American humor

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American humor refers collectively to the conventions and common threads that tie together

Canadian humor
. It is, however, difficult to say what makes a particular type or subject of humor particularly American. Humor usually concerns aspects of American
geographical location, culture, maturity, level of education, and context. People of different countries will therefore find different situations funny. Just as American culture has many aspects which differ from other nations,[1]
these cultural differences may be a barrier to how humor translates to other countries.

General features

Themes

One leading analysis of American humor, the 1931 book

practical jokes, was ingenuous, sly, perhaps uneducated. She reports that American comedy sprang forth after the American Revolution, when the country was "freed from the worry of self preservation" and its citizens began to regard themselves as "works of art".[2]

Types of humor

American humor might also be distinguished by its most common type of

humor, for example, more slapstick and physical comedy. There is less emphasis on understatement
, and so the humor tends to be more open, rather than satirizing the social system through exaggeration.

American humor prefers more observational techniques. However, the style of observational humor (while not exclusively American) is very much a staple of the American style of humor since it seeks to point out the aspects of American culture and social discourse which are obvious while at the same time highlighting their ridiculousness.

Sources

The United States has many diverse groups from which to draw on for humorous material. The strongest of these influences, during the 20th century at least, has been the influx of

The Marx Brothers, Lenny Bruce, Rodney Dangerfield, Jackie Mason, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, and Lewis Black
are a few examples. In the latter half of the 20th century, comedy from the United States saw its African-American comedians come to the forefront. With exposure stemming from TV shows such as The Jeffersons, Saturday Night Live and The Cosby Show, black comedians became household names. During the eighties and nineties, Eddie Murphy and Bill Cosby were two of the most popular American comedians exported around the globe.

Literature

The earliest example of deliberate, skillful and sustained comedy and satire in American literature is 1637's "New English Canaan" by Thomas Morton of Merrymount, who devoted chapters and poems to his wry observations of Native people and English Puritan colonists alike, including a witty comparison of their cultural values that produced surprising and disturbing answers. A second example is Benjamin Church's "Entertaining Passages from King Philip's War" (1680s editions, Richard Slotkin, ed.), in which a seasoned frontiersman and friend of Native New Englanders observes the foolish tactics and needless tragedies of the conflict.

By the 1830s, regional humor became popular across the US, with examples like Augustus Baldwin Longstreet's Georgia Scenes (1835) from the South[3] and Seba Smith's Major Jack Downing series (1830-1850s) from New England.[4] Smith was influenced by earlier works by John Neal exhibiting Maine and New England accents and cultural references.[5]

Later in the nineteenth century, Ernest Hemingway credited Mark Twain as the 'founding father' of American humor.[citation needed] Twain remained conscious of his humor's relationship with European counterparts, commenting in 1897 that, "The humorous story is American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the comic story and the witty story upon the matter."[6]

This early definition puts emphasis on the performance orientation of American humor, and thereby necessarily the performer her/himself. Indeed, in his time on the lecture circuit Twain essentially 'performed' many of his works, most notably "The American Vandal Abroad"

Lyceum Movement before the publication of his breakthrough work The Innocents Abroad. Thus, at the root of American humor is the very concept of stand-up comedy
itself, and the shift from textual means of conveying humor to that of performance and performer.

His value notwithstanding, Twain represents only one strain of humor in the United States. Another famous American humorist of the 19th century was

SJ Perelman and Robert Benchley. In more recent times popular writers of American humor include P. J. O'Rourke, Louis (L) Harding, Erma Bombeck, and Dave Barry
.

There has also been a history of using humor in children's books, sometimes using rhymed text. Popular choices include Dr. Seuss and Ogden Nash.

Cartoons, magazines and animation

American

Charles Schulz, Berkeley Breathed, Gary Larson, Walt Kelly, Johnny Hart, Bill Watterson
, and others.

U.S. humor magazines of note include Mad, Humbug, Trump and Help!, as well as National Lampoon and Spy magazine.

National Lampoon began in 1970 as an offshoot of the

Harvard Lampoon. The magazine regularly skewered popular culture, the counterculture and politics. The magazine was at its height in the 1970s, and its influence spread to films and comedy programs. In the mid-1970s, some of the magazine's contributors left to join the NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live
(SNL). The magazine stopped publication in 1998, but films and other programs attributed to "National Lampoon" continue.

