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Sketch Comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in music hall in Britain and vaudeville in North America, today it is used widely in variety shows, as well as in late night talk shows and even some sitcoms. While sketch comedy is now associated mostly with adult entertainment, certain children's television series such have used it, too. The sketches may be improvised live by the performers, developed through improvisation before public performance, or scripted and rehearsed in advance like a play. History Sketch comedy has its origins in music hall and vaudeville, where many brief humorous acts were strung together to form a larger programme. In the 1890s, music hall impresario Fred Karno developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue, and in 1904 he produced a sketch called ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nightmare On Overwhelmed St 8-22-18 29
A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, Retrieved 11 July 2016. is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety, disgust or sadness. The dream may contain situations of discomfort, psychological or physical terror, or panic. After a nightmare, a person will often awaken in a state of distress and may be unable to return to sleep for a short period of time. Recurrent nightmares may require medical help, as they can interfere with sleeping patterns and cause insomnia. Nightmares can have physical causes such as sleeping in an uncomfortable position or having a fever, or psychological causes such as stress or anxiety. Eating before going to sleep, which triggers an increase in the body's metabolism and brain activity, can be a potential stimulus for nightmares. The prevalence of nightmares in children (5–12 years old) is between 20 and 30%, and prevalence in adults is between 8 and 30%. In common languag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambridge Footlights
The Cambridge Footlights, commonly referred to simply as Footlights, is a student sketch comedy troupe located in Cambridge, England. Footlights was founded in 1883, and is one of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupes. The comedy society is run by the students of the University of Cambridge. History Footlights' inaugural performance took place in June 1883. For some months before the name "Footlights" was chosen, the group had performed to local audiences in the Cambridge area (once, with a cricket match included, at the "pauper lunatic asylum"). They wished to go wider than the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club (ADC), founded in 1855, with its membership drawn largely from Trinity College, and its theatre seating only 100. They were to perform every May Week at the Theatre Royal, Barnwell, Cambridge, the shows soon open to the public. A local paper commended the club's appeal to the "general public, the many different classes of which life in Cambridge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Isherwood
Charles Splaine Isherwood Jr. (born October 1964) is an American theater critic. Career A graduate of Stanford University, Isherwood wrote for '' Backstage West'' in Los Angeles. In 1993, he joined the staff of '' Variety'', where he was promoted to the position of chief theatre critic in 1998. In 2004, Isherwood was hired by ''The New York Times''. He was fired by the paper in 2017, reportedly following public disputes with colleagues and correspondence with theatre producers that "violated ethical rules." In March 2017, Isherwood was hired as a contributor for the website ''Broadway News''. In 2022, Isherwood was appointed ''The Wall Street Journal''s theater critic, succeeding Terry Teachout, who had died on January 13, 2022. Personal life Charles Splaine Isherwood Jr. was one of four children born to Charles Splaine "Charlie" Isherwood and Patricia (McInerney) Isherwood. He is married to Ercument Kenger. References External links ''The Wall Street Journal'' hire is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benny Hill
Alfred Hawthorne "Benny" Hill (21 January 1924 – 18 April 1992) was an English comedian, actor and scriptwriter. He is best remembered for his television programme, ''The Benny Hill Show'', a comedy-variety show whose amalgam of slapstick, burlesque, double entendre and innuendo in a format that included both live and filmed segments, featured Hill himself at the focus of almost every segment. The BFI called Hill "the first British comedian to attain fame through television" and that he was "a major star for over forty years". Making his television debut in 1949, he appeared on BBC variety shows where he developed his Sketch comedy, parodic sketches and, in 1954, was voted television personality of the year. ''The Benny Hill Show'', which debuted in 1955, was among the List of most watched television broadcasts in the United Kingdom#Most watched programmes, most-watched programmes in the UK; his audience was more than 21 million in 1971. The show was also exported to over 100 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Bit Of Fry And Laurie
''A Bit of Fry & Laurie'' is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring former Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, broadcast on both BBC1 and BBC2 between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series with 26 episodes, including a 36-minute pilot episode in 1987. As in ''The Two Ronnies'', elaborate wordplay and innuendo were staples. It frequently broke the fourth wall; characters would revert to their real-life actors mid-sketch, or the camera would often pan off set into the studio. The show was punctuated with non sequitur vox pops in a similar style to those of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', often making irrelevant statements and wordplay. Laurie was also seen playing piano and other instruments and singing comical numbers. Broadcast details The 36-minute pilot was broadcast on BBC1 at 11:55pm on Boxing Day 1987, although it was later edited to 29 minutes for repeat transmissions (including broadcasts on the Paramount Comedy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alas Smith And Jones
''Alas Smith and Jones'' is a British comedy sketch television series starring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones that originally ran for four series and two Christmas specials on BBC2 from 1984 to 1988, and later as ''Smith and Jones'' for six series on BBC1 until 1998. A spin-off from '' Not the Nine O'Clock News'', the show had a brief run in the United States on A&E and PBS in the late 1980s, as well as on CBS in the early 1990s during their late-night block. History Background The show's development came after '' Not the Nine O'Clock News'' ended in 1982. Rowan Atkinson and Pamela Stephenson pursued their solo careers, while Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones decide to formed a double act. Their first appearance as a duo was in a short sketch in the BBC1 comedy special '' The Funny Side of Christmas'' in 1982, in which Jones played a stranger who annoyed hospital patient Smith to the extent that Smith's character walked out in rage, leaving Jones's character to enjoy Smi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Not The Nine O'Clock News
