Sex comedy: the new vulva and dick jokes

Abstract

My paper analyses a broad range of sexually explicit comic material in order to explore changing cultural tastes. #MeToo, concerns about “toxic masculinity” and social justice campaigns which prioritise minority groups while challenging the centrality of the white, male perspective are all working to complicate conventional forms of sexually explicit material, the “dick joke” in particular. My initial hypothesis suggested that, while explicit representations of male genitalia would become more problematic, deliberately visceral material would dominate in the comic representation of female sex organs, in line with other indicators of increasing emancipation from the history of oppression and disgust surrounding female genitalia. This was largely borne out by close-readings of a range of contemporary comic material, a corpus that includes current US and UK stand-up. Analysis suggests that the explicit and/or affirmative address of male genitalia is now largely only accessible to those minorities who are trying to right representational wrongs. However, the increasing pressure for white, cis or straight men to be circumspect or sensitive about phallocentric material, means that the simple fact of the violation of that taboo can be sufficient, and the article concludes that, while new, progressive forms of sexually explicit comedy seem to dominate, there is also a significant entrenchment of more conventional, reactionary forms.