List of sketch comedy groups

Last updated

This is a list of notable sketch comedy groups by country.

Contents

Australia

Belgium

Brazil

Canada

Estonia

Finland

France

India

Republic of Ireland

Portugal

Japan

United Kingdom

United States

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Kids in the Hall</span> Canadian comedy group

The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy troupe formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1989 to 1995, on CBC, in Canada. It also appeared on CBS, HBO and Comedy Central, in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graeme Garden</span> British comedian and actor

David Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish comedian, actor, author, artist and television presenter, best known as a member of the Goodies and a regular panellist on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sketch comedy</span> Series of short comedy scenes or vignettes

Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is used widely in variety shows, comedy talk shows, and some sitcoms and children's television series. The sketches may be improvised live by the performers, developed through improvisation before public performance, or scripted and rehearsed in advance like a play. Sketch comedians routinely differentiate their work from a "skit", maintaining that a skit is a (single) dramatized joke while a sketch is a comedic exploration of a concept, character, or situation.Sketch comedy is a genre within American television that includes a multitude of schemes and identities.

<i>Late Night with Conan OBrien</i> American late-night talk show (1993–2009)

Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am Eastern/11:37 pm Central and 12:37 am Mountain in the United States. From 1993 until 2000, Andy Richter served as O'Brien's sidekick; following his departure, O'Brien was the show's sole featured performer. The show's house musical act was The Max Weinberg 7 and led by E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Footlights</span> Amateur theatre and comedy group at the University of Cambridge

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 Cambridge University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenan Thompson</span> American comedian and actor (born 1978)

Kenan Thompson is an American comedian and actor. Thompson has been a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live since 2003, making him the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history. He was also the first regular cast member born after the show's premiere in 1975. Outside of SNL, Thompson starred on NBC's sitcom Kenan from 2021 to 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revue</span> Theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches

A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932. Though most famous for their visual spectacle, revues frequently satirized contemporary figures, news or literature. Similar to the related subforms of operetta and musical theatre, the revue art form brings together music, dance and sketches to create a compelling show. In contrast to these, however, revue does not have an overarching storyline. Rather, a general theme serves as the motto for a loosely related series of acts that alternate between solo performances and dance ensembles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark McKinney</span> Canadian actor and comedian

Mark Douglas Brown McKinney is a Canadian actor and comedian. He is perhaps best known as a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, which includes starring in the 1989 to 1995 TV series The Kids in the Hall and 1996 feature film Brain Candy. He was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 1997; and from 2003 to 2006, he co-created, wrote and starred in the series Slings & Arrows. He also appeared as Tom in FXX's Man Seeking Woman. From 2015 to 2021, he appeared as store manager Glenn Sturgis on NBC's Superstore.

The Hollow Men are an English sketch comedy group consisting of David Armand, Nick Tanner, Rupert Russell, and Sam Spedding. The Hollow Men is also the title of their TV show broadcast in the United States by Comedy Central. The show follows the kind of silliness from sketch comedy shows like Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Kids in the Hall. The six-episode series aired in early 2005. In 2006 they broadcast a BBC Radio 4 sketch show, also of the same name. The radio show was recommissioned and a second series was aired in September 2007, along with a special broadcast from the Edinburgh Festival. Both series also featured Katy Brand. The group performed extensively as a live act with shows in London, Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Montreal and New York.

<i>The Whitest Kids U Know</i> American television show

The Whitest Kids U' Know (WKUK) is an American sketch comedy show starring a comedy troupe of the same name. The group consisted of Trevor Moore, Zach Cregger, Sam Brown, Timmy Williams and Darren Trumeter, though other actors occasionally appeared in their sketches. They were accepted into the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in 2006 and won the award for Best Sketch Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Rivoli</span> Toronto club

The Rivoli is a bar, restaurant and performance space, established in 1982, on Queen Street West in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Boothby</span> Writer, comedian

