Comedy

Comedy is the use of humor in the performing arts. It also means a performance that relies heavily on humor. The term originally comes from theater, where it simply referred to a play with a happy ending, in contrast to a tragedy. The humor, once an incidental device used to entertain, is now an essential aspect of a comedy.

Related articles

Forms

• Stand-up comedy
• Alternative comedy - a largely British term relating to comedians in the ascendant throughout the 1980s and beyond.
• Improvisational comedy - though not confined to stand-up, it is commonly held in high regard on the stand-up circuit.
• Impressionists
• Sketch comedy - short comedy scenes as in contrast to sitcom.
• Television comedy and Radio comedy
• Situation comedy
• Comedy film
• gross-out film
• Parody film
• romantic comedy film
• screwball comedy film
• slapstick film
• splatstick film (sic)
• anarchic comedy film
• Comic novel
• Musical comedy
• Tragicomedy
• Dramedy (AKA Comedy-drama)

Styles

• Black comedy
• satire
• parody
• adage
• pretending to be stupid

Historical or theatre

• clown (see also krumping)
• Commedia dell'arte - historically, a form of improvisational theatre, chiefly from the 16th to 18th centuries.
• Farce - most often thought of as theatrical, but has been adapted for other media.
• Jesters - clowns associated with the middle ages.
• Vaudeville - comedy performed in theatres that declined as television ownership increased.

Definitions

• Comedian
• Comedy club

Comedy events and awards

• British Comedy Awards
• Just for laughs festival
• Melbourne International Comedy Festival
• HBO Comedy Arts Festival

Lists of comedy performers

• List of comedians
• List of entertainer pairs or double acts

by nationality

• Australian comedy
• List of British Comedians
• List of Italian comedians
• List of Finnish comedians
• List of Puerto Rican comedians

other

• List of Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time - Almost exclusively American.
• List of Dr Demento's radio show comedians

Lists of comedy programmes

• British comedy - article on British comedy and a list of British comedy programmes.
• Britcom - list of British sitcoms.
• List of British TV shows remade for the American market

Other lists

• List of comedies - theatre/radio/television and from France/Russia/Canada/Australia/UK/US