Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolish (as in slapstick) or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comedian.

For other uses, see Comedian (disambiguation).
Comedian
Laurel and Hardy, one of the most famous comedy duos during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema
Occupation
Names
  • Comedian
  • comic
  • clown
Occupation type
Performing art
Activity sectors
Description
Competencies
Related jobs
Humorist

A popular saying, variously quoted but generally attributed to Ed Wynn,[1] is, "A comic says funny things; a comedian says things funny", which draws a distinction between how much of the comedy can be attributed to verbal content and how much to acting and persona.

Since the 1980s, a new wave of comedy, called alternative comedy, has grown in popularity with its more offbeat and experimental style. This normally involves more experiential, or observational reporting, e.g. Alexei Sayle, Daniel Tosh and Malcolm Hardee. As far as content is concerned, comedians such as Tommy Tiernan, Des Bishop, Kevin Hart and Joan Rivers draw on their background to poke fun at themselves, while others such as Jon Stewart, and Ben Elton have very strong political and cultural undertones.

Many comics achieve a cult following while touring famous comedy hubs such as the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, the Edinburgh Fringe, and Melbourne Comedy Festival in Australia. Often a comic's career advances significantly when they win a notable comedy award, such as the Edinburgh Comedy Award (formerly the Perrier comedy award). Comics sometimes foray into other areas of entertainment, such as film and television, where they become more widely known; e.g., Eddie Izzard or Ricky Gervais. However, a comic's stand-up success does not guarantee a film's critical or box office success.

History

Ancient Greeks
See also: Ancient Greek comedy

Comedians can be dated back to 425 BC, when Aristophanes, a comic author and playwright, wrote ancient comedic plays. He wrote 40 comedies, 11 of which survive and are still being performed. Aristophanes' comedy style took the form of satyr plays.[2]

Shakespearean comedy
See also: Shakespearean comedy

The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare wrote many comedies. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays.

Modern era

Modern standup comedy has its roots in the United Kingdom in 1850 music hall theatres, where Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, and Dan Leno first performed,[3] mentored by comedian and theatre impresario Fred Karno, who developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue in the 1890s and also pioneered slapstick comedy.[3] American standup emerged in the corresponding vaudeville theatre from the 1880s to the 1930s, with such comics as W. C. Fields, Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers.

Media

In the modern era, as technology produced forms of mass communications media, these were adapted to entertainment and comedians adapted to the new media, sometimes switching to new forms as they were introduced.

Stand-up
Main article: Stand-up comedy
Bob Hope

Stand-up comedy is a comic monologue performed standing on a stage.[4] Bob Hope became the most popular stand-up comedian of the 20th century, in a nearly 80-year career that included numerous comedy film roles over a five-decade span, radio, television, and entertaining armed service troops through the USO. Other noted stand-up comedians include Billy Connolly, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Jerry Seinfeld, Dylan Moran, Lee Evans, Patton Oswalt and Jo Brand.

Audio recording
Main article: Comedy album

Some of the earliest commercial sound recordings were made by standup comedians such as Cal Stewart, who recorded collections of his humorous monologues on Edison Records as early as 1898, and other labels until his death in 1919.[5]

Bandleader Spike Jones recorded 15 musical comedy albums satirizing popular and classical music from 1950 to his death in 1965. Tom Lehrer wrote and recorded five albums of songs satirizing political and social issues from 1953 to 1965. Musician Peter Schickele, inspired by Jones, parodied classical music with 17 albums of his music which he presented as written by "P.D.Q. Bach" (fictional son of Johann Sebastian Bach) from 1965 through 2007.

In 1968, radio surreal comedy group The Firesign Theatre revolutionized the concept of the spoken comedy album by writing and recording elaborate radio plays employing sound effects and multitrack recording, which comedian Robin Williams called "the audio equivalent of a Hieronymous Bosch painting." Comedy duo Cheech and Chong recorded comedy albums in similar format from 1971 through 1985.

Film
Main article: Comedy film
Charlie Chaplin in the film The Champion, 1915

Karno took Chaplin and Laurel on two trips to the United States to tour the vaudeville circuit. On the second one, they were recruited by the fledgling silent film industry. Chaplin became the most popular screen comedian of the first half of the 20th century. Chaplin and Stan Laurel were protégés of Fred Karno, the English theatre impresario of British music hall, and in his biography Laurel stated, "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie [Chaplin] and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it".[6] Chaplin wrote films such as Modern Times and The Kid. His films still have a major impact on comedy in films today.[7]

Laurel met Oliver Hardy in the US and teamed up as Laurel and Hardy. Keaton also started making silent comedies.

