Shock humor, judging from Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, and Dave Chappelle, is only funny if done with...wait for it...good timing. Timing is everything. When Wayne Brady was famously asking about having to choke a ******, it was funny because at the time, he was in all these wholesome shows. It also played on our ability to laugh at the absurd, because it was so clearly overplayed, but so well-done.

Howie Mandel was another master of timing. A woman got up to use the rest room at his show. He asked her where she was going. lol Then, when she left, he had them turn the whole stage a quarter turn (he was on a round stage), and had the audiences on both sides of the aisle get up and switch before she got back. When the woman came back, she was walking around like, wth?? for about five minutes before Howie stopped in the middle of his joke, and said, "You? Again? Where are you going this time?" Absurdity, and timing.

I would therefore say it can be ingenious, if done well.