American Comedy
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American Comedy
American humor refers collectively to the conventions and common threads that tie together humor in the United States. It is often defined in comparison to the humor of another country – for example, how it is different from British humor and Canadian humor. It is, however, difficult to say what makes a particular type or subject of humor particularly American. Humor usually concerns aspects of American culture, and depends on the historical and current development of the country's culture. The extent to which an individual will personally find something humorous obviously depends on a host of absolute and relative variables, including, but not limited to geographical location, culture, maturity, level of education, and context. People of different countries will therefore find different situations funny. Just as American culture has many aspects which differ from other nations, these cultural differences may be a barrier to how humor translates to other countries. General fea ...
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Humor
Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (Latin: ', "body fluid"), controlled human health and emotion. People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. Most people are able to experience humour—be amused, smile or laugh at something funny (such as a pun or joke)—and thus are considered to have a ''sense of humour''. The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humour would likely find the behaviour to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by personal taste (aesthetics), taste, the extent to which a person finds something humorous depends on a host of variables, including geographical location, culture, Maturity (psychological), maturity, level of education, inte ...
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Observational Comedy
Observational comedy is a form of humor based on the commonplace aspects of everyday life. It is one of the main types of humor in stand-up comedy. In an observational comedy act, the comedian makes an observation about something which is common enough to be familiar to their audience, but not commonly discussed. Such observations are typically presented with the phrase "Have you ever noticed...?" or "Did you ever notice...?" which has become a comedy cliché. Analysis British comedians Richard Herring and Jo Caulfield wrote in an article that observational comedy relies upon the fact that the observation is "universally familiar" but that it "won't necessarily have been consciously noted by your audience", arguing that the statements can be neither too obvious nor too obscure. Similarly, Eddie Izzard noted that a comedian's observations need to be relatable in order to be successful. Douglas Coupland claims that "it takes a good observational comedian to tell you what, exactly, is ...
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Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has also worked as a stand-up comedian and is ranked No. 10 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time. Murphy has received Golden Globe Award nominations for his performances in ''48 Hrs.'' (1982), the Beverly Hills Cop (film series), ''Beverly Hills Cop'' series (1984–present), ''Trading Places'' (1983), ''The Nutty Professor (1996 film), The Nutty Professor'' (1996), and ''Dolemite Is My Name'' (2019). He has also won numerous awards for his work on the fantasy comedy film Dr. Dolittle (1998 film), ''Dr. Dolittle'' (1998) and its Dr. Dolittle 2, 2001 sequel. In 2007, Murphy won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and received a nomination for the ...
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Lewis Black
Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion, or any other cultural trends. He hosted the Comedy Central series ''Lewis Black's Root of All Evil'' and makes regular appearances on ''The Daily Show'' delivering his "The Daily Show recurring elements#Back in Black with Lewis Black, Back in Black" commentary segment, which he has been doing since ''The Daily Show'' was hosted by Craig Kilborn. He was voted 51st of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time by Comedy Central in 2004; and was voted 5th in Comedy Central's Stand Up Showdown in 2008 and 11th in 2010. In 2015, he appeared as the voice of Anger in the Pixar film Inside Out (2015 film), ''Inside Out''. Lewis Black is also a spokesman for the Aruba Tourism Authority, appearing in television ads that first aired in late 2009 and 2010. He has served as an "ambassador for voting rights" for the Ame ...
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Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28, 1962) is an American comedian, political commentator, and television host. He hosted ''The Daily Show'', a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015 and now hosts ''The Problem with Jon Stewart'', which premiered September 2021 on Apple TV+. Stewart started as a stand-up comedian but branched into television as host of ''Short Attention Span Theater'' for Comedy Central. He went on to host ''You Wrote It, You Watch It'' (1992–1993) and then ''The Jon Stewart Show'' (1993–1995), both on MTV, until ''The Jon Stewart Show'' was retooled, dropped by the network and moved to syndication. He has also appeared in several films, including '' Big Daddy'' (1999) and '' Death to Smoochy'' (2002), but did few cinematic projects after becoming host of ''The Daily Show'' in 1999, where he also was a writer and co-executive producer. After Stewart joined it, ''The Daily Show'' steadily gained popularity and critic ...
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Jerry Seinfeld
Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for playing a Jerry Seinfeld (character), semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom ''Seinfeld'', which he created and wrote with Larry David. The show aired on NBC from 1989 until 1998, becoming one of the most acclaimed and popular sitcoms of all time. As a stand-up comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy. In 2004, Comedy Central named him the 12th-greatest stand-up comedian of all time. Seinfeld produced, co-wrote, and starred in the 2007 film ''Bee Movie'', which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. In 2010, he premiered a reality series called ''The Marriage Ref (U.S. TV series), The Marriage Ref'', which aired for two seasons on NBC. Seinfeld is the creator and host of the web series ''Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee'' (2012–2019). He is married to author and philanthropist Jessica Seinf ...
