Front-facing camera comedy is a comedic genre filmed on the front-facing camera of smartphones in which performers deliver in-character monologues while directly facing the camera, sometimes playing multiple roles. Early iterations of front-facing camera comedy went viral on Vine in the early 2010s, and now frequently appear on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram. [1] Notable practitioners include Cole Escola, [2] Chloe Fineman, [3] and Megan Stalter, [1] the latter of whom has referred to the genre as "solo improv". While it has become a defining form for some comedians, others use it to workshop material that will eventually be polished for use on more traditional platforms. [4]
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closure of live comedy venues and a subsequent "pivot" to front-facing camera comedy. [5] [6] In March 2020, New York Times critic Jason Zinoman declared it "the dominant comedy form" of the pandemic. [1]
The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imagined wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th century onward, the rise of illusionism in staging practices, which culminated in the realism and naturalism of the theatre of the 19th century, led to the development of the fourth wall concept.
The Cocoanuts is a 1929 pre-Code musical comedy film starring the Marx Brothers. Produced for Paramount Pictures by Walter Wanger, who is not credited, the film also stars Mary Eaton, Oscar Shaw, Margaret Dumont and Kay Francis. It was the first sound film to credit more than one director, and was adapted to the screen by Morrie Ryskind from the George S. Kaufman Broadway musical play. Five of the film's tunes were composed by Irving Berlin, including "When My Dreams Come True", sung by Oscar Shaw and Mary Eaton.
Cringe comedy is a specific genre of comedy that derives humor from social awkwardness and guilty pleasure.
The Sunset Limited is a play by American writer Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy's second published play, it was first produced by the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago on May 18, 2006, and it traveled to New York City later that same year. The play was published in a paperback edition about the same time that it opened in New York. Some consider it to be more a novel than a true play, partly because of its subtitle, "A Novel in Dramatic Form".
A studio audience is an audience present for the recording of all or part of a television program or radio program. The primary purpose of the studio audience is to provide applause and/or laughter to the program's soundtrack. Additionally, live studio audiences produce an energy off of which the actors can feed, as well as push actors to perform to the best of their abilities. Unlike relying on the ideal chuckles that a laugh track consistently provides, actors have to work for the laughs. A studio audience can also provide volunteers, a visual backdrop and discussion participants.
Jason Mantzoukas is an American character actor, comedian, writer, and podcaster. He is best known for his recurring role as Rafi in the FX comedy series The League, and as one of the three co-hosts of the podcast How Did This Get Made? alongside Paul Scheer and June Diane Raphael.
Impractical Jokers is an American hidden camera reality show with improvisational elements. Produced by NorthSouth Productions, Impractical Jokers premiered on truTV on December 15, 2011 starring the members of The Tenderloins: James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn, Sal Vulcano, and Joe Gatto. It also occasionally airs on TBS.
Edward David Pepitone is an American character actor and stand-up comedian.
A selfie is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or smartphone, which may be held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social media, via social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.
what. is a 2013 stand-up comedy routine and album by American comedian Bo Burnham. It is his first show following his 2010 comedy special Words Words Words. Like the majority of Burnham's live work, the show consists of musical comedy, prop comedy, miming, observational jokes, and the inversion of established comedy clichés. It received positive reviews.
Jason Zinoman is an American critic and author. He has written for The New York Times, Time Out New York, Vanity Fair, and Slate. In 2011, he published Shock Value, a non-fiction book about horror films. In 2017, he published Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night, a biography of David Letterman.
Netflix Presents: The Characters is an American streaming television comedy sketch show that premiered on Netflix on March 11, 2016. It features eight up-and-coming comedians, who each write and star in their own 30-minute show. The comedians featured in the show are Lauren Lapkus, Kate Berlant, Phil Burgers, Paul W. Downs, John Early, Tim Robinson, Natasha Rothwell, and Henry Zebrowski. Eight episodes were released on March 11, 2016. The following month, Netflix cancelled the series after one season.
Hannah Gadsby: Nanette is a live comedy performance written and performed by Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby, which debuted in 2017. The work includes social commentary, evocative speech punctuated by comedy and emotive narration of Gadsby's life, learnings and what her story offers to the world. In June 2018, Netflix released a video of Gadsby's performance of the work at the Sydney Opera House, directed by Madeleine Parry and John Olb. The special was well-received by critics, winning a Peabody Award as well as Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special at the 2019 Primetime Emmy Awards.
Taylor Elyse Tomlinson is an American comedian. She has released two Netflix stand-up specials called Quarter-Life Crisis (2020) and Look At You (2022).
Ziwerekoru "Ziwe" Fumudoh is an American comedian and writer known for her satiric commentary on politics, race relations, and young adulthood. She created the YouTube comedy show Baited with Ziwe and its later Instagram Live iteration, she was a writer on Desus & Mero from 2018 to 2020, and in 2018 she co-hosted Crooked Media's Hysteria podcast. Fumudoh stars in and executive produces the Showtime variety series Ziwe, which premiered in May 2021.
Television comedy 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.
Megan Stalter is an American comedian. In her videos, Stalter specializes in desperate, deluded characters who are prone to theatricality, frequent mispronunciations, and botched suicide attempts. "I feel like all my characters are people whose lives didn't turn out a certain way, but they're still trying to pretend like it did," Stalter has said. In 2019, she joined the cast and writing staff of the reboot of The National Lampoon Radio Hour. She is also the host of the webseries The Megan Stalter Show and the Forever Dog podcast Confronting Demons with Megan Stalter.
Hannah Gadsby: Douglas is a live comedy performance written and performed by Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby, which debuted in 2019. The show follows on the success of her previous show Nanette, which helped Gadsby expand her international audience. The show toured internationally, and a video of her Los Angeles performance of this show was released as a Netflix comedy special in May 2020.
Bo Burnham: Inside is a 2021 American special written, directed, filmed, edited, and performed by comedian Bo Burnham. Recorded in the guest house of his Los Angeles home during the COVID-19 pandemic without a crew or audience, it was released on Netflix on May 30, 2021. Featuring a variety of songs and sketches about Burnham's day-to-day life indoors, it depicts his deteriorating mental health and explores themes of performativity and his relationship to the Internet and the audience it helped him reach, as well as addressing issues including climate change and social movements. More light-hearted segments discuss online activities such as calling one's mother on FaceTime, posting on Instagram, sexting, and video game streaming.
Hannah Einbinder is an American comedian, actress, and writer known for starring in the HBO Max series Hacks, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2021 and has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 2022.