# working the room blue **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 16, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/working-the-room-blue/201913 "2003-09-16T07:35:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/working-the-room-blue/201913/1 "2003-09-16T07:35:38Z")
Please help me. I’m having a little with the jargon of my own field, and none of my collegues can help. I do stand-up comedy. In comedy, the term “blue” refers to vulgar humor (potty jokes, sex jokes, etc.). All comics know this term, but no one I’ve spoken to seems to know how it originated. Why are dirty jokes called “blue”? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/working-the-room-blue/201913/2 "2003-09-16T07:36:38Z")
Maybe because they violate - or used to violate, since they don’t exist as much anymore - Blue Laws? ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/working-the-room-blue/201913/3 "2003-09-16T07:38:31Z")
I meant to write “I’m having a little TROUBLE with the jargon of my own field.” For some reason I can’t edit my posts. Anyway, just trying to provide clarity. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/working-the-room-blue/201913/4 "2003-09-16T07:39:54Z")
**bienville** , only moderators can edit posts. It’s not just you. ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy154](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ad7895/32.png) [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/working-the-room-blue/201913/5 "2003-09-16T11:15:26Z")
Anything to do with the blue light, traditionally (?) used to highlight a stripper’s act. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/working-the-room-blue/201913/6 "2003-09-16T13:10:38Z")
I wonder if it has anything to do with bad language turning the air blue—you know, like “cursing a blue streak?” ---
**Author:** ![Capt\_B.Phart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Capt\_B.Phart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_B.Phart)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/working-the-room-blue/201913/7 "2003-09-16T20:46:13Z")
Seem to remember a theory that it goes back to censors crossing out the mucky bits in scripts with a blue pencil - Don’t know if it predates “The Cheeky Chappie” [Max Miller](http://www.peopleplayuk.org/guided_tours/music_hall_tour/music_hall_stars/miller.php) - > [@](#): > > He always offered his audience the white gag book (respectable) or the blue gag book (dirty) and they always called for the blue book. He worked in the music hall tradition of saucy, sexual innuendo spiced with a touch of sentimentality. But with his frank, open face set off by brilliant blue eyes, it was impossible to take offence ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/working-the-room-blue/201913/8 "2003-09-16T21:20:34Z")
Well, the _Oxford English Dictionary_ doesn’t say exactly how the word “blue” came to be used in this way, but it does provide quotations that suggest a nineteenth-century origin. > [@](#): > > **blue** > > **9.** _colloq._ **a. Indecent, obscene** > > **1864** HOTTEN _Slang Dict._ 78 _Blue_, said of talk that is smutty or indecent. **1935** _Economist_ 16 Mar. 584/2 The songs sounded not vulgar exactly, but…‘a bit on the blue side’. **1959** _Spectator_ 14 Aug. 180/1 It meant that the theatre-going public were deprived of…outstanding contemporary plays, yet allowed to visit ‘blue’ variety shows. **1965** _Punch_ 2 June 799/1 He also wanted to see a blue movie. and > [@](#): > > **blueness** > > **4. Indelicacy, indecency** > > **1840** CARLYLE _Diderot, Ess._ 240 (L.) The occasional blueness of both [writings] shall not altogether affright us. **1891** _Sat. Rev._ 8 Aug. 168/2 That tinge of ‘blueness’ which repels English propriety. That’s for England, at least. I’m not sure about the US.