In comedy, a dick joke, duck joke, dork joke, penis joke, cock joke or knob joke is a joke that makes a direct or indirect reference to a human penis (known in slang parlance as a dick), also used as an umbrella term for dirty jokes. The famous quote from Mae West, "Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just excited to see me?" (alluding to an erection) 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".[2] Dick jokes have also been noted to be both popular and effective with audiences:
Comics use what "works," and dick jokes are guaranteed to amuse audiences of both genders in a surprising variety of contexts. Simply put, dick jokes get the quickest and biggest laughs, and in stand-up comedy, size does matter.[2]
- ^ Colum Hourihane, ed. (2012), The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture, vol. 2, Oxford University Press, p. 216,
one of the more egregious examples of erotic slapstick comedy appears to have been popular even as wall decoration: women harvesting the fruits of a phallus tree
- ^ a b Joanne R. Gilbert, Performing Marginality: Humor, Gender, and Cultural Critique (2004), p. 68.