All language subtitles for Masterclass Steve Martin Teaches Comedy - 12. Profanity and Morality

Certain performers can do foul material.

It's fantastic. Richard Prior, I would

say it was foul. I mean, not by today's

standards, but it can be. It could be so

funny and somebody else has it

and it's vulgar in some way and I mind

it and other perform it's just up to the

performer but I don't have any judgment

on the type of material can be

completely dirty or completely clean. I

don't care depends on how it works. It's

all about this thing called comedy and

how you make that work. And I hate to

sit here and go there's no real answer.

I can just give you directions. That's

what's so great about it. There's no one

way to be a painter. There's no way to

solve it. And even if somebody solves

it, they've solved it personally and

someone else comes along and is also

fantastic.

There is definitely an argument for your

position on political correctness and

you can violate it.

uh I think to a degree um or not violate

it which I think is actually preferable

because I think there's a lot to PC that

is good and there's a lot happening that

is not so good. Um

people are probably too easily offended

but we're in that sort of backlash stage

of of people being offensive. So, uh, I

think that'll all settle out. And, uh,

sometimes I've seen artists break

boundaries and went, "Oo." And then

later you kind of thought it was funny.

But when you break that boundary, when

you say, "I'm going to talk about this."

You're defining yourself.

And it's about your, and this is not

judgmental. It's about what your

morality is. So you're kind of defining

your morality. When when Madonna came on

the scene, she has was really pushing

the a morality boundary talking about

vaginas and this and the way she dressed

and the you know religious things and

now they're sort of common. They came

became almost p. Uh, so

this is this is a question that is

almost unanswerable because you'll know,

you know, I if you're a a nonPC person,

you're going to learn very quickly how

far you can go. So, I'd just be very

careful there. If you're going to test

it, make sure you test it privately so

it doesn't stick with you. And today,

something can stick with you forever.

It's very relatively easy to do comedy

that insults people uh because there's

always us and them and you know but and

I think that's perfect when you're

young. Perfect. As I get older and I've

had more experience, you become more

empathetic to people. And now like a

thing that

would have meant nothing to me uh you

know 30 years ago I go somewhere there's

someone watching who might be overweight

who might be this or that and I start to

feel for them but it's not the uh

uh purview of the young uh to become too

sensitive I would think but it's very

interesting to think of what is uh kind

comedy

Um and kind comedy would usually

uh reflect back on yourself. You would

make fun of yourself rather than other

people. Uh so there there is that uh

element. You think well what will I be

aggressive about people or will I uh be

more introspective about myself?

I mean that's another way to look at it.

Either either one is fine, but it

certainly is a dividing line. Maybe you

can mix it up a little bit, too.

And then this is interesting. You say, I

said, so there was a point I'm looking

at the news and I I said, this is a

really good episode. And they laugh

out loud

to no one.

Yeah. So, you're kind of building on

that and it gets a it gets a laugh,

right?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Then you say, "So good. I watch Pix 11

News."

What is so good just a little throw

away?

Just a little throw away.

Throw away. Okay. Yeah, that's fine.

I watch Pix 11 News.

But these are the things that you should

think about. Okay.

I think without having seen your act and

I could watch it and go, "Oh, I'm an

idiot. It works great." You know,

but try to trim down those little things

that don't count.

Yeah.

And say, "I watch Pix 11 news. I don't

watch like regular people news on like

real networks."

Fine. Pix 11 is a great network in this

fair city. This this news is a lot

different than most newscasters would do

because most news programs they have the

newscaster that reads the news

beforehand and then they come into a

room and they're reading it with a lot

of fervor and processed emotions

already. But not Pix 11. See, this is

all good. I think that could be trimmed

down, you know, just see Pix 11 is a lo

local news station. It's not like the

big news where they read the news ahead

of time and they're rehearsed and okay

when they come in the room they've not

read the news at all. That's good.

It's kind of great because they're

reading it live on air for the first

time and you're like I'm reading every

word and this is killing it and like cuz

normally I watch it and it's like one

baby dead and they have no emotions

about it.

I think you need to say you need to

clarify that when I watch it on the

network news. Yeah, you need to say

that. They say a baby dead and they have

no no emotions about it.

And you're like, "Wow, that's cold.

That's [ __ ] up." Probably works,

right?

Yeah.

Uh then you say, "I couldn't deal with

that situation like that." So that's

probably you're explaining yourself. I

couldn't deal with that. Yeah. It's like

that couldn't deal with that news like

that.

But on Pix 11, they look at the news in

front of you and there's a pause before

they read it and it's like, oh, that's

terrible. That's good. Right. And they

start talking about it on the panel

like, "Did you see this? This is crazy.

This shouldn't be. I don't even know how

to say this. It's good. See?" Yeah.

Baby is I you know, Baby is dead is a

hard thing to listen to. You know, I

would consider

maybe either just changing it to

something else, but Baby is dead

actually affects

people in ways you don't even know. But

still, let's say it's good because it is

harsh. You know,

it's harsh. Yeah.

I wouldn't say it again. I just go a

baby. Hello. You know, this is so now

you say that's cold. It's a baby. No

emotions. Like, wow, that's cold. That's

[ __ ] up.

Now, what gets the laugh? Is it when you

say, "Wow, that's cold." Or, "That's

[ __ ] up."

That's [ __ ] up.

Mhm.

I just always, you know, whenever it's

the word [ __ ] that gets the laugh, I

always question it a little bit. Yeah.

Because it's become kind of a staple.

And sometimes I've see people that say

that actually is the punchline, the word

[ __ ]

and that's what's motivating that laugh.

But it always makes it kind of a rope

response in the audience because they do

laugh at it. I remember I had it in my

act in the early days. It's huge. And I

and I thought

I'm getting a laugh on a non- joke and

and I like worked for like years to try

and get it out. And I finally, you know,

finally had enough material to take it

out. It was just an intellectual uh

decision really.

An ultimate goal of mine is to work

clean.

Mhm.

Eventually.

Well, then you should take out [ __ ]

up.

Yeah. And and and you're you're you're

close here. It's like you've uh you

you've got one little moment. And by the

way, I'm not criticizing the use of the

word [ __ ] I mean, people use it all the

time. And uh I'm teaching my

four-year-old. And u but you can just

clean it up a little bit and still be

funny and not have this uh

such an image, which may be what you

want. It may be what you want to do, but

you get the same effect

uh if you wanted to clean it up.

These suggestions of course don't apply

to everybody. So because depends on the

personality of the comedian and

everything is about individuality.

You're creating your persona on stage.

You're you're becoming an individual.