Recommendations for child-appropriate standup comedy?

June 7, 2017 9:43 PM

My son (age 11) understands English fairly well, but not growing up in a Western country, there are parts of Western culture he hasn't been exposed to, like standup comedy.

Before the whole Bill Cosby thing occurred I had planned to show him Fatherhood, but now...yeah, that's not going to happen. But I don't know any other good standup comedians who are child-appropriate. I don't want comedy for kids, but comedy for adults that is basically family friendly (a bit of cursing is fine, he's heard worse when I watch John Oliver, but I don't want to be answering questions about dildos or cocaine or watersports or the like). Any recommendations?

posted by Bugbread to Media & Arts (31 answers total)

Jim gaffigan is pretty clean. Stephen wright scratches an absurdist itch that should appeal to an 11 year old. Old Steve Martin is reasonably clean too.
posted by cosmicbandito at 9:49 PM on June 7, 2017 [7 favorites]

Jim Gaffigan?

Demitri Martin?

Ellen Degeneres

Mike Birbiglia

Paula Poundstone
posted by jeanmari at 9:50 PM on June 7, 2017

Billy Connolly was basicslly invented for this. His old routines are from, like, the seventies and some of it is going to go right over his head or be unintelligible (accent and slang) but the themes are harmless enough, most adult he gets into is being very, comically, drunk or his willie falling asleep while riding a bike. But my teenage years were spent laughing myself sick and I can often find myself singing "if ye didnae have yer wellies".
posted by Iteki at 9:52 PM on June 7, 2017 [3 favorites]

Brian Regan
posted by artychoke at 9:56 PM on June 7, 2017 [3 favorites]

Oh! And Sinbad.

Brian Regan?

Jerry Seinfeld?
posted by jeanmari at 9:57 PM on June 7, 2017 [1 favorite]

Actually on a quick recap, Billy swears something awful if that's a problem and does deal with adult themes too, but yo could curate a playlist of clean clips. His later stuff is easier to understand but also more jokes about being old.
posted by Iteki at 10:07 PM on June 7, 2017

Dave Allen
posted by monotreme at 10:14 PM on June 7, 2017 [2 favorites]

This Brian Regan album. Totally clean, hilarious, lots of stuff about childhood.
posted by John Cohen at 10:16 PM on June 7, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks! Lots of stuff to work through here.
posted by Bugbread at 10:21 PM on June 7, 2017

Off the top of my head; Gabriel Iglesias, Paul F Tompkins, Kevin James, and Jim Gaffigan are pretty clean (and pretty funny - PFT is my personal fave)
posted by littlesq at 10:23 PM on June 7, 2017

Jim Gaffigan's shows are TV-14 on Netflix, and glancing through at others most are TV-MA so he might be a good place to start.
posted by Amanda B at 10:27 PM on June 7, 2017 [1 favorite]

John Pinnette
posted by BoscosMom at 11:09 PM on June 7, 2017

Old school but I remember loving Jonathan Winters when I was little. Bob Newhart comedy albums should also be clean and scratch an absurdist itch. You might also look at some of the Carol Burnett stuff on youtube. I always found Tim Conway and Harvey Korman hilarious and most of the adult stuff went over my head.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 11:20 PM on June 7, 2017 [3 favorites]

You should watch Eddie Izzard Dressed to Kill in a few years. It's just epic, and incredibly astute with big picture type themes. I probably reference something from Dressed To Kill about once a day in my head, it's that relevant.

Fun Fact: Eddie has talked in interviews about doing crafting comedy that doesn't denigrate others for laughs.
posted by jbenben at 11:46 PM on June 7, 2017 [14 favorites]

It's not so much stand-up, but Rowan Atkinson's one man show was hilarious to me when I was a similar age. I still think about it all the time.
posted by mnfn at 3:04 AM on June 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

Oh gosh - Prairie Home Companion and the news from Lake Woebegone. Some of the episodes are him telling stories about kids (Rotten Apples) and are funny and clean and have really relatable kid themes - like the bigger kid next door, or laughing about boogers, or your teachers. PM me and I'll take a look through our iTunes and make some more specific recommendations.

