"Stop me if you've heard this before…"

It's the classic opening to a joke or funny story — but is it a line we're hearing a lot less these days?

Sorry, this audio has expired Shane Jacobson on the power of comedy

Actor and comedian Shane Jacobson is convinced Australians are losing the ability to tell a good joke, and he lays a big chunk of the blame on smartphones.

"I truly do think that joke-telling is a dying art now," he said.

"People now — and I'm guilty of it — go, 'Oh this is so funny' and they hand someone a phone. And then they go, 'haha' and hand the phone back.

"Raconteurs [is] not an expression that gets used anymore. And vaudevillian performers is where my passion is."

For an actor whose stock-in-trade is being the affable everyman, this apparent move towards memes is distressing.

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While Jacobson thinks "smart" phones have made us anything but, others have told him it's actually political correctness that's killing comedy.

Yet that's not something he puts must stock in.

"Different people have different limitations when it comes to eating as well, but we haven't stopped serving food," he said.

"Not only that, you can make it more palatable for everyone.

"I've always said no-one should be left to pay the bill of comedy. Everyone should get a chance to laugh.

"A perfect joke is one that everyone can enjoy and no-one feels like they're at the receiving end of it."

Censored comics?

Comedian and writer Ben Pobjie isn't convinced society is becoming more politically correct or that comics are being censored, but he said perhaps they were being more cautious.

"It's about taking more stuff into account when you think about whether a joke is funny," he said.

"Not all audiences are the same. Some lap up 'offensive' stuff, some hate it.

"Comedians have to be aware of who they're talking to at any one time."

For his part, Jacobson is working to revive the love of the well-told joke by releasing a new film-cum-documentary titled That's Not My Dog.

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The 87-minute feature is simply a gathering of more than 30 Australian comedians who play themselves and come together for a party and tell jokes.

It follows a loose narrative but is essentially just a joke-fest, with six cameras and more than 30 microphones set up to capture the free-wheeling group sharing stories.

"It's a salute to the dying art of joke telling," Jacobson said.

"Every joke you hear told in the film was told once — there was no 'can we go again, can we get just one more?'"

The film includes like likes of Paul Hogan, Jimeoin, Michala Banas, Fiona O'Loughlin and Steve Vizard and will get a very limited run in cinemas from March 15-18.