Dirty jokes in comedy are like gore in horror: No matter how explicit they get, fans always want more. Bathroom humor is for many the first forbidden laugh — and perhaps some of us never get over that thrill. Yet dirty jokes have such a long tradition that they also have the pleasingly familiar appeal of comfort food.

Another, more moralistic school of thought holds that smutty jokes are essentially sublimated hostility. “Under the mask of humor, our society allows infinite aggressions,” writes Gershon Legman, who compiled the biggest collection in his 1968 tome, “Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor,” a title so serious that it may be the funniest part of this sober, bizarrely obsessive book.

What’s notable about Mr. Oakerson’s act is how he works to avoid any hint of aggression. He rarely raises his voice and maintains an amused expression that never gets remotely agitated. He has a sneaky, gentle touch and stealth warmth. Whereas provocative comics like Doug Stanhope or Anthony Jeselnik have an antagonistic relationship with the audience, Mr. Oakerson has an old-fashioned ingratiating style that keeps close tabs on the mood of the crowd, doling out compliments, checking to see if a punch line went too far.

His act these days is almost exclusively crowd work, building jokes from conversations on the fly. It’s a smart move, partly because his assured relationship with the audience is stronger than his material. Stand-ups have traditionally looked down on crowd work, but that’s changing. Todd Barry did a tour and a special entirely built on riffing with the audience, and Judah Friedlander has mastered integrating his one-liners into structured exchanges with his audience. In an age when more and more comedians are studying and performing improv, it’s perhaps no surprise that some of the most popular club acts are killing with off-the-cuff material.

Mr. Barry creates slight tension with the audience through sarcastic gibes, but Mr. Oakerson, who looks more intimidating at first glance, defuses anxiety through his crowd work. He is not an insult comic. At the Stand recently, he asked a woman what kind of men she likes. She said Hispanic. When he pressed for more, she added that she liked tall men. His droopy eyes lighted up.