Observational comedy

Observational comedy is a form of humor based on the commonplace aspects of everyday life. It is one of the main types of humor in stand-up comedy. In an observational comedy act the comedian "makes an observation about something from the backwaters of life, an everyday phenomenon that is rarely noticed or discussed." The humor is based on the premise of "Have you ever noticed?" (or "Did you ever notice?"), which has become a comedy cliché. "Observational humour usually took the form of long monologues of personal narrative, and the punch-line was either hard to predict or never came."

Overview

British comedians Richard Herring and Jo Caulfield wrote in an article that observational comedy "essentially involves saying 'Did you ever notice?' and then recounting something that will hopefully be universally familiar, but that won't necessarily have been consciously noted by your audience. If it's too obvious an observation it won't be funny (Have you ever noticed how buses always come in threes? Yes.) and if it's too oblique then it won't hit home." Eddie Izzard noted that a comedian's observations "need to be something that people can relate to, for the audience to pick up on it" in order to be considered a successful observational comedy act. Douglas Coupland writes, "Anybody can describe a pre-moistened towelette to you, but it takes a good observational comedian to tell you what, exactly is the 'deal' with them." He adds that observational comedy first of all depends on a "lone noble comedian adrift in the modern world, observing the unobservable-those banalities and fragments of minutiae lurking just below the threshold of perception: Cineplex candy; remote control units."

Observational comedy has been compared to sociology.

History

Observational comedy became popular in the United States in the 1950s. Although one author suggests that it "has never been particularly new. Even the more 'old-fashioned' jokes it supposedly replaced were often themselves disguised commentaries based on observing human nature." Shelley Berman was one of the pioneers in the field. David Brenner's "brand of observational comedy became a staple for other standups", like Jerry Seinfeld, who has been called "the master of observational comedy". Seinfeld's "brand of accessible, refined observational humor largely defined 1980s comedy." A 1989 Los Angeles Times article wrote that Seinfeld is "clearly the standard of excellence in observational comedy", while Judd Apatow called Seinfeld "the greatest observational comedian who ever lived". George Carlin was a significant figure in observational comedy since the 1960s and influenced Seinfeld.

The British observational comedy tradition began with the Irish comedian Dave Allen's performances in the early 1970s.

Notable observational comedians

• Dimitrije Banjac
• Carl Barron
• Shelley Berman
• Danny Bhoy
• Jo Brand
• David Brenner
• Bill Burr
• Sid Caesar
• George Carlin
• Jim Carrey
• Dave Chappelle
• Louis C.K.
• Dane Cook
• Bill Cosby
• Ellen DeGeneres
• Lee Evans (comedian)
• Craig Ferguson
• Jim Gaffigan
• Vice Ganda
• Bill Hicks
• Gabriel Iglesias
• Jim Jefferies
• Peter Kay
• Jay Leno
• Marc Maron
• Jackie Mason
• Demetri Martin
• Michael McIntyre
• Rick Mercer
• Sarah Millican
• John Mulaney
• Eddie Murphy
• Russell Peters
• Paula Poundstone
• Richard Pryor
• Brian Regan
• Don Rickles
• Joan Rivers
• Ray Romano
• Jerry Seinfeld
• Daren Streblow
• Yoo Jae Suk
• Chris Tucker
• Robin Williams
• Victoria Wood

Criticism of the term

Richard Zoglin considers the term "observational comedy" misleading because it is not "about politics or social issues or the comedian's own autobiography, but simply about everyday life."