Vulgarity isn't needed to provide good humor

The recent death of comedian George Carlin and the anniversary today of the death of comedy legend Bob Hope got me thinking about the nature of comedy. Carlin will be remembered for his "Seven Dirty Words" that you couldn't use on television and for his flagrant stepping over the line regarding the use of profanity and sex in his routines.

That's unfortunate, because Carlin was very funny without relying on shock effect. He was a wonderful observer of the idiosyncrasies of the English language, and his routine on "Stuff" was classic.

Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and Carlin set the stage for today's standup comedians by breaking the rules of broadcasting ethics and social etiquette. Go to a comedy club or watch Comedy Central on TV and experience their legacy. Too many comedians seemingly can't come up with anything funny that isn't also sexual or scatological.

Humor doesn't require vulgarity or profanity. It is the ability to see ordinary things in an out-of-the-ordinary way, finding the incongruous and even absurd in things most people take for granted.

For example, outdoors columnist Patrick McManus began with a simple story of a boy wanting to emulate the older men in his family, so he hopped on his bike and, carrying a gun, set out to get a deer. The story ended with a group of unwitting spectators sitting around a camp fire and witnessing the very implausible spectacle of a deer riding the bike down the hill toward town, the gun resting on the handlebars.

The classic comedians were funny without resorting to vulgarity. Hope, Jack Benny and Red Skelton knew how to do blue humor, but they didn't need it and didn't practice it in front of general audiences. Hope and Skelton used an occasional leer or a mild double-entendre to get a laugh, but those were the exception rather than the rule.

Vulgar humor often is lazy humor. Comedians don't have to work at their craft to get audience response. All they have to do is toss out a few four-letter words. That isn't humor, but it works because audiences today, for whatever reason, are conditioned to respond.

Of course, the sexual and the scatological are a part of life, and when treated properly they can be great sources for legitimate humor. For a long time that kind of humor was taboo, which led to its use in more private settings and opened the door for the Bruces, Pryors and Carlins to bring it into the open. However, many comics today don't step over the line, they erase the line completely.

Hope lived to be 100. Skelton died at 84, and Benny at 80. In contrast, Carlin was 68, Pryor 65, and Bruce 41. I wonder if an unhealthy approach to humor didn't parallel an unhealthy approach to life in general that eventually took its toll.

Jesus said, "I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken." The Psalmist prayed that the words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart would be acceptable in God's sight.