To Go Free

I have thought lately about blue material in comedy. By and large, I have not done it really. I have learned to make jokes that are not dependent on foul language or a lot of vulgar reference. I have come up through an improv program which operates that way partly because it's sponsored by a church and partly because it's smart to learn decent fundamentals, which too many people think can be swapped out in favor of the dirty stuff.

In private, I have not have any problem making extreme jokes rife with four letter words, sexual content and a lot of rather tasteless content. Comparing that objectively with the other stuff, I like to think that the blue stuff is pretty solid, and not just comprised of shock value. I've seen how it bombs when someone has nothing more than a list of grotesque sex acts to describe from a comedy club stage, and it's grim.

I have begun to chafe at the self-imposed restrictions that have governed my comedy, and I have begun to loosen up a bit, but I am reluctant to say many things still. I wish I wasn't. Why should what I say in person be subject to any different code than what I write online? Oughtn't it be the reader who must beware? I think that negative reaction would be less than I fear, and it can only be good if I feel more free to express myself. Certainly I would have more fun if I felt less inhibited.

Still there are practical consequences. People who have read and seemingly enjoyed what I have written to this point sometimes bristle at jokes that go beyond their comfort level. Must I be held back by their standards? It hurts to lose people, but what I have done to this point has garnered hardly more than two hundred followers on Twitter, so there is plenty of room to surpass that by changing things, and the loss of those who don't care for such changes can be sustained. It is worth mulling over.