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In film, television, and radio, British comedy has produced some of the most renowned characters in the world. In it, satire is one of the features of Biritsh comedy. Radio comedy in Britain has been almost exclusively hosted on BBC.
"[Pulcinella] went down particularly well with Restoration British audiences, fun-starved after years of Puritanism. We soon changed Punch's name, transformed him from a marionette to a hand puppet, and he became, really, a spirit of Britain - a subversive maverick who defies authority, a kind of puppet equivalent to our political cartoons."
—Punch and Judy showman Glyn Edwards [1]
British comedy history is measured in centuries. Shakespeare incorporated many chase scenes and beatings into his comedies, such as in his play The Comedy of Errors . Punch and Judy made their first recorded appearance in Britain in 1662, when Samuel Pepys noted a "pretty" puppet play being performed in Covent Garden, London. [1] The various episodes of Punch and Judy are dominated by the anarchic clowning of Mr. Punch. [2]
Satire has been a major feature of comedy in the British Isles for centuries. The pictorial satire of William Hogarth was a precursor to the development of political cartoons in 18th-century England. [3] The medium developed under the direction of James Gillray from London, who has been referred to as the father of the political cartoon. [4]
In early 19th-century England, pantomime acquired its present form, which includes slapstick comedy and featured the first mainstream clown, Joseph Grimaldi, while comedy routines also featured heavily in British music hall theatre which became popular in the 1850s. [5] [6] British comedians who honed their skills at pantomime and music hall sketches include Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, George Formby, and Dan Leno. [7] [8] The English music hall comedian and theatre impresario Fred Karno developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue in the 1890s, and Chaplin and Laurel were among the young comedians who worked for him as part of "Fred Karno's Army". [7]
Radio comedy in Britain has been almost exclusively the preserve of the BBC. In the 1940s and 1950s, variety dominated the schedules, and popular series included It's That Man Again and Much Binding in the Marsh . In the 1950s, the BBC was running Hancock's Half Hour starring Tony Hancock. Hancock's Half Hour was later transferred to television.
One of the notable radio shows was the double entendre-laden Round the Horne (1965–1968), a sequel to the earlier series Beyond Our Ken , which ran from 1959 to 1964.
Later radio shows made use of the panel game format, including the long-running Just a Minute (1967–), I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (1972–), and The News Quiz (1977–), which often broadcast a dozen of so episodes a year.
Following the success of Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son , sitcoms became a part of some television schedules. The BBC has generally been dominant in television comedy, but the commercial stations have also had some successes. Other formats have also been popular, such as with sketch shows, stand-up comedy, impressionists, and puppet shows.
Notable satirical comedies are the 1960s series That Was The Week That Was , the 1980s series Not the Nine O'Clock News , and ITV's puppet show Spitting Image . The show of the 1980s and early 1990s, Spitting Image , was a satire of politics, entertainment, sport, and British culture of the era, and at its peak, it was watched by 15 million people. [9] British satire has also gone over into quiz shows; popular examples include the news quiz Have I Got News for You , 8 out of 10 cats , and Shooting Stars .
In the 1980s, alternative comedy was spearheaded by Ben Elton and The Comic Strip group, which included Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall, and French and Saunders. The 1990s and 2000s also have those that have used editing, surreal humour, and cultural references to great effect.
Punch and Judy is a traditional puppet show featuring Mr. Punch and his wife Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically the anarchic Mr. Punch and one other character who usually falls victim to the intentional violence of Punch's slapstick. First appearing in England in 1662, The Daily Telegraph called Punch and Judy "a staple of the British seaside scene". The various episodes of Punch comedy—often provoking shocked laughter—are dominated by the clowning of Mr. Punch.
Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such as saws and ladders.
Laurel and Hardy were a British-American comedy team during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). Starting their career as a duo in the silent film era, they later successfully transitioned to "talkies". From the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, they were internationally famous for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy's pompous bully. Their signature theme song, known as "The Cuckoo Song", "Ku-Ku", or "The Dance of the Cuckoos" was heard over their films' opening credits, and became as emblematic of them as their bowler hats.
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 foolishly, or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comedian.
Frederick John Westcott, best known by his stage name Fred Karno, was an English theatre impresario of the British music hall. As a comedian of slapstick he is credited with popularising the custard-pie-in-the-face gag. During the 1890s, in order to circumvent stage censorship, Karno developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue.