In the 20th-century, film allowed for animated cartoons of a humorous nature, the most notable of these perhaps being

Rick & Morty, and BoJack Horseman
.

Theater and vaudeville

A popular form of

racial stereotypes
.

Burlesque became a popular form of entertainment in the middle of the 19th century. Originally a form of farce in which females in male roles mocked the politics and culture of the day, burlesque was condemned by opinion makers for its sexuality and outspokenness. The form was hounded off the "legitimate stage" and found itself relegated to saloons and barrooms, and its content mostly raunchy jokes.

Abbott & Costello
.

Radio and recorded

Early radio shows include what is labeled as the first situation comedy,

Amos & Andy
began as one of the first radio comedy serials which debuted on CBS in 1928. This was a show written and performed by white actors about black farmhands moving to the big city. The show was successful enough that in 1930 a film was made with the characters and in 1951 it became a television sitcom. The film starred the white actors in blackface. The television show starred African American actors.

Radio in its early years was a showcase for comedy stars from the vaudeville circuit. Jack Benny was among the early comedy stars in this medium. When Benny moved to television in the 1950s, his time slot was filled by Stan Freberg, a voice actor and comedian. Freberg began in 1950 to produce records of his comedy routines, which involved parodies of popular tunes and spoofs of modern entertainment personalities and on political topics. He was also on radio from 1954 to 1957.

Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding were an American comedy team who began in radio in 1946 with a daily 15-minute show titled Matinee With Bob and Ray. Their format was typically to satirize the medium in which they were performing, such as conducting interviews, with off-the-wall dialogue presented in a generally deadpan style as though it were a serious interview. They continued on the air for over four decades on radio and television, ending in 1987.

In more recent times the medium fell out of favor as a source of humor, with Garrison Keillor being perhaps a rare modern example.

As podcasts have seen increasing popularity through the early 21st century, one part-comedic, part-confessional program has seen marked success. Stand-up comedian Marc Maron garnered a considerable following in 2009–10 with his free WTF with Marc Maron podcast, in which he conducts humorous interviews with a range of major and minor figures in the world of comedy, from lesser lights such as the now-deceased Patrice O'Neal, to a more famous crowd, including Robin Williams, Ben Stiller, Amy Poehler, and Judd Apatow. Maron himself prefaces each episode with a brief summary of his own life and attempts to overcome his neuroses, and despite the potential for seriousness, these challenges are generally presented in a comedic, if not exasperated light.

Film

The very first movie to be produced was Thomas Edison's kinetoscope of his assistant Fred Ott in Record of a Sneeze. This could also be considered the first to show a comedic element.

During the era of silent films in the 1920s, comedic films began to appear in significant numbers. These were mainly focused on visual humor, including

Fatty Arbuckle, the Marx Brothers
and other names were significant in the first decades of American cinema humor.

Many early film directors in the US were born elsewhere. This is true of one of the most noted early comedy directors in Hollywood,

The Zucker brothers, the Coen brothers, and The Farrelly brothers. In the last ten years Kevin Smith, Jay Roach, Tom Shadyac, and Alexander Payne have garnered notice as film directors whose work is often humorous, if at times darkly so in the case of Payne. Some of the aforementioned directors, particularly Woody Allen and the Coen brothers, also do other genres of film besides comedy. In the modern era, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Seth Rogen, and Will Ferrell
have been popular proponents of American film comedy.

Television

Sitcoms

The

Amos & Andy
.

In the decades since, several sitcoms have been tops in the ratings. In the 1960s The Beverly Hillbillies and The Andy Griffith Show held that distinction. Both of these programs were based on the country bumpkin – the Clampetts bringing their hillbilly ways to Beverly Hills, and Griffith as a slow talking sheriff in a small rural town. In the 1970s All in the Family was the top rated show. While dealing with serious issues, it was based on the loudmouth bigot usually getting his come-uppance.

The most successful sitcoms of the 1980s were

working-class
and professional drinkers.

In the 1990s the increasing popularity of cable changed audience tastes in sitcom. Cable provided more viewing options and made it more difficult for any one show to dominate in the manner that The Cosby Show or Cheers did in their eras. However,

The Office, 30 Rock and My Name Is Earl
have garnered some praise.

While many sitcoms were based on families or family situations, another common thread in sitcoms is "workplace comedies."

US sitcom
.

