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Two chicks are sitting side-by-side in the front row at a comedy special. They're both all dolled up. The comedian makes a point to pause, stare, and drink in both girls for a moment.
After enough time passes and enough tension builds, the comedian says, "Look. At. This. Stereo pussy. I love it."
The comedian? Andrew "Dice" Clay.
Was "Dice" doing crowd work, just being "Dice", breaking the comedian/audience barrier first, or what?
Clay saying something like this isn't the same as the tired bit of, "Where ya from?" or "Wadda ya do for a living?", but it's all still crowd work. And so is commenting on not hearing an audience member's distinctive laugh like Hedberg did on one of his albums. (Something similar happened to me at a show once.)
I don't think there's a black and white solution to this. If an audience member is being a prick, then it's fair game to humiliate him/her as the comic sees fit. But, if a comic actually has good material to start and wants to riff a little with the crowd during the set, what's the harm? Riffing doesn't have to be degrading someone else. I would imagine that comics sometimes feel in a groove and can really ad lib some good jokes in the spur of the moment. I just don't see this as an all or nothing type of solution.
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