comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

, a dick joke, penis joke, cock joke or knob joke is a joke that makes a direct or indirect reference to a

human penis The human penis is an external male intromittent organ that additionally serves as the urinary duct. The main parts are the root (radix); the body (corpus); and the epithelium of the penis including the shaft skin and the foreskin (prepuce) c ...

(known in slang parlance as a

dick Dick, Dicks, or Dick's may refer to: Media * ''Dicks'' (album), a 2004 album by Fila Brazillia * Dicks (band), a musical group * ''Dick'' (film), a 1999 American comedy film * "Dick" (song), a 2019 song by Starboi3 featuring Doja Cat Names ...

), also used as an umbrella term for

dirty joke Ribaldry or blue comedy is humorous entertainment that ranges from bordering on indelicacy to indecency. Blue comedy is also referred to as "bawdiness" or being "bawdy". Sex is presented in ribald material more for the purpose of poking fun at ...

s. The famous quote from

Mae West Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...

, "Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just excited to see me?" (alluding to an

erection An erection (clinically: penile erection or penile tumescence) is a physiological phenomenon in which the penis becomes firm, engorged, and enlarged. Penile erection is the result of a complex interaction of psychological, neural, vascular, a ...

) is cited as an example of a penis joke. The "dick joke" has been described as "often used as a metaphor for the male-defined nature of stand-up comedy".Joanne R. Gilbert, ''Performing Marginality: Humor, Gender, and Cultural Critique'' (2004), p. 68. Dick jokes have also been noted to be both popular and effective with audiences:

In comedy

An important component of a dick joke is breaking a social

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

. As Canadian comedian Ricky Blue puts it, "The trick is being able to speak the unspeakable and somehow get away with it." Comedian

Bill Hicks William Melvin Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His material—encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy—wa ...

satirized the popularity of dick jokes in his own act: However, due to their prurient nature, comedians who rely on explicit humor must find less controversial subject matter if they wish to expand their presence to more restrictive venues like network television and

family film A children's film, or family film, is a film genre that contains children or relates to them in the context of home and family. Children's films are made specifically for children and not necessarily for a general audience, while family films ar ...

s. In short, "young professionals whose success has been achieved on the stepladder of dick jokes must eventually change their acts". An example of a joke of this type relying on an unspoken connotation is: Because the name

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stro ...

can be abbreviated as "Dick", in some jokes a person named "Richard" or "Dick" is presented as a

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...

. Joel Stice,
10 Dicks Who Made it Onto the Local News
", '' CollegeHumor.com'' (August 15, 2014): "There's nothing wrong with the name "Dick" but when your name is literally a dick joke, maybe think about going by Richard".

In comedy

See also

References

Further reading