Sketch comedy

"Sketch Show" redirects here. For the British TV programme, see The Sketch Show. For the Japanese band, see Sketch Show (band).

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.

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:

• 2DTV
• A Bit of Fry and Laurie
• Air Farce Live
• Alas Smith and Jones
• Alexei Sayle's Stuff
• All That
• Almost Live!
• Animaniacs
• Armstrong & Miller
• At Last The 1948 Show
• Banana Split (TV series)
• Big Bite
• Big Train
• Blue Collar TV
• Bo' Selecta!
• Bubble Gang
• Burnistoun
• Cedric the Entertainer Presents
• Chappelle's Show
• Chewin' the Fat
• Chocolate News
• CODCO
• Comedy Inc.
• Dead Ringers
• Double Take
• Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!
• Downtown no Gottsu Ee Kanji
• Dtmevolved
• Exit 57
• Fast Forward
• French and Saunders
• Fridays
• Full Frontal
• Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan
• Goodness Gracious Me
• Goin' Bulilit
• Haromoni@
• Harry Enfield and Chums
• Harry and Paul
• House of Venus Show
• Horne and Corden
• Human Giant
• Important Things with Demetri Martin
• In De Gloria
• In Living Color
• In the Flow with Affion Crockett
• Ispup
• Jam
• KaBlam!
• Little Britain
• Little Britain USA
• Little Miss Jocelyn
• Lokomoko U
• Lunch with Soupy Sales
• MAD (TV series)
• MADtv
• Michael and Michael Have Issues
• Mickey Mouse Works
• Mind of Mencia
• Monty Python's Flying Circus
• Moron Life
• Mr. Show
• Muppets Tonight
• Newman and Baddiel in Pieces
• Nick Swardson's Pretend Time
• Not the Nine O'Clock News
• Nuts Entertainment
• Olde English
• Paul Merton: The Series
• Planet Sketch
• Q
• Robot Chicken
• The Ronnie Johns Half Hour
• Roundhouse
• Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
• Sam and Friends
• Saturday Night Live
• SCTV
• SkitHOUSE
• Smack the Pony
• SMTV Live
• Snuff Box
• So Random!
• Spitting Image
• SuperNews!
• Talkshow with Spike Feresten
• That Mitchell and Webb Look
• That's So Weird
• The ABC Comedy Hour
• The Amanda Show
• The Benny Hill Show
• The Ben Stiller Show
• The Big Gay Sketch Show
• The Carol Burnett Show
• The Catherine Tate Show
• The Colgate Comedy Hour
• The D-Generation
• The Dana Carvey Show
• The Drunk and On Drugs Happy Fun Time Hour
• The Fast Show
• The Idiot Box
• The Kevin Bishop Show
• The Kids in the Hall
• The Mary Whitehouse Experience
• The Micallef Programme
• The Mr. Men Show
• The Muppet Show
• The New Show
• The Nighttime Clap
• The Peter Serafinowicz Show
• The Red Skelton Show
• The Rerun Show
• The Sketch Show
• The State
• The Tracey Ullman Show
• The Wayne Brady Show
• The Whitest Kids U' Know
• The Wrong Door
• Turkey Television
• The Upright Citizens Brigade
• The Vacant Lot
• This Hour Has 22 Minutes
• Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
• TV Offal
• Vermillion Pleasure Night
• Wayne and Shuster
• Wonder Showzen
• You Can't Do That on Television
• Your Show of Shows

Films

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

• Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
• Movie 43

Festivals

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

Further information: If.comedy award

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

• British Comedy Awards
• List of sketch comedy groups
• Nininbaori