Sketch comedy

Sketch comedy

A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting. Often sketches are first improvised by the actors and written down based on the outcome of these improv sessions; however, improvisation is not necessarily involved in all sketch comedy.

An individual sketch or vignette is a brief scene or skit formerly used in vaudeville and used today on variety shows, comedy programs, adult entertainment, talk shows, or certain children's television series (such as Sesame Street). Such a sketch can include footage of a "man on the street", pioneered by American television personality Steve Allen on evening comedy television programs like The Tonight Show.

More serious sketch comedians differentiate their art from that of the skit, maintaining that skits tend to be a (single) dramatized joke, while a sketch is a comedic exploration of a concept, character, or situation.

Contents

History

Sketch comedy has its origins in vaudeville and music hall, where a large number of brief, but humorous, acts were strung together to form a larger program.

In England, it moved to stage performances by Cambridge Footlights, such as Beyond the Fringe and A Clump of Plinths (which evolved into Cambridge Circus), to radio, with such shows as It's That Man Again and I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, then to television, with such shows as Monty Python's Flying Circus and Not the Nine O'Clock News.

Historically, the sketches tended to be unrelated, but more recent groups have introduced overarching themes that connect the sketches within a particular show, with recurring characters that return for more than one appearance. Examples of recurring characters include Mr. Gumby from Monty Python's Flying Circus; Ted and Ralph from The Fast Show; the Head Crusher from The Kids in the Hall; Martin Short's Ed Grimley, a recurring character from both SCTV and Saturday Night Live; and Kevin and Perry from Harry Enfield and Chums. The idea of running characters was taken a stage further with shows like The Red Green Show and The League of Gentlemen, where sketches centered around the various inhabitants of the fictional towns of Possum Lake and Royston Vasey, respectively.

In North America, contemporary sketch comedy is largely an outgrowth of the improvisational comedy scene that flourished during the 1970s, largely growing out of Chicago's The Second City.

Notable contemporary American stage sketch comedy groups include The Second City, the Upright Citizens Brigade and The Groundlings.

Other notable television sketch comedy shows include:

Films

This contains films with segments like a sketch comedy would do.

Festivals

Many of the sketch comedy revues in Britain included seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Since 1999, the growing sketch comedy scene has precipitated the development of sketch comedy festivals in cities all around North America, including festivals in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Montreal, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver.

Amateurs

Besides more professional, properly theatrical performers, there is also a tradition of amateur fun. There are many purposes: to entertain crowds, when no professional entertainment is available, sometimes with a mild hope of fund-raising.

See also


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Olde English (sketch comedy) — Olde English From left: Ben Popik, Raphael Bob Waksberg, David Segal, Caleb Bark, and Adam Conover Medium Film, theatre …   Wikipedia

  • Train of Thought Sketch Comedy — Train of Thought is a sketch comedy group located in Seattle, Washington. Made up of John Boyle, Ryan Miller and Kaci Aitchison, a feature of their stage revues is basing the show around a single word or phrase. [http://www.trainofthought.info/]… …   Wikipedia

  • List of sketch comedy groups — This is a list of notable sketch comedy groups by country. For the purposes of this list, groups that do not have their own article on Wikipedia are not considered notable. Australia * Australia You re Standing In It * BackBerner * Big Bite * The …   Wikipedia

  • Left of Center (Sketch Comedy) — infobox television show name = Left of Center caption = rating = TV NR format = Sketch comedy runtime = 25 Minutes starring = David Allen Jason Hardwick Alex Mangen country = USA first aired = 2006 Theatrical / Festivals last aired to date = 2007 …   Wikipedia

  • Comedy Corner — is a weekly student run comedy troupe at the University of Arizona in Tucson with roots going back to 1979. The core group consists of about ten regular writers and performers. Comedy Corner claims to be the nation s oldest weekly college sketch …   Wikipedia

  • Comedy Death-Ray — is a weekly alternative comedy show held every Tuesday in Los Angeles. CDR, as it is also known, was started by former Mr. Show writers/actors Scott Aukerman B.J. Porter, who also perform as The Fun Bunch. The first show was on October 1, 2002 at …   Wikipedia

  • Comedy Bang Bang — Hosting Scott Aukerman Language English Length 1 hour to 2 hour and 2 minutes Debut May 1, 2009 (Indie 103) …   Wikipedia

  • Comedy Nation — Genre Sketch comedy Country of origin United Kingdom Language(s) English No. of series 2 Production …   Wikipedia

  • Sketch — may refer to:Drawing and other visual arts * Sketch (drawing), a drawing or other composition that is not intended as a finished work, but a preliminary exploration. * SketchUp, a 3D modeling program. * iSketch, an online drawing game. * Sketch… …   Wikipedia

  • Comedy Club (Russia) — Comedy Club Logo. Also known as Комеди клаб Format Stand up comedy, Sketch comedy, Comedy …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”