Ian Boothby is a multiple Shuster Award, Harvey Award and Eisner Award nominee and an Eisner Award–winning comic book creator best known for his work as the lead writer on Simpsons Comics and Futurama Comics for Matt Groening's Bongo Comics. Boothby has written more Simpsons Comics issues than any other writer. He is a regular writer for MAD Magazine. He has also worked on various Canadian television series and is a well-known stand-up, sketch and improv comedian working in the Vancouver area. He co-created Free Willie Shakespeare for the Vancouver Theatresports League which won the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Excellence in Interactive Theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Bachman</span> English comedian, actor and writer

James Hamilton Bachman is an English comedian, actor and writer. He has written for and acted in many British television and radio programmes, including That Mitchell and Webb Look, Saxondale, Bleak Expectations and Sorry, I've Got No Head. In 2014, he had a small role in the film Transformers: Age of Extinction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Moore (comedian)</span> American comedian and actor (1980–2021)

Trevor Paul Moore was an American comedian, actor, writer, filmmaker, and solo comedy musician. He was known for being one of the three founding members—alongside Sam Brown and Zach Cregger—of the New York City-based comedy troupe the Whitest Kids U' Know (WKUK), who had their own sketch comedy series on IFC that ran for five seasons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Bird</span> English actor and comedian

Simon Antony Bird is an English comedian, actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing Will McKenzie in the multi-award-winning E4 comedy series The Inbetweeners (2008–2010), as well as its two films, and Adam Goodman in the Channel 4 comedy series Friday Night Dinner (2011–2020).

<i>All That</i> American sketch comedy television series

All That is an American sketch comedy children's television series created by Brian Robbins and Mike Tollin. The series originally aired on Nickelodeon from April 16, 1994, to October 22, 2005, lasting ten seasons, and was produced by Tollin/Robbins Productions and by Schneider's Bakery in season ten. The pilot episode was originally shown as a special "sneak peek" on April 16, 1994, with the show officially debuting as a regular series on December 24 the same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philly Improv Theater</span> Comedy theater group in Pennsylvania

Philly Improv Theater, or PHIT, is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania comedy theater which formerly presented shows at The Adrienne Theatre in Center City Philadelphia. The theater currently operates a training center with programs in improv comedy, sketch comedy and stand-up comedy. PHIT's most notable alumnus is stand-up comedian Kent Haines, who was the 2008 winner of the Philly's Phunniest contest at Helium Comedy Club and has appeared on public radio show The Sound of Young America and Season 4 of Comedy Central's program Live at Gotham. In addition to Haines, other comedians from Philadelphia who appeared on stage at PHIT have gone on to perform at major comedy venues in cities like New York and Los Angeles, founded their own theatre companies, and appeared in touring productions for The Second City.

StarKid Productions, also known as Team StarKid, is an American musical theatre company founded in 2009 at the University of Michigan by Darren Criss, Brian Holden, Matt Lang, and Nick Lang. Originally known for the viral success of their first musical, A Very Potter Musical, a parody of the Harry Potter series, the troupe primarily produces musical comedies inspired by pop culture, with original scripts, songs, and music. StarKid distributes their musicals for free on YouTube, with recent projects being funded by Kickstarter and physical ticket sales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beck Bennett</span> American actor and comedian (born 1984)

Beck Bennett is an American actor and comedian. Bennett was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live for eight seasons, joining the show for its 39th season in 2013, and leaving at the end of its 46th season in 2021. Prior to SNL, he performed in AT&T's "It's Not Complicated" commercials, in which he interviewed children, and produced sketch videos with the comedy group Good Neighbor. He also hosted the YouTube show Theatre of Life.

The UCB Show is an American sketch comedy series that premiered on December 3, 2015 via the Seeso comedy subscription streaming service. The series features members of Upright Citizens Brigade, an improvisational sketch comedy group. The cast includes Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh, the same actors that appeared on Upright Citizens Brigade, the previous show that aired on Comedy Central in the 1990s. The variety series features various sketches, characters and stand-up shows from the Upright Citizens Brigade theatres in Los Angeles and New York. The show is hosted by the original actors of the theatre and filmed in front of a live studio audience. The UCB Show was renewed for a second season, which premiered January 12, 2017.

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