugh. It might just be because they are uncomfortable, but sometimes that's all you've got.

When I am feeling particularly high-horsey, like right now, I judge comics who are offensive instead of being clever. Raunchy stories about gross sexual encounters do not appeal to me, nor do they appeal to the extremely long-legged horse on which I currently sitting.

There are some comics, though, who are both offensive and ingenious. They say pretty terrible stuff, but the language is complementing the joke, not the other way around. Dave Chapelle comes to mind, and Louis CK.

There are also many dirty-yet-smart television shows out there; although they can be hard to tell apart from the dirty-and-stupid shows. Shows like South Park and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are often extremely offensive, but they're also insightful (most of the time).

These comics and TV shows are not for everyone, I know.We all have different limits for what we can handle when it comes to jokes, and tolerances change as you go through life. For example, now that I am a mother I can't handle jokes about babies coming to harm (have you ever heard a "dead baby" joke? They've always been stupid, but now I can't stand them).

For the most part, though, I am willing to put up with a lot if the joke is good.

Some people who should never watch a show like South Park or It's Always Sunny are kids -- specifically middle-school kids. It's not that they've never heard these words or are too impressionable (those are valid points) -- it's because they don't understand the context of the jokes or how to interpret them.

I've heard students make awful jokes, only to find they were repeating something they saw on TV. People like to blame the TV shows for this, but why are kids watching those shows in the first place? Does everything on TV need to be child-appropriate?

South Park once did a show about the n-word, and it was one of the most thoughtful explanations of cultural ignorance I've ever seen. Seriously. However, to a twelve year old, it was just a random series of jokes that used an incredibly offensive word. They aren't mature enough to understand those jokes aren't okay for the lunch line the next day.

As long as I'm up on my high horse I'll say that some adults have this problem, too. They just laugh at the bad words and repeat them out of context, without ever understanding why the jokes were written in the first place. Comedy writers (the good ones) are smart people. They use objectionable content to highlight what's wrong the world, so that it's easier to face.

Here you thought this was going to be a post about hilarious swear words, and now I've gone all Dear Abby on you. Well just deal with it, okay? I am an introspective person who sometimes drinks wine and feels important.