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But a good conversationalist is not merely a negative extinguisher of others' dirty fun — he gives them something better in its place. He knows a few stories himself, a few clean ones, and he shows them ever and again that a clean story can be just as funny as a dirty one — and a whole lot more satisfying. When others start telling dirty ones he tactfully leads the conversation away from them. If that 2 "Defense of Poetry," in Criticism, ed. by Schorer, Miles, McKenzie (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1948), p. 461. does not work, he tells them courteously the Joe E. Brown story above and adds that he assumes they all really want to live up to that standard. If even that does not work, then he politely takes his leave. As St. Paul says: "Go out from among them, saith the Lord, and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing" (2 Cor. 6:17). If you are in the majority, then, as St. Paul says of certain sinners, including those "bitter of speech," "banish the offender from your company" (1 Cor. 5:13). But blessed the person who so leavens a conversation with his own clean fun, facts, and anecdotes that by mere force of example it will be on a high level, with a maximum of St. Paul's "edge of liveliness." |
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