Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club management says there’s nothing funny about a decision by the TTC to ban one of its ads featuring a man wearing a shiny, skimpy pouch covering his private parts because of decency standards.

“We wish this was a joke,” Kyra Williams, vice-president of operations for Yuk Yuk’s, said in an interview.

“A woman can be shown in a bikini, but a guy can’t be shown in a Speedo?” Williams said.

“How is this any more risqué than a woman in a bathing suit?” Williams asked. “Or any lingerie ad campaign?

“A double standard at its finest.”

The rejected ad was intended to run on subway cars.

It features photos of a man wearing a shiny, gold pouch, roughly the size of a Speedo.

In addition to being displayed clutching the glistening pouch for his privates, the man is shown in various poses: holding an umbrella, preparing to hit a volleyball, preparing to grapple in a Mexican wrestling mask, and shivering in an ugly Christmas sweater.

Under the ad are the words: “Looking for the best comedy in the city? We’ve got you covered!”

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TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said the ad was nixed under Clause 14 of the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, which covers (no pun intended) “unacceptable depictions or portrayals.”

“The depiction of the man in the ad is unrelated to the product or service being advertised, unlike a woman shown in lingerie for what is, in fact, a lingerie ad,” Ross said.

Yuk Yuk’s Williams counters that the TTC now runs ads of a woman in a skimpy bikini to sell trips to the Bahamas, not her bikini.

“The woman in this ad is just as covered, if not less, than the man in my ad,” Williams said.

Ross argued that the Bahamas ad is selling sunshine and the beach, which makes a bikini appropriate.

Williams said that Yuk Yuk’s is selling comedy and the shiny skimpy pouch is part of the joke.

“They said we can resubmit it with a censor bar across his nether regions,” Williams said. “They said we can try that, but they didn’t say they’d accept it.”

Williams asked whether it’s any more provocative than the current 104.5 Chum FM ad campaign featured on bus shelters that shows a more buff man holding a sign where his Speedo might be.

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Ross said that bus shelters are managed by the city, not the TTC.

Williams said Yuk Yuk’s is heading back to the drawing board in hopes of drafting a humorous ad that it can put before TTC riders.

“At Yuk Yuk’s, we like to push the envelope,” Williams said. “We pride ourselves in the fact that our comics are not censored.

“And here we find ourselves being forced to gag, in the non-joking way, our creativity!”