Alternative comedy

Alternative comedy is a style of comedy that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and 1980s which would eventually go on to become mainstream in the 1990s and up to the present day.

Notable names and TV shows

Comedians from the era include:

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• Clive Anderson
• Jo Brand
• Arnold Brown
• Julian Clary (aka The Joan Collins Fan Club)
• Adrian Edmondson
• Ben Elton
• Harry Enfield
• Dawn French
• Stephen Fry
• Janey Godley
• Jeff Green
• Malcolm Hardee
• Lenny Henry
• Hugh Laurie (who, along with comedy partner Stephen Fry would claim he "slept through" most of the alternative comedy revolution)
• Josie Lawrence
• Rik Mayall
• Paul Merton
• Jennifer Saunders
• Alexei Sayle
• Tony Slattery
• Steve Steen
• Arthur Smith
• Jim Sweeney
• Sandi Toksvig
• Ruby Wax

TV shows from the golden age of alternative comedy include:

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• Alexei Sayle's Stuff
• A Bit of Fry and Laurie
• Smith & Jones
• Bottom
• The Comic Strip
• Filthy, Rich and Catflap
• French & Saunders
• Girls On Top
• Harry Enfield and Friends
• Jo Brand Through The Cakehole
• Just For Laughs (a series of programs filmed at the Montreal comedy festival of the same name)
• Not The Nine O'Clock News
• Saturday Night Live (UK)
• Terry and Julian
• Who Dares Wins
• Whose Line Is It Anyway?
• The Young Ones

Note: Many comedians in this list would argue against considering themselves "alternative comedians", perhaps because the term became somewhat odious in the early 1990s; however, these comedians either performed in what might be called alternative comedy clubs or appeared in alternative comedy television programmes.

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