shock humour

{{Short description|Style of comedy intended to shock the audience}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2024}}

Shock humour is a style of comedy intended to shock the audience. This can be achieved through excessively foul toilet humour, overt violent and sexual themes, profanity, mocking of serious themes (otherwise known as black comedy), or through tactlessness in the aftermath of a crisis.

In radio, shock jocks use this brand of humour. Such risque broadcasting can cause controversy, such as Jim Quinn and Don Jefferson's "Stupid Human Tricks" segment of their late-1980s WBZZ-FM show.{{Cite journal |last=Weiskind |first=Ron |date=February 20, 1988 |title=Radio Humor: How Shocking Will It Get? |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QFENAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5G0DAAAAIBAJ&dq=shock-humor&pg=1710%2C5510817 |journal=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |access-date=November 8, 2022}}

Practitioners of shock humour include Andrew Dice Clay,{{Cite book |last=Helitzer |first=Melvin |url=https://archive.org/details/comedywritingsec00heli_1 |title=Comedy Writing Secrets |publisher=Writer's Digest Books |year=1992 |page=67 |isbn=978-0-89879-510-3 |archive-url=https://archive.org/details/comedywritingsec00heli_1/page/67 |archive-date=October 9, 2014 |url-access=registration |access-date=November 8, 2022}} Tom Green, Bill Hicks, George Carlin, Bill Maher, Eric André, and Sam Hyde. the movie Fritz the Cat, The television shows The Ren & Stimpy Show, Robot Chicken, The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, Superjail!, Jackass, Drawn Together, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Rick and Morty, Beavis and Butt-Head, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Da Ali G Show have also been described as shock humour.{{cn|date=March 2024}}