dirty joke

Idioms  

1. A smutty story, as in Teenagers love to tell dirty jokes. The use of dirty in the sense of “obscene” or “indecent” dates from the late 1500s, but its application to a joke began only in the 20th century. The same sense also appears in such expressions as dirty book, for a pornographic book; dirty old man, for a middle-aged or elderly lecher; and dirty word or talk dirty, for a lewd, offensive expression or sexually explicit conversation.

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Example Sentences

The man is dangerous and clownish, boorish and fascinating, as crude as a dirty joke and as garish as a casino.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 31, 2023

Even when you expected him to tell a dirty joke, there was always some part of your brain thinking, Oh my God, that’s Danny Tanner!

From Washington Post • Jan. 10, 2022

But their relationship, which is backed up by recent Dickinson scholarship, isn’t treated as a dirty joke: it’s romantic and, eventually, tragic, an impossible dream in a world where women’s prospects are limited.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 18, 2019

But perhaps they weren't supposed to in a movie about the '70s as one long, un-PC, male-identified dirty joke, with Kenney as its brilliant, troubled provocateur-king.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 25, 2018

As usual, she looks plump and respectable, but for all her prim and proper, Aibileen can still tell a dirty joke that’ll make you tinkle in your pants.

From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett