Bad joke?

A FAMILY of performers go to see a talent agent in an attempt to persuade him to sign them. The uninterested agent suggests they perform their act for him so he can assess its suitability. What follows is an extended act so debauched, so filthy and offensive that the agent is left spluttering, managing only to ask the name of the act. The father steps forward, with the proud answer: "The Aristocrats!"

Famous as one of the dirtiest jokes around, 'The Aristocrats' has been told by some of the world's biggest comedians on stages across the globe, leaving audiences in fits of laughter or with mouths agape depending of the level of dirty detail the comedian uses to describe the family's act. But ,of course, we like jokes that challenge taboos, cross social boundaries and offend us as much as they make us laugh, don't we?

The line between humour and offence is a fine one, and one it appears that comedian Russell Brand may have crossed. At a gig in Northampton at the weekend, he used an audience member's mobile phone to call the local police, claiming to have spotted a sex attacker following media coverage of a series of recent sex attacks in the town's underpasses. "I've seen a gentleman who fits the description … I've had someone come near my underpass. He was dressed absolutely atrociously, he looked like Timmy Mallett."

The stunt has been met with public outcry and Brand has since apologised. Apart from the obvious concern over his making a prank call to the emergency services, Lynda Yorke, of Leicester Rape Crisis, described the joke as in "very poor taste". However, for the most part the audience seemed to lap it up. When the operator asked Brand about laughter in the background, he said he was watching The Bill on TV, provoking further guffaws.

So, is there a line to be drawn when it comes to comedy taboos? Not according to comedy reviewer Kate Copstick. "I don't believe there should be any no-go areas in comedy," she says. "I've never really been offended by strong material. At times I've thought it utterly brilliant in fact. I find arrogant or bullying comedians much more offensive than racist or sexist jokes."

With the Edinburgh Fringe about to kick off, Scotland is about to be overrun with comedians, many of whom will be willing to push the boundaries of good taste to the point where audiences are threatening to leave, squirming in their seats or vomiting into their handbags?

At last year's Fringe, Australian comic Brendon Burns blacked himself up, put a bone through his nose, sat in a wheelchair and mocked up a shot of himself nailed to the cross for his poster for his show, So I Suppose This is Offensive Now. He chose not to use an image of a woman giving him fellatio while crucified simply because, "it made the poster too busy."

Comedian Jim Jeffries was attacked on stage by an audience member last year who took offence to his comments about paedophilic grandparents, while Scottish comic Jerry Sadowitz was reviled by some in the 1980s for opening his show with the line: "Nelson Mandela, what a c**t."

And in 2004, Billy Connolly caused widespread offence when he joked about the plight of British hostage Kenneth Bigley in Iraq. Days before Bigley was executed, he asked a London audience, "Don't you wish they would just get on with it?"

Perhaps part of the reason that Connolly's joke was poorly received is that it's not actually that witty or clever. Comic genius he may be, but surely if he wants to address such a controversial topic, he should come up with something a bit, well, funnier?

"When I used to do a bit of stand-up, if I was dying up there on stage I found I just had to say 'fuck' and the whole audience was laughing wildly," says Copstick. "Swearing and using material that might be deemed offensive can be an easy option, but the bottom line is that it has to be funny. When you're not a good comic, it can sound gratuitous, and it's one of the mistakes that new comedians can make, thinking that taboo material will make them sound edgy. If you're going to use strong material, you have to be a strong comic."

And your audience has to have a strong stomach. But then if it's not your bodily-fluid-strewn cup of tea, then perhaps it's best that you just don't go along. It's unlikely that the members of the audience at Brand's show were expecting the most taboo joke on the bill to be a reference to farting. They got what they paid for – an eccentric recovering sex and drug addict in jeans tight enough to let even the back row know to which side he "dresses" spewing sex, drugs and rock n' roll with references to a local pervert thrown in for good measure. Wholesome family fun it was not, but for those in attendance it was almost certainly a great night out.