Fields appeared in Broadway musical comedies, three silent films in 1915 and 1925, and in sound films starting in 1926. The Marx brothers also made the transition to film in 1929, by way of two Broadway musicals.

Many other comedians made sound films, such as Bob Hope (both alone, and in a series of "Road to ..." comedies with partner Bing Crosby), ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, and Jerry Lewis (both with and without partner Dean Martin).

Some comedians who entered film expanded their acting skills to become dramatic actors, or started as actors specializing in comic roles, such as Dick Van Dyke, Paul Lynde, Michael Keaton, Robin Williams, and Denis Leary.

Radio
Main article: Radio comedy

Radio comedy began in the United States when Raymond Knight launched The Cuckoo Hour on NBC in 1930, along with the 1931 network debut of Stoopnagle and Budd on CBS. Most of the Hollywood comedians who did not become dramatic actors (e.g. Bergen, Fields, Groucho and Chico Marx, Red Skelton, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Judy Canova, Hope, Martin and Lewis), transitioned to United States radio in the 1930s and 1940s.

Without a Hollywood supply of comedians to draw from, radio comedy did not begin in the United Kingdom until a generation later, with such popular 1950s shows as The Goon Show and Hancock's Half Hour. Later, radio became a proving-ground for many later United Kingdom comedians. Chris Morris began his career in 1986 at Radio Cambridgeshire, and Ricky Gervais began his comedy career in 1997 at London radio station XFM. The League of Gentlemen, Mitchell and Webb and The Mighty Boosh all transferred to television after broadcasting on BBC Radio 4.

Television
Main article: Television comedy

On television there are comedy talk shows where comedians make fun of current news or popular topics. Such comedians include Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Graham Norton, Jim Jefferies, James Corden, John Oliver, Jonathan Ross, David Letterman, and Chelsea Handler. There are sketch comedies, such as Mr. Show with Bob and David and Monty Python who created their sketch comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus (a BBC show that influenced Saturday Night Live), and sitcoms, such as Roseanne, Only Fools and Horses, and Not Going Out, as well as popular panel shows like The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, Have I Got News for You, and Celebrity Juice.

Internet

Comedy is increasingly enjoyed online. Comedians with popular long-running podcasts series include Kevin Smith and Joe Rogan. Comedians streaming videos of their stand-up include Bridget Christie, Louis C.K. and Daniel Kitson. Many comedians publicize their work and build an audience through social media. An example of a comedian that gained their following through the internet is Bo Burnham. These comedians can be found on YouTube and especially Twitter.

Jokes

There are many established formats for jokes. One example is the pun or double-entendre, where similar words are interchanged. The Two Ronnies often used puns and double-entendre.[8] Stewart Francis and Tim Vine are examples of current comedians who deploy numerous puns. Jokes based on puns tend to be very quick and easy to digest, which sometimes leads to other joke forms being overlooked, for example in the Funniest Joke of the Fringe awards. Other jokes may rely on confounding an audience's expectations through a misleading setup (known as a 'pull back and reveal' in the UK and a 'leadaway' in the US).[9] Ed Byrne is an example of a comedian who has used this technique.[9] Some jokes are based on ad absurdum extrapolations, for example much of Richard Herring and Ross Noble's standup.[10]. In ironic humour there is an intentional mismatch between a message and the form in which it is conveyed (for example the work of Danielle Ward). Other joke forms include observation (Michael McIntyre), whimsy (David O'Doherty), self-deprecation (Robin Williams) and parody (Diane Morgan).

Personality traits

In a January 2014 study, conducted in the British Journal of Psychiatry, scientists found that comedians tend to have high levels of psychotic personality traits. In the study, researchers analyzed 404 male and 119 female comedians from Australia, Britain, and the United States. The participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire designed to measure psychotic traits in healthy people. They found that comedians scored "significantly higher on four types of psychotic characteristics compared to a control group of people who had non-creative jobs." Gordon Claridge, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford and leader of the study claimed, "the creative elements needed to produce humor are strikingly similar to those characterizing the cognitive style of people with psychosis—both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder."[11] However, labeling comedians' personality traits as "psychotic" does not mean that individual is a psychopath,[12][13] since psychopathy is distinct from psychosis, and neither does it mean their behavior is necessarily pathological.

