Obscenity, dirtiness and licence in Jewish comedy (5:2)

Abstract

We examine the notion of obscenity in relation to constructions of Jewish sexuality in stand-up. Since Lenny Bruce, stand-up has been defined by extreme licence. Acknowledging that stand-up is reliant on the construction of performer identity, we examine the routines of Belle Barth and Pearl Williams, female Jewish contemporaries of Bruce, in contrast to Bruce, and show that Bruce used his construction of Jewish identity as a scourge to beat a wider, more general audience, whereas Barth and Williams used theirs as a way to ridicule and deflate themselves and their mainly Jewish audiences. All accused of obscenity, these comedians referred to themselves as ‘dirty’ rather than obscene, implyin..