The Dick Joke

I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about the role of vulgarity in improv.  It gets the audience's attention immediately.  It's fun to do (if you're comfortable with it).  It's easy.  But here's the problem with vulgarity:

It's easy

Too easy.  You can talk about your penis all night.  Cool.  Chances are at least 50% of the audience has one and can relate to that.  So they'll laugh and their girlfriends may chuckle.  But that's it.  The excitement of "OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE HE SAID THAT" has worn off and it's not exciting ever again.  Shock value is fleeting.  It wears off quickly.  After a while it's old and irritating and offensive. Vulgarity for the sake of shock value in an improv scene takes away everything else the scene is about.



There are a few kinds of vulgarity, if you're interested in categorizing it.  For me, there's curse words, sexuality and bodily functions.  I will admit that most of this vulgarity I'm actually comfortable with.  I'm really uncomfortable with poop/fart/pee/vomit/etc jokes.  It's been suggested that I need to learn to love all of myself, including all the gross stuff that comes from my body but that's an entirely different conversation for a different blog.

I am comfortable with my sexuality and I am more than comfortable with cursing.  I do know that too much vulgarity can offend people.  In normal conversation I say "fuck it, you don't have to fucking talk to me you dumb fucking bitch cunt", but that sort of language does not lead people to return to your improv shows.  I'm ok with being the sexy vixen on stage but I also don't want to pigeon-hole myself as a performer.  I don't want to get into the habit of only playing that character, so I try to make strong choices in different directions.  "Ballsy" choices get lots of attention on and off stage, that's true but personally as a performer that doesn't have to be everything I do.

I guess my question/point with the above rambling is where do you draw the line as a performer, and as a group?

GirlProv is known as a group of girls that takes risks on stage, says what they want and says "fuck it!" to anyone who doesn't like it.  Out of those six girls, I am the most conservative when it comes to vulgarity.  It's not because I am a prude.  Those who know me well enough know I'm no prude.  It's almost like I'm playing the straight man to vulgar characters.  Mind you, this is only on the occasion when it comes up but it is safe to say GirlProv shows are rated R 75% of the time.  And that's great.  It works.  Sometimes I'm the vulgar one.  I think it's on my mind more than others, though so I'm more conscious of the choices I make in that regard.  I've never felt uncomfortable on stage with these girls.  It helps to know that since we're all female, we have similar world views when it comes to vulgarity in general.  We can play with the boys when it comes to that stuff and we definitely have our own brand of dick jokes.

I vividly remember a scene with Stitch Tactics in which I was incredibly uncomfortable.  We were in a performance, and I was on stage with my scene partner.  The game was a series of scenes and to indicate the end of the game and to connect all the scenes, you're supposed to mirror the physicality of the first scene.  I was on my knees with my scene partner standing next to me.  I know where you think this is going.  That's where my partner's mind went, too.  They said "hey, while you're down there..." implying my character should give their character a blow job.  I was so incredibly embarrassed.  I had no idea what to do or say.  Thankfully the others recognized that and ended the game immediately.

I had a really great experience with vulgarity while playing in the Improv Mixer at the Roving Imp Theater. Another player, Kitty Hinds and I were called on stage, and our suggestion was Dick Vitale.  He's a sports caster best known in this area for knocking KU basketball and always being SO surprised when we do well.  Anyway, the scene was just us laughing about how his name is "Dick" and making dick jokes and laughing.  Most of the dialogue in the scene was us laughing.  The end of the scene came when Kitty's character's son called from off stage "Mom, what's this I found in your drawer?  It has the name Richard printed on the side of it" (re: a vibrator named Richard, Dick being a nickname for Richard.  YOU GET IT?  HAHAH FUNNY).  I felt really good about that scene and had a lot of fun with it and I'm proud of it.

So what's the difference?  Some may argue there is no difference and that I needed to get my shit together in the first instance and go with it.  I will admit if it happened now I'd probably know how to handle the situation better.

Here's what I think the difference is: the implication of impending fake-on-stage sexual activity.  That's awkward for everybody.  The audience paid to see comedy.  You're here to perform comedy.  Most of us are not comfortable with sex in public even with a person with which they are romantically involved.  Even the most vulgar of the GirlProv girls are not comfortable with this situation.

Recently we had a Stitch performance in which this issue was again brought up.  The scene was me, a fellow GirlProvisor and that same Stitch scene partner from the awkward anecdote.  The suggestion was something about pigs.  The scene very quickly became about fucking that pig.  Guess who had already established themselves as the pig?  This lady.  The scene was part of a game called Director, where we play the scene multiple times in different styles, genres, etc all at the whim of a 4th player as the director of the scene.  So I was the porked pig for at least 4 repetitions of this scene.  But, we dealt with this scene in a truly novel way:

ADDING EMOTIONS!

The scene became one about a love triangle between the farmer, his wife and the pig who screwed them both.  Jealousy!  Intrigue!  Granted, we said the phrase "pig fucking" and every variation thereof just about every other sentence, but it was still about the jealousy conflict and not actually about having sex with the pig on stage.

Here I think is my point:  Vulgarity on stage for the sake of vulgarity makes everyone uncomfortable and gets old after the third dick joke.  But adding it into a scene with depth, emotions and tact colors the scene.  You get lots of laughs, albeit cheap ones.  My personal philosophy of improv is to do the best improv possible, use emotional reactions and if that involves vulgarity, then so be it.  But I will NOT rely on it as a crutch if my scene isn't going anywhere or we're not getting laughs.

I'm going to revisit this post sooner or later once my thoughts are less rambling.  I'm interested to hear what others think.  Leave me a comment and let me know!