Karaoke Forums

mrmarog - "Goodbye Earl" - The Dixie Chicks

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-Chris

Chris, you got me.

And "Folsom Prison Blues." And "Stagger Lee." And "Possum Kingdom..."

My personal rule is that the standard of what makes something obscene or vulgar depends upon the immediate location and the people filling it.

It also depends on the age of the material. I mean, right now, kids in school are reading Shakespeare and completely missing all the sex and poop jokes.

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Co-host of The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly), a karaoke-themed podcast

I personally am unoffended by obscenities. I use them with great frequency in my personal life, and find several of them extraordinarily satisfying. I also consider myself to be proof that profanity does not make one dumb, as I think anyone would be hard-pressed to argue that I'm in any way unfamiliar with the English language or unable to communicate efficiently within it just because I use certain words for emphasis.

That said: I hate nothing more than when people are in flagrant disregard of the fact that OTHER PEOPLE are offended by profanity. I use my profanity amongst people who talk like I do, who aren't taken aback by how I talk; I do NOT think it's okay to foist that language upon people who don't want to hear it. Two of my weekly gigs are restaurant gigs, and while I try to remain open-minded to people who are able to edit profanity out of songs that contain it, I find my list of banned songs growing longer by the week, because people seem unable to avoid saying certain words. These two jobs have been my bread and butter for YEARS, and I will not stand for people flagrantly disobeying the rules that I repeatedly drill into their heads. Last Tuesday, I cut two consecutive songs short because the singers could not get through them without cursing; even worse, the songs in question didn't actually have profanity in the lyrics, not even so much as a "damn".

However, I have one gig that is the very definition of vulgar karaoke; it's a bar gig, so it's 21+, and I think anyone willing to be in a bar where children aren't allowed should be able to handle some profanity. When I took the show on, I asked management what their policy on profanity is; I was told, "it's not only allowed, it's *encouraged*", and I've run the show as such. I'm out to make a living, so however you tell me to run the show is how I run it, end of story.

Long story short, it's all about the venue and the clientele. There's nothing inherently wrong with vulgarity, imho, but it's all about context.

Sometimes crudity can be humorous, but usually it's just offensive. I don't like to censor people so I guess you can just say I'm torn about it personally.

Bottom line - I usually ask the venue what they want for a standard.

For the crude version of Total Eclipse I have a gif of John Stewart and a couple of other guys rubbing their own nipples I put up on the screen in thr middle of a performance. It tends to make the crowd laugh and make the "performers" a tad more reluctant to try that particular stunt again.