''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' is a British television sketch comedy show that was broadcast on BBC2 from 16 October 1979 to 8 March 1982. Originally shown as a comedy alternative to the '' Nine O'Clock News'' on BBC1, the show features satirical sketches on news stories and popular culture of the early 1980s, as well as parody songs, comedy sketches, re-edited videos, and spoof television formats. The programme features Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith, and Griff Rhys Jones, as well as Chris Langham in the first series. Format The format was a deliberate departure from the stream-of-consciousness comedy pioneered by ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', returning to a more conventional sketch format. Sketches were mostly self-contained, lasting from a few seconds to a few minutes, and often had a degree of naturalism in performance. The series launched the careers of several high-profile actors and writers, and also led to other comedic series including ''Blackadder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Two Ronnies
''The Two Ronnies'' is a British television comedy sketch show starring Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. It was created by Bill Cotton and aired on BBC1 from 10 April 1971 to 25 December 1987. The usual format included sketches, solo sections, serial stories, and musical finales. Their Four Candles sketch, first broadcast on 18 September 1976, was voted their funniest sketch in a television poll. In 2006, the British public ranked the duo number 6 in ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars. Origins Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett met in 1963 at the Buckstone Club in the Haymarket, London, where Corbett was serving drinks between acting jobs. At the time, Barker was beginning to establish himself as a character actor in the West End and on radio. They were invited by David Frost to appear in his new show, '' The Frost Report'', with John Cleese, but the pair's big break came when they filled in, unprepared and unscripted, for eleven minutes during a technical hitch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monty Python's Flying Circus
''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal humour, surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam, who became known collectively as "Monty Python", or the "Pythons". The first episode was recorded at the BBC on 7 September 1969 and premiered on 5 October on BBC1, with 45 episodes airing over four series from 1969 to 1974, plus two episodes for German TV. A feature film adaptation of several sketches, ''And Now for Something Completely Different'', was released in 1971. The series stands out for its use of Surreal humour, absurd situations, mixed with risqué and innuendo-laden humour, Visual gag, sight gags, and observational sketches without punch line, punchlines. Live-action segments were broken up with animations by Gilliam, often merging with the live action to form Segue#In film or broadcast news production, segues. The overall for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Not Only
Not or NOT may also refer to: Language * Not, the general declarative form of "no", indicating a negation of a related statement that usually precedes * ... Not!, a grammatical construction used as a contradiction, popularized in the early 1990s Science and technology * Negation, a unary operator in logic depicted as ~, ¬, or ! * Bitwise NOT In computer programming, a bitwise operation operates on a bit string, a bit array or a binary numeral (considered as a bit string) at the level of its individual bits. It is a fast and simple action, basic to the higher-level arithmetic operatio ..., an operator used in computer programming * NOT gate, a digital logic gate (commonly called an inverter) * Nordic Optical Telescope, an astronomical telescope at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma, Canary Islands Other uses * Nottingham railway station (station code NOT) * Polish Federation of Engineering Associations (''Naczelna Organizacja Techniczna'') * Not, Missouri, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Benny Hill Show
''The Benny Hill Show'' is a British comedy television show starring Benny Hill that aired on the BBC and ITV between 15 January 1955 and 1 May 1989. The show consisted mainly of sketch comedy, sketches typified by slapstick, mime, parody, and double entendre. At its peak, ''The Benny Hill Show'' was among the List of most watched television broadcasts in the United Kingdom#Most watched programmes, most-watched programmes in the UK, with the audience reaching more than 21 million viewers in 1971. In 1972, Hill received a BAFTA Television Award for British Academy Television Craft Award for Best Writer: Drama, Best Writer, and he was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance, BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance. In the late 1970s, the Thames Television edited version of the show gained a cult following in the United States, where it was broadcast in Broadcast syndication, syndication until 1991. In 1980 and 1981, the show received ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again
''I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again'' (often abbreviated as ''ISIRTA'') was a BBC radio comedy programme that was developed from the 1964 University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Footlights revue, ''Cambridge Circus (comedy), Cambridge Circus''., as a scripted sketch show. It had a devoted youth following, with the live tapings enjoying very lively audiences, particularly when familiar themes and characters were repeated; a tradition that continued into the spinoff show ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''. The show ran for nine series and was first broadcast on 3 April 1964, a pilot programme having been broadcast on 30 December 1963 under the title "Cambridge Circus", on the BBC Home Service (renamed BBC Radio 4 in September 1967). Series 1 comprised three episodes. Subsequent series were broadcast on the BBC Light Programme (renamed BBC Radio 2 in September 1967). Series 2 (1965) had nine episodes, series 3 (1966) and series 6 to 8 (1968 to 1970) each had thirteen episodes, whil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
