Family and Adult Comedy: A Discussion

This article is the first of several I have planned to discuss family and adult comedy. In the series, I will address their differences with respect to content, morality, and the relative difficulty each presents to comedy writers and performers.

This article defines adult and family comedy for the purpose of this discussion, which continues in the days to come.

Adult comedy includes jokes about sex, body parts, and bodily functions and sometimes uses words commonly classified as profanity. Few subjects are off limits. Adult comedians can be politicially incorrect and insensitive. There is usually no "message" in adult comedy. Its purpose is only to make people—adult people—laugh. Adult comedy is not usually considered proper fare for children. An adult comedy routine can include a mix of purely adult material and family material.

Family comedy includes jokes that can be told in venues where children might be in attendance. Its venues include birthday parties, community events, family entertainment complexes, church, schools, libraries, fairs, and any place where children or families gather to be entertained. Family comedy is not, however, restricted to audiences that include children. Some adult organizations prefer family material and do not welcome entertainers who use adult material as it is defined in the previous paragraph. Family entertainers often use comedy to deliver messages in support of personal or organizational agendas, which include messages of religion, self-help, learning, and so on.

I welcome your comments about these definitions and the issues of adult and family comedy.