A comedian (sometimes comedienne, see below) or comic is a person who seeks to entertain members of an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comic.

A comedian can be distinguished from a clown because clowns most often use slapstick, wear costumes and makeup, and engage in buffoonery, whereas comedians most often focus on a more verbal style of humor, telling jokes.

A popular saying, variously quoted but generally attributed to Ed Wynn, is, "A comic says funny things; a comedian says things funny," which draws a distinction between how much of the comedy can be attributed to verbal content and how much to acting and persona.

Since the late 1980s, a new wave of comedy, called alternative comedy, grew in popularity with its more offbeat and experimental style. This normally involves more experiential, or observational reporting, e.g. Andy Kaufman, Alexei Sayle and Malcolm Hardee. Alternative comedy is now arguably the mainstream.

As far as content is concerned, comedians such as Tommy Tiernan, Des Bishop and Joan Rivers draw on their background to poke fun at themselves, while others such as Jon Stewart, Bill Hicks and George Carlin have very strong political and cultural undertones. Contemporary comedians include Conan O' Brien and David Letterman.

Many comics achieve a cult following while touring famous comedy hubs such as the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, the Edinburgh Fringe, and Melbourne Comedy Festival in Australia. Often a comic's career advances significantly when they win a notable comedy award, such as the if.comedy award (formerly the Perrier comedy award). Comics sometimes foray into other areas of entertainment, such as film and television, when they have become much better known. e.g. Eddie Izzard.

The spelling comedienne includes the female suffix -enne. It is considered offensive to some people, and The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage recommends against its usage.

Comedy has a popular meaning (stand-up, along with any discourse generally intended to amuse), which differs from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece. The theatrical genre can be simply described as a dramatic performance pitting two societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Comedy contains variations on the elements of surprise, incongruity, conflict, repetitiveness, and the effect of opposite expectations, and there are many recognized genres.

Sourced

• I think that the tendency for most people is to fall back on a comic interpretation of things — because things are so sad, so terrible. If you didn't laugh you'd kill yourself. But the truth of the matter is that existence in general is very very tragic, very very sad, very brutal and very unhappy.
  • Woody Allen, interview in Helene Zuber (June 20, 2005). "Interview with Woody Allen: 'Nothing Pleases Me More than Being Thought of as a European Filmmaker'", Der Spiegel, SPIEGELnet GmbH. Retrieved on 26 December 2007.

• What we eventually run up against are the forces of humourlessness, and let me assure you that the humourless as a bunch don't just not know what's funny, they don't know what's serious. They have no common sense, either, and shouldn't be trusted with anything.
  • Martin Amis, "Political Correctness: Robert Bly and Philip Larkin" (1997)
• By calling him humourless I mean to impugn his seriousness, categorically: such a man must rig up his probity ex nihilo.
  • Martin Amis, Experience (2000), Part I: "Failures of Tolerance"

• Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.
  • Mel Brooks, The 2,000 Year Old Man (1961).

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Wed Jul 21 06:52:20 2010