We Say Bim

A comic explaining that his family was not allowed to swear sounds like the setup to an agonizingly gentle Sunday school set, but Steve Soelberg treats extreme household politeness like an escalating psychological test. The centerpiece of the routine explains why the word ‘butt’ was banned when describing a sledding accident—leading to ‘bum’ being vetoed because it sounded like sliding down a hill on a homeless friend named Gus, until his father settled on inventing the word ‘bim.’

Filmed at the Dry Bar Comedy club in Provo, Utah, the 36-minute set aired in 2017 as part of the platform’s inaugural run. A Seattle native who built his stand-up routine in Salt Lake City rooms like Wiseguys, Soelberg works with an easygoing, slightly bewildered cadence. He rarely raises his voice or rushes to punchlines, letting awkward silences do their part.

Aside from childhood linguistic bans, he spends time on the discomfort of receiving a professional massage as a gift, the social trap of accidentally mirroring a stranger’s accent mid-conversation, and the odd mechanics of falling in love compared to drinking from a juice pouch.

Dry Bar built an internet empire out of short clips carved from these early tapings, and Soelberg’s routine about family censorship proved to be one of the channel’s early viral fixtures. He avoids the preachy tone that often drags down clean comedy by focusing squarely on his own petty neuroses.