Max Miller (comedian) - Censorship

Censorship

The laws on censorship were strict during Miller's lifetime. Those responsible for censorship were the Lord Chamberlain in London and local watch committees in the provinces. Miller's material needed approval by those bodies but by using innuendo., leaving out the last word or words of a joke, he could get away with much risqué and saucy material. But he never swore or told a dirty joke on stage.

In one of his acts he would take from his pocket two books, one a white book and the other a blue book, explaining to the audience that these are joke books and asking them which they would like. Invariably they would choose the blue book. The jokes in the ‘blue book’ were the naughty ones. One of these being:

I went skating the other week with a young lady on ice and we’d been going around for quite a while and she kept on falling down.
I said, “Have you hurt yourself?”
She said, “No, I’m sorry to spoil your fun.”
I said, “You’re not spoiling my fun. It’ll keep on ice.”

Or he would leave the last word out for the audience to finish and blamed them if they laughed.

When roses are red,
They’re ready for plucking.
When a girl is sixteen,
She’s ready for … ‘Ere!

He would then say, "I know exactly what you are saying to yourself, you’re wrong, I know what you’re saying. You wicked lot. You’re the sort of people that get me a bad name!"

It was said that Miller was banned by the BBC twice, the first in the 1930s and then in the 1950s. But these rumours only helped Miller's reputation as daring and naughty and lead to increased box office sales.