UNCLEAN WIT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 1039, 21 August 1911, Page 4

UNCLEAN WIT.

There .are many who .will agree with the Taranaki News that "unclean wit is the device of the man who iha's no real sense of humour." There never was a real humorist who descended to suggestive allusion-or had any need to drag in Buch allusion an order to tickle the risible, faculties of the audience. A .comedian (or alleged comedian) who resorts to phallic jests to extort laughter condemns himself as an artist. The management, unable to obtain ithe services of helpers who have no method of making laughter except by such miserable means., should learn, his business. The best humorists the world .has or has ever had are able by their own art (arid not by borrowed device) to make people laugh healthily. The use of indecent or suggestive jests on ithe istage is an insult to the healthyminded, who hate these indecencies, for it ,is a presumption that the intelligence of an. audience is so low that it can, only be amused iby the most banal and obvious .vulgarity. The idea of a man achieving a reputation as a comedian because liie draws in a larrikin's lewd street jokes by the ears, and firesi at at an offending public is execrable. The days of individual merit and artistic creation on the stage are .surely passing away. If the person who hurls a .suggestive jest at decent people is a comedian., the stroet loafer is also; a comedian, and should not be prevented from inflicting his wit. on the community.