# Best family friendly comedians or comedy specials
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 12, 2016, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049 "2016-04-12T23:11:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2016, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/1 "2016-04-12T23:11:52Z")
My nieces are old enough that they are starting to appreciate standup, but the standup comedians I watch are not child appropriate. I was wanting to watch more stand up with them either on youtube or netflix (or pandora).
There are a few really good ones that I feel comfortable watching with kids. Jim Gaffigan and Brian Regan are both extremely talented and are clean.
Bill Cosby was someone I watched as a kid. But even aside from the serial rape thing, a lot of his act revolves around child abuse (at least on Bill Cosby: himself).
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2016, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/2 "2016-04-12T23:14:32Z")
Jim Gaffigan.
ETA:Brian Regan
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### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/3 "2016-04-13T02:02:05Z")
IIRC Steven Wright is pretty well 100% clean.
Not sure if your kids would know what to make of him, though.
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### Author:  [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/4 "2016-04-13T02:19:13Z")
Despite one of his stand up specials on Netflix being directed by Rob Zombie, Tom Poppa is very PG and very hilarious.
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### Author:  [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/5 "2016-04-13T02:31:17Z")
Well,…
not Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias (adult material)
not Amy Schumer (blatantly sexual material)
not Jeff Dunham & his puppets (adult material)
…not coming up with many who are active today.
How 'bout Gallagher, though?
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### Author:  [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/6 "2016-04-13T02:43:12Z")
Maybe look for performances by comedians broadcast on network TV (Tonight Show/Letterman/Conan/primetime talent shows etc), which would at least be clean enough to meet FCC standards?
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### Author:  [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/7 "2016-04-13T02:56:00Z")
IIRC, I believe a lot of Gaffigan’s early stuff was more adult oriented. So you probably want to stick to his output from the last 10 years or so.
Again IIRC, Mike Birbiglia is pretty clean and hilarious. This American Life has played some funny and touching performances of his.
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### Author:  [@edwards\_beard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwards_beard)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/8 "2016-04-13T13:51:23Z")
I always remember Sinbad being funny and clean
I don’t recall any blue humor or swearing in any of Rodney Dangerfield’s stand up
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### Author:  [@edwards\_beard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwards_beard)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/9 "2016-04-13T13:52:27Z")
I"ll mention Seinfeld too…I’ve seen him live, very clean, but don’t know if he’s released any stand up specials
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### Author:  [@Mixolydian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mixolydian)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/10 "2016-04-13T14:42:19Z")
Remembering HBO’s On Location specials that I was allowed to watch as a kid…
Myron Cohen
Steve Martin
Robert Klein
Henny Youngman
David Brenner
Andy Kaufman
Norm Crosby
The network TV show Make Me Laugh was (obviously) sanitized…looks like there’s Youtube vids out there.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/11 "2016-04-13T14:53:52Z")
[John Pinette](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOU1nDTPg38)
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### Author:  [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/12 "2016-04-13T14:54:54Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> My nieces are old enough that they are starting to appreciate standup, but the standup comedians I watch are not child appropriate. I was wanting to watch more stand up with them either on youtube or netflix (or pandora).
Pandora has a disallow explicit content option so you could turn that on and sift through a comedy station to find stuff you like and are comfortable with.
Ellen Degenere’s Here and Now and Taste This are both pretty clean but they’re also rather old.
I just created a test netflix profile and set it to allow teen content and below so all the stand up it showed me was tv-14, pg-13 or below. Of the options it displayed, I enjoyed Anjelah Johnson’s Not Fancy, John Pinette’s Still Hungry, Tig Notaro’s TiG, and Jeff Dunham’s Spark of Insanity.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/13 "2016-04-13T15:29:22Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> Bill Cosby was someone I watched as a kid. But even aside from the serial rape thing, a lot of his act revolves around child abuse (at least on Bill Cosby: himself).
Being all rapey ruins it for me now, but child abuse? My parents took me to see him on the tour the used most of the material from _Himself_ and before the Cosby Show came out. So I was sitting there next to my parents and laughing more than I ever had in my life. I guess I was a victim of child abuse too. _Himself_ remains one of the best stand up movie/film/special ever.
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### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/14 "2016-04-13T15:30:15Z")
I remember wearing out my mothers Bill Cosby albums as a child. [Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow Right!](https://www.discogs.com/Bill-Cosby-Bill-Cosby-Is-A-Very-Funny-FellowRight/master/122137), [I Started Out As A Child](https://www.discogs.com/Bill-Cosby-I-Started-Out-As-A-Child/master/122138), [Why Is There Air?](https://www.discogs.com/Bill-Cosby-Why-Is-There-Air/master/122139) and [Revenge](https://www.discogs.com/Bill-Cosby-Revenge/master/182099) were fantastic and timeless.
The Noah and Buck Buck bits are the best of many. “What’s a cubit?”
(Also not getting the “child abuse” inference)
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### Author:  [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/15 "2016-04-13T15:31:39Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> Jim Gaffigan.
> ETA:Brian Regan
These are the two that I came here to mention.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/16 "2016-04-13T15:34:44Z")
Jim Breuer is very clean. When he is on Sirius on a talk show he will curse but if he cursed at all when I saw him live I don’t remember it. He changed his style a long time ago and he is a long form story teller mostly about family. Before that it might not have been completely clean but I’m not sure when the switch happened. I’ve only seen him live and not seen any of his filmed specials so I can’t say that every special is completely clean. He is quite religious and family oriented but he doesn’t get preachy at all.
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/17 "2016-04-13T15:38:35Z")
> [@edwards\_beard](#):
>
> I don’t recall any blue humor or swearing in any of Rodney Dangerfield’s stand up
“My Wife likes to talk after sex. She calls me from the hotel” 😃
Not too bad. But always liked Dangerfield. He helped many up and coming comedians.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/18 "2016-04-13T15:41:17Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> Jim Gaffigan.
> ETA:Brian Regan
Brian Regan is not only clean, he’s good for kids and adults. Gaffigan? 95% clean. Good, but not too funny for kids.
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### Author:  [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/19 "2016-04-13T15:44:29Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> ETA:Brian Regan
I didn’t care for his early stuff, I found him immature and crass, but certainly after he had kids his comedy got far better. Epitome of Hyperbole is hilarious and clean.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2016, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-family-friendly-comedians-or-comedy-specials/752049/20 "2016-04-13T15:51:19Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#):
>
> How 'bout Gallagher, though?
Amazingly racist and alternates between being very reactionary and being very dirty when not smashing things. I think he’s losing his mind.
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