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 A cliché ( or ) is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was consi ...

Analysis

British comedians

Richard Herring Richard Keith Herring (born 12 July 1967) is an English stand-up comedian and writer, whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring (alongside Stewart Lee). He is described by ''The British Theatre Guide'' as "one of the lea ...

and

Jo Caulfield Josephine Caulfield (born 26 September 1965) is a British actress, writer and comedian. Biography Born in Wales to Irish parents, she was brought up in Derbyshire and Leicestershire, England. At 17, Caulfield moved to London. For two years ...

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 Douglas Coupland (born 30 December 1961) is a Canadian novelist, designer, and visual artist. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller '' Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'', popularized the terms ''Generation X'' and '' Mc ...

claims that "it takes a good observational comedian to tell you what, exactly, is the 'deal'" with the phenomenon they are observing, and describes ideal topics for observational comedy as "those banalities and fragments of minutiae lurking just below the threshold of perception". Observational comedy has been compared to sociology.

History

Although observational comedy became popular in the United States in the 1950s, one author suggests that even much older jokes commented on human nature in comparable ways.

Shelley Berman Sheldon Leonard Berman (February 3, 1925 – September 1, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, writer, teacher, and lecturer. In his comedic career, he was awarded three gold records and he won the first Grammy Award for a spoken comedy reco ...

was one of the pioneers in the field. Other influential observational comics include

David Brenner David Norris Brenner (February 4, 1936 – March 15, 2014) was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author. The most frequent guest on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' in the 1970s and 1980s, Brenner "was a pioneer of observ ...

, George Carlin, and Jerry Seinfeld. A 1989 '' Los Angeles Times'' article wrote that Seinfeld is "clearly the standard of excellence in observational comedy", while Judd Apatow called Seinfeld "the greatest observational comedian who ever lived". The British observational comedy tradition began with the Irish comedian Dave Allen's performances in the early 1970s. More recently,

James Acaster James William Acaster (; born 9 January 1985) is an English comedian, writer, presenter and musician. As well as appearances on panel shows, he is known for the stand-up specials ''Repertoire'', co-hosting the food podcast '' Off Menu'' and co- ...

has developed a form of "uber-trivial" observational comedy, which has been described as a spoof of the traditional observational form.

References

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