2011-05-30
Explanation
This comic shows a comedian performing "dirty limerick night" at what appears to be a comedy club, but his overbearing mother is in the audience. In the first panel, he recites a limerick that starts out sounding dirty but swerves into aggressively wholesome territory: "There once was a man from Toledo / with a very... respectful libido / his wife thinks he's good for... respecting her personhood / and finding the missionary neato." His mother is in the audience beaming with approval.
When someone in the crowd shouts, "Tell the one about the man from the Ruggery!" the comedian sighs and delivers another limerick that is painfully un-dirty: "There once was a man from a Ruggery / He engaged in consensual heterosexual sex that was well within the confines of acceptable marital bedroom conduct...ery." The limerick barely even rhymes and reads more like a legal disclaimer than a bawdy joke. The final panels show the mother shouting, "Tell the one about the lady from Schmunt!" The comedian snaps, "Dammit, Mom! I told you you're not invited to dirty limerick night!" and the mother retorts, "I told YOU to become a doctor!"
The votey delivers the actual limerick about the lady from Schmunt: "There once was a lady from schmunt / Anatomically, just what you'd want / No part of her body / Was large or shaped oddly / To say elsewise would be an affront." Even this one is aggressively inoffensive, suggesting the comedian has been so thoroughly inhibited by his mother's presence that he cannot produce genuinely dirty material. The comic satirizes the dynamic between an adult child trying to establish independence and a parent who refuses to let them exist outside their comfort zone.