THE IMPORTANCE OF USING CLEAN HUMOR
Actor and comedian, Dave Petitjean, is well-known for his upbeat, clean humor. You may remember him from The Big Easy and In The Heat of the Night. Here are some of the "clean humor quotes" Dave has gathered over the years.
Red Skelton -- People shouldn’t have to pay money to hear things they can read on public bathroom walls. That kind of talk is a short cut for thinking.
Steve Allen -- Be extremely careful about off-color humor. Even those who laughed may not, after some reflection, approve of either your joke or their own response to it. Never has anyone said to a speaker, you gave a marvelous talk, but I wish you had told a few dirty jokes.
Art Linkletter -- I never tell a dirty joke or even a slightly off-color one. It there is any doubt in my mind, I discard the joke. What’s the point of irritating even one person in a crowd that may number in the thousands. There are plenty of clean jokes. So, why take a chance.
Larry Wilde -- Clean family humor will take you as far as how much talent, ambition, drive you have. Foul language and tasteless jokes show poor taste and a talent deficiency, Besides, if you want to make it on TV, you’ll never get the chance using that kind of material
Bob Murphey -- I have pity for the person who must use profane, vulgar, and cheap four-letter words to express humor. What a person says from their mouth usually indicates the way their mind works. There are too many good, clean, funny things going on in this old world to resort to bathroom humor and off color jokes.
Al Walker -- I’ve never had one meeting planner in over 25 years of speaking come up to me and say I’m disappointed you didn’t use a cuss word or two or tell an off color story. But....I’ve had a bunch of 'em tell me how much they appreciated my ability to be funny and not use anything off-color.
Charles Jarvis -- I tell people who aspire to be public speakers that they must use clean humor. Clean humor is rare today. The supply will never meet the demand. That happened in my life. If as a speaker you use only clean humor, you will be proud of yourself.
Murray Conque -- I use a very simple gauge. In my mind I ask myself it I would tell this joke or perform this routine if my daughters were in the audience. If I can’t tell a certain joke or routine to them, I certainly can’t tell it to any audience.
Scott Friedman -- The reason we should not use off color material is not because we have ladies and gentlemen in our audience but because there is supposed to be a lady or gentleman at the lectern. You lose respect and credibility when you offend someone in your audience.
Jean Gatz -- I pretend that my 82 year old mother is sitting in the back row. I never say anything that would offend her or make her ashamed to know me.
Jim Pelly -- I have always been a fan of clean and clever humor. I would never want my children to be embarrassed or uncomfortable with the words I choose.
Twyman Towery -- People may go home and watch the tawdriest program on HBO but they never forgive a speaker who says the same thing.
Lou Heckler -- I don’t see myself as dirty, so why would I go there. Humor, above all other forms of communication, reveals our true character. I would rather be revealed as grinning not sneering.
Luther Beauchamp -- I only use humor that doesn’t have to be cleaned up to go to church. Its clean or it won’t be in my repertoire.
Bob Burg -- There is nothing more average and ordinary than a humorist who has to resort to dirty language to get a laugh. One of the highest compliments is wow, he or/she was so unbelievably funny and not even dirty.
Bryan Townsend -- Platform speaking for associations and corporations is a whole different dog from comedy clubs and some TV. They lose money if they offend their important attendees. One company sent a representative from Chicago to Indianapolis to preview me to make sure I was “clean”
Bubba Bechtol -- I close with "There are two things I promised myself when I discovered that I had the talent to make people laugh. One.'You don’t have to be filthy to be funny.' After applause and laughter I say, and I forgot the second." Gets a terrific laugh. I use this to close my act at the Grand Old Opry.
David Naccari -- In my early days as a stand up comedian, I spent hours perfecting the wrong kind of material. Had I spent the time on material that would “sell” before any audience. I would have increased my”bookability” from the onset and been way ahead of achieving my goals as a humorous speaker.
Doc Blakely -- If I ever had an inclination to get out of line it was squashed one night when a Baptist minister rather proudly reminded me of the need to keep it clean. That story haunts me to this day and has kept my “feet to the fire”
