"We have always had gross humor. But we try for funny, not gross"
About this Quote
That line is a preemptive defense wrapped in a mission statement: yes, the jokes can get dirty, but don’t confuse messiness with laziness. Shawn Wayans is drawing a bright line between “gross” as a flavor and “gross” as the whole meal. The phrasing matters. “We have always had” makes it sound like a long-running house style, not a sudden bid for shock clicks. It positions the Wayans brand as consistent, almost traditional, even when it’s trafficking in bodily fluids or bedroom chaos.
The hinge is “But we try.” That’s the tell. It admits how thin the margin is between transgressive comedy and crude noise. “Try for funny, not gross” frames gross-out as a tool, not a goal; the intent is to reclaim craft in a genre critics often dismiss as juvenile. It’s also a subtle jab at copycat comedy that treats escalation as innovation: if the punchline is just “can you believe they did that,” you’re not writing jokes, you’re writing dares.
Contextually, it reads like an actor-comedian navigating respectability politics in entertainment. The Wayans’ early work helped mainstream a particular kind of broad, physical, sometimes taboo comedy while also being treated as lowbrow by gatekeepers. This line is a bid to be judged by comedic engineering - timing, character, specificity - rather than by the body count of bodily functions. It’s less apology than quality control: permission to be vulgar, with the insistence that vulgar still has to land.
The hinge is “But we try.” That’s the tell. It admits how thin the margin is between transgressive comedy and crude noise. “Try for funny, not gross” frames gross-out as a tool, not a goal; the intent is to reclaim craft in a genre critics often dismiss as juvenile. It’s also a subtle jab at copycat comedy that treats escalation as innovation: if the punchline is just “can you believe they did that,” you’re not writing jokes, you’re writing dares.
Contextually, it reads like an actor-comedian navigating respectability politics in entertainment. The Wayans’ early work helped mainstream a particular kind of broad, physical, sometimes taboo comedy while also being treated as lowbrow by gatekeepers. This line is a bid to be judged by comedic engineering - timing, character, specificity - rather than by the body count of bodily functions. It’s less apology than quality control: permission to be vulgar, with the insistence that vulgar still has to land.
Quote Details
| Topic | Funny |
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