Low comedy, or lowbrow humor, is a type of comedy that is a form of popular entertainment without any primary purpose other than to create laughter through boasting, boisterous jokes, drunkenness, scolding, fighting, buffoonery and other riotous activity. It is characterized by "horseplay", slapstick or farce. Examples include the throwing of a custard pie into someone's face. The definition has expanded to include obvious physical jokes, such as the wedgie.
Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage and delivers humorous and satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical acts. These performances are typically composed of rehearsed scripts but often include varying degrees of live crowd interaction. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, observations, or shticks that can employ props, music, impressions, magic tricks, or ventriloquism.
Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss. Writers and comedians often use it as a tool for exploring vulgar issues by provoking discomfort, serious thought, and amusement for their audience. Thus, in fiction, for example, the term black comedy can also refer to a genre in which dark humor is a core component. Cartoonist Charles Addams was famous for such humor, e.g. depicting a boy decorating his bedroom with stolen warning signs including "NO DIVING – POOL EMPTY", "STOP – BRIDGE OUT" and "SPRING CONDEMNED."
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.
Ribaldry or blue comedy is humorous entertainment that ranges from bordering on indelicacy to indecency. Blue comedy is also referred to as "bawdiness" or being "bawdy". Like any humour, ribaldry may be read as conventional or subversive. Ribaldry typically depends on a shared background of sexual conventions and values, and its comedy generally depends on seeing those conventions broken.
John Elroy Sanford, better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Foxx gained success with his raunchy nightclub act before and during the civil rights movement. Known as the "King of the Party Records", he performed on more than 50 records in his lifetime. He portrayed Fred G. Sanford on the television show Sanford and Son and starred in The Redd Foxx Show and The Royal Family, where he played the husband of Della Reese and grandfather of Larenz Tate.
B3ta is a popular British website, described as a "puerile digital arts community" by The Guardian. It was founded in 2001 by Rob Manuel, Denise Wilton and Cal Henderson.
"The Aristocrats" is a taboo-defying, off-color joke that has been told by numerous stand-up comedians and dates back to the vaudeville era. It relates the story of a family trying to get an agent to book their stage act, which is remarkably vulgar and offensive. The punch line reveals that they incongruously bill themselves as "The Aristocrats". When told to audiences who know the punch line, the joke's humor depends on the described outrageousness of the family act. Because the objective of the joke is its transgressive content, it is most often told privately, such as by comedians to other comedians.
Johnny Brown was an American actor, comedian and singer. He was most famous for his role as building superintendent Nathan Bookman on the 1970s CBS sitcom, Good Times. Brown portrayed Bookman until the series was cancelled in 1979.
LaWanda Page was an American actress, comedian and dancer whose career spanned six decades. Crowned "The Queen of Comedy" or "The Black Queen of Comedy", Page melded blue humor, signifyin' and observational comedy with jokes about sexuality, race relations, African-American culture and religion. She released five solo albums, including the 1977 gold-selling Watch It, Sucker!, and collaborated on two albums with the comedy group Skillet, Leroy & Co. As an actress, Page is best known for portraying the Bible-toting and sharp-tongued Esther Anderson on the popular television sitcom Sanford and Son, which aired from 1972 until 1977. Page reprised the role in the short-lived television shows Sanford Arms (1976–1977) and Sanford (1980–1981). She also costarred in the 1979 short-lived series Detective School. Throughout her career, Page advocated for fair pay and equal opportunities for black performers.
Murray Langston, who frequently performed using the stage name "The Unknown Comic", is a Canadian actor and stand-up comedian best known for his performances on The Gong Show, during which he usually appeared with a paper bag over his head.
Melvin Edward "Slappy" White was an American comedian and actor. He worked with Redd Foxx on the Chitlin' Circuit of stand-up comedy during the 1950s and 1960s. He appeared on the television shows Sanford and Son, That's My Mama, Blossom, and Cybill and in the films Mr. Saturday Night and Amazon Women on the Moon.
Mariann Aalda is an American television, stage, film actress, performance artist, and stand-up comic.
Comedy is a genre 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.
Craps (After Hours) is the second album by American comedian Richard Pryor, released in 1971 on the Laff Records label.
Talk of the Town was a short lived comedy and talk show performed at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1982 and aired on cable television. Directed by Doug Raymond and hosted by comedian Jaye P. Morgan, Talk of the Town was primarily a talk-show in which some guests performed short stand-up comedy routines before joining a panel. Other guests simply joined the panel for discussion of their personal lives and careers. Discussion often included sexually oriented jokes, insults and gossip with Morgan and her co-host comedian Pat Cooper.
Norman... Is That You? is a 1976 American comedy film directed by George Schlatter and starring Redd Foxx and Pearl Bailey. It is based on the play Norman, Is That You? The film version changes the locale from New York City to Los Angeles and substitutes an African American family for a Jewish family in the original play.
Karlous Bernard Miller is an American comedian, actor and rapper. He began his comedy career in Atlanta, Georgia and is widely known for his successful podcast/comedy tour The 85 South Show, along with being a cast member on MTV's comedy improv series, Wild 'n Out and his notorious "Wildstyle" battles with fellow cast member, D.C. Young Fly and Chico Bean.
Clean comedy is a comedy genre that is generally free of ribaldry: racism, rape jokes, pejoratives, profanity, obscenity, incest, illicit drugs, off-color humor, toilet humor, explicitly sexual content, and similarly objectionable material. Comedians may try to circumvent clean-comedy restrictions by using innuendos, euphemisms, doublespeak, double entendres, and gender-neutral language. Clean comedy is not necessarily unprovocative.
Modern stand-up comedy began around the turn of the century, evolving from a variety of sources including minstrel shows and vaudeville. Early stand-up comedians spoke directly to the audience as themselves without props or costumes, which distinguished these acts from vaudeville performances. These comics stood in front of the curtain during their shows, like early 20th century "front cloth" stand-up comics in Britain and Ireland whose numbers allowed the stage behind them to be re-set for another act.