Linda Helen Smith was an English comedian and comedy writer. She appeared regularly on Radio 4 panel games, and was voted "Wittiest Living Person" by listeners in 2002. From 2004 to 2006 she was head of the British Humanist Association.
Radio comedy, or comedic radio programming, is a radio broadcast that may involve variety show, sitcom elements, sketches, and various types of comedy found in other media. It may also include more surreal or fantastic elements, as these can be conveyed on a small budget with just a few sound effects or some simple dialogue. Radio comedy began in the United States in 1930, based on the fact that as most United Kingdom music hall comedians such as Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel progressed to silent films, they moved to Hollywood and fed the radio comedy field. Another British music hall comic, George Formby, stayed in the British movie industry, and in 1940 joined the Entertainments National Service Association to entertain British World War II troops. UK radio comedy therefore started later, in the 1950s.
British humour carries a strong element of satire aimed at the absurdity of everyday life. Common themes include sarcasm, tongue-in-cheek, banter, insults, self-deprecation, taboo subjects, puns, innuendo, wit, and the British class system. These are often accompanied by a deadpan delivery which is present throughout the British sense of humour. It may be used to bury emotions in a way that seems unkind in the eyes of other cultures. Jokes are told about everything and almost no subject is off-limits, though a lack of subtlety when discussing controversial issues is sometimes considered insensitive. Many British comedy series have become successful internationally, serving as a representation of British culture to overseas audiences.
A double act is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act, often highlighting differences in their characters' personalities. Pairings are typically long-term, in some cases for the artists' entire careers. Double acts perform on the stage, television and film.
Stan Laurel was an English comic actor, writer and film director who was one half of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy in 107 short films, feature films and cameo roles.
Stephen Mark Punt is a British comedy writer, comedian and actor. Along with Hugh Dennis, he is part of the double act Punt and Dennis and was presenter of BBC Radio 4 satirical news programme The Now Show. He is also a writer and programme associate for various television panel game shows, including Would I Lie to You? and Mock the Week, and is a writer for fellow comedians such as Rory Bremner and Jasper Carrott.
Silent comedy is a style of film, related to but distinct from mime, invented to bring comedy into the medium of film in the silent film era (1900s–1920s) before a synchronized soundtrack which could include talking was technologically available for the majority of films. Silent comedy is still practiced, albeit much less frequently, and it has influenced comedy in modern media as well.
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.
Miles Hugh Barrett Jupp is an English actor, singer, and comedian. He began his career as a stand-up comedian before playing the role of the inventor Archie in the children's television series Balamory. He also played John Duggan in The Thick of It, Nigel in the sitcom Rev and appeared on many comedy panel shows. Between 2015 and 2019, Jupp was the host of The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4, replacing Sandi Toksvig.
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term originated in ancient Greece: In Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses which engender dramatic irony, which provokes laughter.
Chris England is an English writer and actor. He is best known for the comedy play An Evening with Gary Lineker, which he wrote with Arthur Smith, and the book Balham to Bollywood.
American comedy films are comedy films produced in the United States. The genre is one of the oldest in American cinema; some of the first silent movies were comedies, as slapstick comedy often relies on visual depictions, without requiring sound. With the advent of sound in the late 1920s and 1930s, comedic dialogue rose in prominence in the work of film comedians such as W. C. Fields and the Marx Brothers. By the 1950s, the television industry had become serious competition for the movie industry. The 1960s saw an increasing number of broad, star-packed comedies. In the 1970s, black comedies were popular. Leading figures in the 1970s were Woody Allen and Mel Brooks. One of the major developments of the 1990s was the re-emergence of the romantic comedy film. Another development was the increasing use of "gross-out humour".
Television comedy was/is a category of broadcasting that has been present since the early days of entertainment media. While there are several genres of comedy, some of the first ones aired were variety shows. One of the first United States television programs was the comedy-variety show Texaco Star Theater, which was most prominent in the years that it featured Milton Berle - from 1948 to 1956. The range of television comedy has become broader, with the addition of sitcoms, improvisational comedy, and stand-up comedy, while also adding comedic aspects into other television genres, including drama and news. Television comedy provides opportunities for viewers to relate the content in these shows to society. Some audience members may have similar views about certain comedic aspects of shows, while others will take different perspectives. This also relates to developing new social norms, sometimes acting as the medium that introduces these transitions.
Walter Groves (1856–1906) was a British actor, comedian, music hall artist, and writer of the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras.
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