Highest-paid comedians
Kevin Hart

Forbes publishes an annual list of the most financially successful comedians in the world, similarly to their Celebrity 100 list. Their data sources include Nielsen Media Research, Pollstar, Box Office Mojo and IMDb.[14] The list was topped by Jerry Seinfeld from 2006 until 2015, who lost the title to Kevin Hart in 2016.[15] In that year, the eight highest paid comedians were from the United States, including Amy Schumer, who became the first woman to be listed in the top ten.[16] The top ten of 2016 are as follows:[lower-alpha 1]

Rank Name Annual earnings (USD) Nationality Age Notable works
1 Kevin Hart $87.5 million United States 38 Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain, Ride Along, The Secret Life of Pets
2 Jerry Seinfeld $43.5 million 63 Seinfeld, The Marriage Ref, I'm Telling You for the Last Time
3 Terry Fator $21 million 52 America's Got Talent
4 Amy Schumer $17 million 36 Trainwreck, Inside Amy Schumer, 2015 MTV Movie Awards
5 Jeff Dunham $13.5 million 55 Spark of Insanity, Arguing with Myself, Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special
6 Dave Chappelle $13 million 44 Dave Chappelle's Block Party, Half Baked, Chappelle's Show
7 Jim Gaffigan $12.5 million 51 Jim Gaffigan: Mr. Universe, The Jim Gaffigan Show, It's Kind of a Funny Story
8 Gabriel Iglesias $9.5 million 41 Hot and Fluffy, The Fluffy Movie, Gabriel Iglesias Presents Stand Up Revolution
9 Russell Peters $9 million Canada 47 Red, White and Brown, Outsourced, Breakaway
10 John Bishop $7 million United Kingdom 51 John Bishop's Britain, The John Bishop Show, Panto!
gollark: No, it's AE2 stuff.
gollark: I prefer it to magic item-making boxes.
gollark: I don't like the crystal growth chamber.
gollark: Nope, not adding that.
gollark: You mean AE2 stuff?

See also

Notes
    1. The Forbes 2016 list appears to exclude people often regarded as comedians who are better known for other professions, despite having earned more than some in the list's top ten, including actors Adam Sandler and Melissa McCarthy, and late-night talk show hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon.

    References
    1. "Simpson's Contemporary Quotations, 1988". Bartleby.com. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
    2. Aristophanes. Lysistrata. pp. ix.
    3. McCabe, John. "Comedy World of Stan Laurel". p. 143. London: Robson Books, 2005, First edition 1975
    4. "'stand-up comedy' definition". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
    5. Ronald L. Smith, Comedy on Record: The Complete Critical Discography (1988), p. 624.
    6. Burton, Alan (2000). Pimple, pranks & pratfalls: British film comedy before 1930. Flicks Books. p. 51. ISBN 9781862360105.
    7. Sigler, Michael S (1 May 2001). "Charlie Chaplin Biography". Retrieved 2 December 2013.
    8. "Puns upon a time". Bbc.co.uk. December 24, 2010.
    9. Bennett, Steve. "Missing a trick : Correspondents 2010 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". Chortle.co.uk.
    10. "Richard Herring on Russell Howard's Good News Extra - Series 3". Youtube.com.
    11. Kelland, Kate (16 January 2014). "Comedians have psychotic personality traits, study finds". Reuters. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
    12. Suebsaeng, Asawin (18 January 2014). "Study Says Comedians Have Psychotic Personality Traits—Here's What Some Comedians Have To Say About That". Mother Jones. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
    13. Cooper-White, Macrina (17 January 2014). "Comedians Have 'High Levels' Of Psychotic Personality Traits, New Study Shows". Huffington Post. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
    14. Forbes (27 September 2016). "The World's Highest-Paid Comedians 2016". Forbes.com. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
    15. Berg, Madeline (27 September 2016). "The Highest-Paid Comedians 2016: Kevin Hart Dethrones Jerry Seinfeld As Cash King Of Comedy With $87.5 Million Payday". Forbes.com. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
    16. Desta, Yohana (27 September 2016). "Amy Schumer Is the First Woman to Land on Forbes' Highest-Paid Comedians List~". Forbes.com. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
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