Alternative comedy is a term coined in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era. The phrase has had different connotations in different contexts: in the UK, it was used to describe content that was an "alternative" to the mainstream stand-up of the day which took place in working men's clubs, and was characterised by unoriginal gags often containing elements of sexism and racism. In other contexts, it is the nature of the form that is "alternative", avoiding reliance on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt has defined it as "comedy where the audience has no pre-set expectations about the crowd, and vice versa. In comedy clubs, there tends to be a certain vibe—alternative comedy explores different types of material."
Zachary Knight Galifianakis is an American comedian and actor. He is known for his role as Alan in The Hangover trilogy (2009–2013). On television, he starred in the FX series Baskets (2016–2019), which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2017. He also hosted the Funny or Die talk show Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis (2008–2018).
Comedy Central Presents is an American stand-up comedy television series created for Comedy Central. It is the network's main half-hour program which highlights either one or a series of stand-up comedians each episode. In 2011, the series ended and Comedy Central replaced it with the revamped The Half Hour, now called Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents, a series of 30-minute stand-up specials.
Cheap Seats without Ron Parker, or Cheap Seats: Without Ron Parker commonly shortened to Cheap Seats, is a television program broadcast on ESPN Classic and hosted by brothers Randy and Jason Sklar. The brothers appear as fictional ESPN tape librarians who amuse themselves by watching old, campy sports broadcasts and lampooning them. Produced by Mark Shapiro, Showrunner, Todd Pellegrino, James Cohen and Joseph Maar, Cheap Seats was originally an hour-long program. There were eight one hour-long episodes in the first season, all of which were edited to fit a 30-minute time slot.
Patton Peter Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His acting roles include Spence Olchin in the sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007) and narrating the sitcom The Goldbergs (2013–2023) as adult Adam F. Goldberg. After making his acting debut in the Seinfeld episode "The Couch", he has appeared in a variety of television series, such as Parks and Recreation, Community, Two and a Half Men, Drunk History, Reno 911!, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Archer, Veep, Justified, Kim Possible, Modern Family, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and We Bare Bears. He portrayed Principal Ralph Durbin in A.P. Bio (2018–2021) and Matthew the Raven in the TV series The Sandman (2022–present).
Eugene Boris Mirman is a Russian-American actor, comedian, and writer, known for playing Yvgeny Mirminsky on Delocated and Gene Belcher on the animated comedy Bob's Burgers.
Brian Posehn is an American stand-up comedian, actor, voice actor, musician, and writer. After numerous appearances as a television guest star, Posehn acquired his first major recurring role in HBO's Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995–1998). He is known for his roles as Jim Kuback on The WB's Mission Hill and Brian Spukowski on Comedy Central's The Sarah Silverman Program. Posehn had a recurring role on The Big Bang Theory as geologist Bert Kibbler.
Tourgasm is an American documentary television series that aired on HBO in 2006. The series follows the 2005 30-day 20-show stand-up comedy tour featuring Dane Cook and three of his best friends in the industry: Robert Kelly, Gary Gulman, and Jay Davis.
Wayne Federman is an American comedian, actor, author, writer, comedy historian, producer, and musician. He is noted for numerous stand-up comedy appearances in clubs, theaters, and on television; his book on The History of Stand-Up; and supporting comedic acting roles in The X-Files, The Larry Sanders Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Crashing, Silicon Valley, Legally Blonde, 50 First Dates, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Step Brothers. He was the head monologue writer for NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in its first season. He won a 2022 Primetime Emmy Award for producing the HBO documentary George Carlin's American Dream.
Blaine Harold Capatch is an American stand-up comedian and writer. He is best known for hosting Season 2 of the Comedy Central game show Beat the Geeks.
Scott David Aukerman is an American writer, actor, comedian, television personality, director, producer, and podcast host. Starting as a writer and performer in the later seasons of the sketch series Mr. Show, Aukerman is best known as the host of the weekly comedy podcast Comedy Bang! Bang! as well as the IFC original television series of the same name. Aukerman is the co-creator of Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis and co-founder of the Earwolf podcast network.
Harry Doupe is a Canadian stand-up comedian, producer, and writer from Fort Langley, British Columbia. He has performed shows at clubs, theatres, and arenas across North America. He was the first comedian to perform three times at Toronto's Air Canada Centre, MC-ing shows for The Tragically Hip on their New Year's Eve 1999 and New Year's Day 2000 shows, as well as opening for "Weird Al" Yankovic on his "Running With Scissors" Tour.
Human Giant is a sketch comedy show starring writer/performers Aziz Ansari, Rob Huebel, and Paul Scheer, and directed primarily by Jason Woliner. The show ran for two seasons on MTV. In 2008, the group was offered a third season and was reportedly developing a feature film with Red Hour Productions, but these projects did not transpire due to Ansari's commitments to starring in the NBC show Parks and Recreation. In 2010, Ansari, Huebel and Scheer reunited to do a skit for the 2010 MTV Movie Awards.
Punch Line San Francisco is a comedy club located at 444 Battery St in San Francisco's Financial District. It has a sister club in Sacramento, California, and is also associated with Cobb's Comedy Club, now in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. It is San Francisco's oldest running comedy club.
The club was originally a restaurant during the day and the backstage hangout for The Old Waldorf nightclub next door at night.
Funny or Die, Inc. is a comedy video website and production company owned by Henry R. Muñoz III that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme, and Chris Henchy in 2007. The website contained exclusive material from a regular staff of in-house writers, producers and directors, and occasionally from a number of famous contributors including Judd Apatow, James Franco and Norm Macdonald. The associated production company continues to make TV shows including truTV's Billy on the Street, Comedy Central's @midnight and Zach Galifianakis' web series Between Two Ferns.
Comedy Death-Ray is a two disc CD collection of highlights from the weekly comedy showcase Comedy Death-Ray, released on September 11, 2007, on Comedy Central Records. Disc one was recorded January 15, 2007, at Cobb's Comedy Club in San Francisco. Disc two was recorded at Comedy Death-Ray's twelve-hour fourth anniversary show September 30, 2006, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
Chunklet is a Georgia-based American humor and music magazine founded by Henry H. Owings in 1993.
The Pennsylvania Macaroni Company is a comedy EP by Patton Oswalt. The EP features all improv, and includes Brian Posehn, Eugene Mirman, Maria Bamford as guests on the CD.
Next! is an American sketch comedy series featuring former Saturday Night Live writer Bob Odenkirk. It was originally produced by 20th Century Fox Television in 2001. Two pilot episodes and a few extra sketches were filmed but the show was cancelled before airing. FOX ultimately chose to produce Cedric the Entertainer Presents instead of Next!
David Huntsberger is an American comedian, known as co-host of the Professor Blastoff podcast and host of the Reactor television show on the SyFy channel. Huntsberger is a frequent guest on the podcasts Alison Rosen is Your New Best Friend, Sklarbro Country and Doug Loves Movies. He has recorded three comedy CDs: Hello Robot (2005), Humanitis (2011), and Explosion Land (2013). He has appeared on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend and NBC’s Last Comic Standing. He has written for the television show The Benson Interruption on Comedy Central.
