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Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is used widely in variety shows, comedy talk shows, and some sitcoms and children's television series. The sketches may be improvised live by the performers, developed through improvisation before public performance, or scripted and rehearsed in advance like a play. Sketch comedians routinely differentiate their work from a "skit", maintaining that a skit is a (single) dramatized joke while a sketch is a comedic exploration of a concept, character, or situation.Sketch comedy is a genre within American television that includes a multitude of schemes and identities.
Whose Line is it Anyway? is a short-form improvisational comedy television series created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, presented by Clive Anderson, and produced for Channel 4 between 23 September 1988 and 4 February 1999. The programme's format was on a panel of four performers conducting a series of short-form improvisation games, creating comedic scenes per pre-determined situations made by the host or from suggestions by the audience. Such games include creating sound effects, performing a scene to different television and film styles, using props, and making up a song on the spot. The programme originally began as a short-lived BBC radio programme, before the concept was adapted for television.
The Cosby Show is an American television sitcom co-created by and starring Bill Cosby. The series aired from September 20, 1984, to April 30, 1992, on NBC. It focuses on the Huxtables, an upper middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York; the series was based on comedy routines in Cosby's stand-up comedy act, which in turn were based on his family life. The series was followed by a spin-off, titled A Different World, broadcast from 1987 to 1993 for 144 episodes in six seasons.
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau dramedy, is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. In television, modern scripted comedy dramas tend to have more humour integrated into the story than the comic relief common in drama series but usually contain a lower joke rate than sitcoms.
Little Britain is a British sketch comedy series that began as a radio show in 2000 and ran as a television series between 2003 and 2006. It was written and performed by David Walliams and Matt Lucas. Financed by the BBC, the radio series was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, with the initial two television series premiering on BBC Three and the third and final series on BBC One.
Matthew Richard Lucas is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He is best known for his work with David Walliams on the BBC sketch comedy series Little Britain (2003–2006) and Come Fly with Me (2010–2011).
Love, American Style is an anthology comedy television series that aired on ABC from 1969 to 1974. The series was produced by Paramount Television. During the 1971–72 and 1972–73 seasons, it was a part of ABC's Friday primetime lineup that included The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Room 222, and The Odd Couple. It featured some of the earliest work of future stars Diane Keaton, Sally Struthers, Albert Brooks, and Harrison Ford. Room 222 star Karen Valentine appeared in four episodes. Brady Bunch star Ann B. Davis and The Partridge Family star Dave Madden each appeared in two episodes.
Weeds is an American dark comedy-drama television series created by Jenji Kohan, which aired on Showtime from August 8, 2005, to September 16, 2012. The series tells of Nancy Botwin, a widowed mother of two boys who begins selling marijuana to support her family. Other main characters include Nancy's lax brother-in-law ; foolish accountant ; narcissistic neighbor living with her husband and their daughter ; as well as Nancy's wholesalers and Conrad Shepard. Over the course of the series, the Botwin family becomes increasingly entangled in illegal activity.
Little and Large were a British comedy double act comprising straight man Syd Little and comic Eddie Large.
Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps is a British television sitcom that ran from 26 February 2001 to 24 May 2011. First broadcast on BBC Two, it starred Sheridan Smith, Will Mellor, Natalie Casey, Ralf Little, Kathryn Drysdale, Beverley Callard and, later on in series 7, Luke Gell. The show was created and written by Susan Nickson and set in her hometown of Runcorn, Cheshire, it originally revolved around the lives of five twentysomethings. Little departed after the sixth series, and Smith and Drysdale left after the eighth series. The ninth and final series had major changes with new main cast members and new writers.
Peep Show is a British television sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. It was written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, with additional material by Mitchell and Webb, among others. It was broadcast on Channel 4 from 19 September 2003 to 16 December 2015. In 2010, it became the longest-running comedy in Channel 4 history in terms of years on air.
The Office is the original British mockumentary television sitcom first broadcast in the UK on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme follows the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictional Wernham Hogg paper company. Gervais also starred in the series, playing the central character David Brent.
Russell Joseph Howard is an English comedian, television presenter, radio presenter, and actor. He was known for his television show Russell Howard's Good News and his appearances on the topical panel TV show Mock the Week, and is currently doing The Russell Howard Hour. He won "Best Compère" at the 2006 Chortle Awards and was nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy Award for his 2006 Aberdeen Festival Fringe show. Howard has cited comedians Lee Evans, Richard Pryor, and Frank Skinner as influences.
Jess Robinson is an English comedy actress, singer, impressionist, voice artist and comedian.
Celebrity Juice was a British television comedy panel game broadcast on ITV2 between 24 September 2008 and 15 December 2022. The show was written and presented by Leigh Francis in the role of his alter ego Keith Lemon. The format for the series was first suggested in 2007, after the final series of Francis’s Channel 4 sketch show Bo' Selecta!. ITV approached him to create a show featuring Lemon, and after the success of the five-part series Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour, the channel commissioned Celebrity Juice. The original premise of the show was to see which team knows most about the week's tabloid news stories, although later series focus more on the comedy factor of the participating celebrity guests and games involving them, rather than discussing the week's news.
Jack Peter Benedict Whitehall is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He is known for his roles as JP in the comedy-drama series Fresh Meat (2011–2016) and as Alfie Wickers in the sitcom Bad Education also co-writing the latter and its film adaptation, The Bad Education Movie (2015).
Little Crackers is a British Christmas comedy-drama that was broadcast on Sky1. It consists of a series of short films featuring stars of British and Irish comedy, including Stephen Fry, Catherine Tate, Chris O'Dowd, Kathy Burke, Victoria Wood, and Bill Bailey. According to Sky Television, the show marked the start of their biggest investment in British comedy during Sky1's twenty-year history. The success of the first series led Sky to renew the show for a second series, which began airing on 18 December 2011. The comedians involved in the second series included Harry Hill, Sheridan Smith, Sanjeev Bhaskar, John Bishop, Shappi Khorsandi and Jack Whitehall.
Christopher Ramsey is an English actor, comedian and presenter. After appearing in Hebburn as Jack (2012–2013), Ramsey began presenting series including I'm A Celebrity: Extra Camp (2016), Virtually Famous (2016–2017) and Stand Up Central (2017).
Taskmaster is a British comedy panel game show created by comedian and musician Alex Horne and presented by both Horne and Greg Davies. In the programme a group of five celebrities – mainly comedians – attempt to complete a series of challenges, with Horne acting as umpire in each challenge and Davies, the titular "Taskmaster", judging the work and awarding points based on contestants' performances. The concept for the programme was first created by Horne for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010; he later secured a deal with Dave to adapt it for television with the first episode premiering in 2015. After the ninth series in 2019, the programme was acquired by Channel 4. The programme has completed sixteen series as well as three Champion of Champions specials and four New Year's Treat one-offs by January 2024, and is set to continue for at least five more series until 2026.
