STAND-UP COMEDY

Stand-up Comedy

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to talk about the history of American stand-up comedy and its impact on politics and culture of America. The paper first f all describes the definition of the stand-up comedy. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines stand-up as "a comedian who performs by standing in front of an audience and telling jokes." After describing the definition of the stand-up comedy, the paper makes an attempt to describe the influence of stand-up comedy from variegated aspects. The paper mentions the influence of stand-up comedy on culture, race and politics. After that different influential and famous stand-up comedians are discussed in detail.

Standup Comedy in 1970

Introduction

The stand-up comedy is a style of comedy in which the comedian goes directly to a live audience. This is a comedy show in which a comedian informally, without fittings, without disguise, tells jokes often inspired by everyday life. The show is performed on a stage so; the show appears as improvised as possible. Its success depends in particular on the talent of comedian for spontaneity. The purpose of the stand-up is to evoke the daily life issues in an offset manner with a sense of observation that allows the viewer to identify with the artist. Ethnicity and denominational comedians are often a basis for it. To support, to divert the stereotypes and clichés that imply origins. In the U.S, black and Jewish communities are known to have given many famous artists, like Jerry Seinfeld, Woody Allen and Richard Pryor. Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock were also started in this exercise. Among the first generation, of stand-up comic, some of the important names are Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, Miles Bennett and Dick Gregory. The aim of this paper is to talks about standup comedy during the period of seventies and its role in influencing on American culture, politics and television.

Influence of Standup Comedy

Stand-up and sketch comedy are fairly recent phenomena in the landscape of American performance. In 1966, the first definitions of stand-up comedy appeared in both Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary (Limon, 126). The New Oxford American Dictionary defines stand-up as "a comedian who performs by standing in front of an audience and telling jokes." Conventionally, stand-up comedy consists of one solo performer who tells jokes and humorous stories with no set or props and addresses the audience directly (Auslander, 1997).

With the exception, of comedians like Dame Edna who clearly play characters, stand-up comedians live in an ambiguous space between character and themselves: as John Limon states, "comedians are not allowed to be either natural or artificial. (Are they acting? Are they in costume?)". This ambiguity of identity is instrumental in both the appeal of stand- up comedy and in its subversive power (Banning, 2004).

The fact that these comedians belong to minority ethnic groups provides further complication. Minority performers are often unwillingly given the status as "spokespersons" for their respective ethnic groups; this idea warrants a discussion of the colonial systems of power that these artists attempt ...