Max Miller plays with Freud's obstacle: Innuendo and performance technique in variety comedy

This article examines the performance dynamics of the variety comedian Max Miller's use of innuendo. I argue that whilst Miller's use of sexual humour fits Freud's basic model of obscene tendentious jokes, his techniques go beyond the forms of wordplay, which Freud discussed and are firmly situated in the performance itself. I draw on the various live recordings of Miller's act, as well as contemporary criticism, the 'Little Kinsey' report into attitudes to sexuality, and theories of stand-up comedy and popular performance to analyse how stage persona and audience-performer rapport were central to conveying hidden sexual meanings.