Dick jokes are as old as comedy, but few – Richard Herring with docu-comedy Talking Cock excepted – dedicate whole shows to the subject. Step forward Plebs and Friday Night Dinner star Tom Rosenthal, with an hour-long diatribe about his own diminished equipment. Rosenthal was circumcised as an infant, a gratuitous and abusive act as far as he’s concerned – and he’s got the research to back that victim complex up.

The resulting show packs a rhetorical punch and has laughs, too. Rosenthal takes a risk getting so het up on the subject, given that (as an academic he worked with is shown saying) we seldom take male circumcision – or the organ it affects – seriously. But het up he gets, leaving the conceit of the redundant foreskin in shreds. It is useful for sexual pleasure (giving and receiving), and sex without it is like watching a 3D film without the required specs. The medical benefits of circumcision are shown to be highly debatable, and easily secured in any case by, er, basic personal hygiene. (“Wash your dicks, guys!”)

Rosenthal knows that not everyone shares his views – several religions among them – and takes care to attack circumcision itself, not the cultures that practise it. But he does insist, with reference to witch-burning and slavery, that tradition is not a good enough reason to do a bad thing. The argument is made more compelling by his putting his own heartfelt experiences (teenage embarrassment; adult sexual inadequacy; the OCD circumcision may have caused) centre-stage.

As Rosenthal admits, the polemic can overshadow the comedy, and that comedy is often of the dick joke variety. But it’s still a striking show, raising questions and laughter in equal measure.

• At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 25 August.

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