Humor & Life Quote by Julian Clary

Julian Clary’s line is a masterclass in the British art of the barbed shrug: a joke that lands because it refuses to defend itself. “I didn’t think of myself as a tart” gestures toward innocence, or at least plausible deniability. Then he detonates it with “but I wouldn’t argue,” collapsing any attempt at respectability into a grin. The comedy isn’t just self-deprecation; it’s self-authorship. He’s choosing the label before someone else can weaponize it.

“Tart” carries a specific cocktail of meanings in UK slang: promiscuity, tackiness, theatricality, a whiff of shame. Clary flips that moral charge into a style choice. Not arguing is the punchline’s power move. It implies: if you’re going to reduce me to a stereotype, fine, but I’ll make it work for me and you’ll still be the one taking it seriously. The subtext is a refusal to beg for approval, especially from audiences primed to police sexuality.

Context matters. Clary emerged as an openly gay comic in a culture still shaking off Section 28-era prudishness and tabloid cruelty. Camp, in that environment, wasn’t just an aesthetic; it was armor and provocation. By treating “tart” as an optional descriptor rather than an insult, he turns the old language of humiliation into a wink, daring the listener to either laugh with him or reveal their own discomfort. That’s the trick: the line is funny, but it’s also a small act of cultural judo.