No, you don't have to run it by an ethics board. Who taught you this? If what you were saying were true then just testing a joke at one stand-up event and test

No, you don't have to run it by an ethics board. Who taught you this? If what you were saying were true then just testing a joke at one stand-up event and testing a slight variation at a different one would require an ethics board. That's patently absurd.