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Larry David
Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the television sitcom ''Seinfeld'', on which David was head writer and executive producer for the first seven seasons. He gained further recognition for the HBO series ''Curb Your Enthusiasm,'' which he created and stars in as a fictionalized version of himself. He has written or co-written the story of every episode since its pilot episode in 1999. David's work on ''Seinfeld'' won him two Primetime Emmy Awards in 1993, for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in a Comedy Series. Formerly a comedian, he went into television comedy, writing and starring in ABC's '' Fridays'', and writing briefly for ''Saturday Night Live''. He has been nominated for 27 Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. He was voted by fellow comedians and comedy insiders as the 23rd greatest comedy star ever in a 2004 Br ...
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Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began his career as a comic and a writer for Sid Caesar's variety show ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950–1954) alongside Woody Allen, Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart. With Carl Reiner, he created the comic character The 2000 Year Old Man. He wrote, with Buck Henry, the hit television comedy series ''Get Smart'' (1965–1970). In middle age, Brooks became one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s, with many of his films being among the top 10 moneymakers of their respective years of release. His best-known films include '' The Producers'' (1967), ''The Twelve Chairs'' (1970), '' Blazing Saddles'' (1974), ''Young Frankenstein'' (1974), '' Silent Movie'' (1976), ''High Anxiety'' (1977), ''History of the World, Part I'' (1981), '' Spaceballs'' ...
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Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing material for television in the 1950s, mainly ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950–1954) working alongside Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart, and Neil Simon. He also published several books featuring short stories and wrote humor pieces for ''The New Yorker''. In the early 1960s, he performed as a stand-up comedian in Greenwich Village alongside Lenny Bruce, Elaine May, Mike Nichols, and Joan Rivers. There he developed a monologue style (rather than traditional jokes) and the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish. He released three comedy albums during the mid to late 1960s, earning a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album nomination for his 1964 comedy album entitled simply '' Woody Allen''. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked A ...
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Jackie Mason
Jackie Mason (born Yacov Moshe Maza; yi, יעקב משה מזא; June 9, 1928 – July 24, 2021) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. His 1986 one-man show ''The World According to Me!'' won a Special Tony Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, an Ace Award, an Emmy Award, and earned a Grammy nomination. Later, his 1988 special ''Jackie Mason on Broadway'' won another Emmy Award (for outstanding writing) and another Ace Award, and his 1991 voice-over of Rabbi Hyman Krustofski in ''The Simpsons'' episode "Like Father, Like Clown" won Mason a third Emmy Award. He wrote and performed six one-man shows on Broadway. Known for his delivery and voice, as well as his use of innuendo and pun, Mason's often culturally grounded humor was described as irreverent and sometimes politically incorrect.Zeke Jarvis (2015)Make 'em Laugh! American Humorists of the 20th and 21st Centuries: American Humorists of the 20th and 21st Centuries''Make 'em Laugh! American Humorists of the 20th an ...
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Rodney Dangerfield
Rodney Dangerfield (born Jacob Rodney Cohen; November 22, 1921 – October 5, 2004) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, screenwriter, and producer. He was known for his self-deprecating one-liner humor, his catchphrase "I don't get no respect!" and his monologues on that theme. He began his career working as a stand-up comic at the Fantasy Lounge in New York City. His act grew in popularity as he became a mainstay on late-night talk shows throughout the 1960s and 1970s, eventually developing into a headlining act on the Las Vegas casino circuit. His catchphrase "I don't get no respect!" came from an attempt to improve one of his stand-up jokes. "I played hide and seek; they wouldn't even look for me." He thought the joke would be stronger if it used the format: "I was so ..." beginning ("I was so poor," "He was so ugly," "She was so stupid," etc.). He tried "I get no respect," and got a much better response from the audience; it became a permanent feature of his act and com ...
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Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which contained satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a Posthumous recognition, posthumous pardon in 2003. Bruce paved the way for counterculture-era comedians. His trial for obscenity was a landmark of freedom of speech in the United States. In 2017, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him third (behind Richard Pryor and George Carlin) on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time. Early life Bruce was Jewish, born Leonard Alfred Schneider in Mineola, New York, Mineola, New York (state), New York. He grew up in nearby Bellmore, New York, Bellmore, and attended Wellington C. Mepham High School. According to his biography, during part of his high school years, he lived at ...
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