The jokes from the variety show tend to be slapstick or very cheesy.
posted by jrobin276 at 3:47 AM on June 8, 2017

Demetri Martin usually is pretty clean, and he often uses drawings and sketches in his stand-up. While some of the jokes are going to go over your kid's head, I bet the drawings and songs are going to draw him in. Martin had several good TV specials in the mid 2000s.
posted by lilac girl at 4:10 AM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

When we were kids we loved Victor Borge, the piano playing comedian. It's not for kids, really, but it's very accessible to kids. There may be a bit of innuendo here and there, but that flew right over our heads.
posted by backwards compatible at 4:25 AM on June 8, 2017 [4 favorites]

Milton Jones works fairly clean and does a lot of surrealist wordplay type comedy.
posted by crocomancer at 4:38 AM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for the excellent suggestions. I think I've got enough here to find something that would be perfect. In case anyone else has suggestions, a point of clarification: I'm really looking for standup comedy only (one person, on a stage, with a microphone, no props, etc.), because when I've tried to explain what standup comedy is, it's clear he's having a hard time picturing it.
posted by Bugbread at 5:39 AM on June 8, 2017

I would 100% recommend Brian Regan as well. He is terrific.
posted by markslack at 6:32 AM on June 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

Paula Poundstone is never "dirty," but does drop the F bomb with great frequency in her live stand-up. If that passes your smell test, I cannot recommend her highly enough. She's crazy smart, hilariously funny, and interacts with the more closely-seated audience members. My stomach hurts from laughing every time we see her.
posted by Dolley at 6:40 AM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also want to say that much of Paula's comedy is about her children, so your son might be able to relate and really enjoy it.
posted by Dolley at 6:42 AM on June 8, 2017

Mary Mack is totally clean, unless something has changed recently which I am not aware of. Lots of stories about growing up in the middle-of-nowhere-Wisconsin with her mom and brother.

(I got her to break character once, and I was quite proud of myself, I must say!) :)
posted by TinWhistle at 7:33 AM on June 8, 2017

Very much Brian Regan.
posted by Sassyfras at 7:35 AM on June 8, 2017

Old Steve Martin is reasonably clean too.

Not necessarily. You might need to explain the double meaning of "diaphragm." And the double meaning of "pussy" (in a bit that includes the phrase "the best fuck I ever had").
posted by John Cohen at 8:41 AM on June 8, 2017

MeFite Myq Kaplan does a lot of fun wordplay stuff and is clean but does sometimes deal with adult topics. Mitch Hedberg's stuff is a bunch of weird one-liners and mostly clean albeit pretty lateral a lot of the time,
posted by jessamyn at 8:46 AM on June 8, 2017

One million times Brian Regan. Very clean, very childhood-centric, lots of wordplay (I suspect your 11-year-old English learner will literally die laughing at his "plural of moose" bit), he uses a lot of facial expressions and physicality to get his points across, and he's a real comic's comic - a very traditionally structured set, with great joke construction and development. Even the most respected and edgy alt-comics will admit their respect and admiration for Regan.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:48 AM on June 8, 2017

Seconding Stephen Wright. And maybe Emo Phillips? I haven't heard much recent work from either of these two, but my recollection is that they're both pretty child-appropriate.
posted by kristi at 11:11 AM on June 8, 2017

Eddie Izzard is great, but very sweary. I second Milton Jones, and possibly Tim Vine too (both comedians who happen to be Christian and whose comedy is mainly based on absurd wordplay).

James Campbell does stand up especially for kids.
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 1:01 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

I just want to suggest quite broadly that if you go with Youtube clips rather than sitting down and watching whole specials, a lot of these people who are sometimes-questionable-as-far-as-an-11-year-old-but-brilliant have bits that in and of themselves are perfectly appropriate, and a Youtube clip is short enough for you to comfortably watch the whole thing first without having to go out of your way.
posted by Sequence at 2:21 PM on June 8, 2017 [2 favorites]