"I'm much better than you thought, ain't I?" Jim Davidson understands perfectly well the context of his fringe debut. He knows the festival isn't used to chauvinist, "blue" comedy. He knows he's swimming against the tide of standup fashion. And he loves it – his jokes gain charge from the shock delivered to our sense of propriety, so what better than an environment in which they're even more "unsayable"? Certainly, Davidson had many in his first-night crowd crying with laughter. Love or loathe his material, you can't deny he's a supremely capable comedian.
I can't bring myself to loathe it, even if it's mainly about "fat birds", fannies and knobs. Women in Davidson's comedy are considered only by their looks. More than one inspires a lurid simile about the condition of her pubic hair. Elsewhere, there's a section disparaging the "lowlife", Jeremy Kyle underclass and gags about deaf Paralympians not hearing the starting gun.
I'm not policing these jokes. They don't come across as malicious; far from it. And Davidson's delivery and infectious amusement are engineered to crank laughter, as he accelerates towards another old-as-Arthur's-seat punchline: "Book the wife in on Monday morning!"; "I beg your pardon, madam, but I can't think of anyone who'd fuck you twice!".
People here are held up for ridicule to the degree that they're different from Jim Davidson, something most of us have done from time to time. Whereas others rise above that impulse, Davidson wants to share and celebrate it. Elsewhere, the central section narrates his experience of arrest as part of Operation Yewtree. He's candid about how scary it was, and coyly floats the argument that Yewtree – Savile's crimes apart, presumably – is a witch-hunt that's out of proportion to the original offences. I left admiring his skill, and even his defiance of good taste – but the material's hard work.
• Until 25 August. Box office: 0131-226 0000. Venue: Assembly Hall, Edinburgh.
• News: Jim Davidson's Edinburgh fringe debut 'rounds off a nice year'