Although the sitcom is often derided by critics, a few sitcoms have managed to be successful with both critics and audiences alike. Among these are Frasier, Seinfeld, All in the Family, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

The television sitcom provides an opportunity to compare British and American humor. Many British sitcoms have been re-made for American audiences. For example, Till Death Us Do Part became All in the Family; Man About the House became Three's Company; and, the immensely popular Steptoe and Son became Sanford and Son. The Office was originally a British sitcom that has been successfully remade for an American audience using the same title (and in the case of the pilot episode, the same script). However, most British sitcoms usually fare better in their original forms. Re-makes of other British comedies have failed.

Sketch comedy and variety shows

A

Variety shows also featured Jackie Gleason, Bob Hope and Dean Martin mixing stand-up comedy, sketches and musical numbers for true variety. Later successes include The Carol Burnett Show and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
.

National Lampoon Lemmings alumnus Chevy Chase (whose trademark became his usual falls and opening spiel that ushered in the show's opening), Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Garrett Morris. The original head writer was Michael O'Donoghue, a writer at National Lampoon
who had worked alongside several cast members while directing The National Lampoon Radio Hour. The cast has periodically changed over the years, serving as a springboard for many of its performers to success in other television programs or films. SNL continues to air weekly.

In the early 1990s there started to be more sketch comedy shows that concerned racial issues or intentionally had a diverse cast. An early example of this was In Living Color, initially produced by Keenen Ivory Wayans. Despite the original cast being majority African American, the show is most remembered for introducing the Caucasian Jim Carrey and Puerto Rican Jennifer Lopez to a wider audience. In the 2000s Chappelle's Show began and became a popular, if controversial, variety series. It became noted for dealing with issues like racism, sexual perversity, and drug use.

Currently The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live are leading comedy-variety shows.

Stand-up

American stand-up comedians deal with a variety of forms and issues. Among forms popular or popularized in the US is

Improvisational comedy. Modern improvisational comedy in general is largely linked to Chicago and especially The Second City
troupe. The 1950s saw the rise of this troupe's significance in modern improvisational comedy.

That decade also witnessed a rise in stand-up comedy dealing with more provocative or politically charged subject matter. Among the best known comedians from the 1950s to the 1980s to work in this fashion are Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, and Sam Kinison. They dealt with subject such as race, religion, and sex in a manner that was generally not allowed on television or film. The Richard Pryor Show ended after four episodes due in part to controversy, although poor ratings was a strong factor. In other cases the reactions were more severe, as both Lenny Bruce and George Carlin were arrested on obscenity charges.

However, other stand-ups in the US choose an opposite approach that involves avoiding angering or offending elements of the audience. They may also try to work "clean" either because they prefer doing so or because they wish to reach audiences that disdain raunchy material. Among those who do so as a preference are Brian Regan, Bob Newhart, and Bill Cosby. Ray Romano is capable or even willing to work "blue," as demonstrated on Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist DVD commentary tracks, but has tended to avoid doing so out of deference to his current audience.

Notable names

Note: An attempt has been made to avoid repeating names already mentioned, but some repetition might still exist. This list is partial and mostly deals with American comedians or humorists who won Lifetime Achievement awards in their fields or were placed in lists of history's great comedians.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 0-8050-7721-9
    (288 pages).
  2. ^ Rourke, Constance, (1959 ed.) American Humor: A Study of the National Character on the American Studies at Univ. of Virginia website, (324 pp.), chapter 1; retrieved on 2007-06-20.
  3. ISBN 9780820320199
    .
  4. ^ Bennett, Troy R. (December 26, 2018). "How Down East storytelling shaped Maine's humor". Bangor Daily News. Bangor, Maine: Bangor Publishing Company. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  5. ISBN 9781440854866
    .
  6. ISBN 9781533530158
    .
  7. ^ "Mark Twain Names His Lecture Tour About Holy Land Trip, "The American Vandal Abroad"". SMF Primary Source Documents. Shapell Manuscript Foundation.

External links

  • [22] See Thomas Morton of Merrymount and his 1637 'New English Canaan' for the earliest American social satires, observed witty sketches of actual Native and English persons, and Pilgrim-pounding poetry on the "Elephants of Wit" who thought God had sent them to rule America for themselves.
  • American Humor.org The home page of the American Humor Studies Association
  • [23] Humor in America—Online publication on academic study of American Humor.
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