Stand-up Comedy: Why we're talking about the hilarious art form

Background

Stand-up comedy is a performance style typically featuring a single performer who aims to make an audience laugh. It evolved from 19th- and 20th-century American comedy traditions and has since grown into an influential—and commercially successful—international artistic form.

A Solitary Form

Comedians have been trying to make audiences laugh as long as theater has existed, but scholars say stand-up comedy’s unique form arrived in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century burlesque shows, which often featured single comics delivering rapid-fire, joke-filled sets. Unlike the more slapstick and family-friendly vaudeville performers, these comics spoke to a fast-paced, urbanized audience who appreciated bawdier humor.

One of those comics, Charley Case, is believed to be the first to perform live onstage without props or a costume. (Hear one of his jokes.)

Mark Twain’s live storytelling was also an early influence on the form, especially his world tour in the 1890s. In these 90-minute performances, Twain would stand alone on the stage, delivering long, comedic monologues with his hand perched on his chin.

Establishing a Premise

Stand-up became more popular as the 20th century progressed, offering a lighthearted distraction during the Great Depression.

Bob Hope’s 1930s radio shows featured comedic monologues. Unlike the tightly scripted and evergreen sets of vaudeville, Hope’s monologues leaned into topical and political humor, sometimes to the disapproval of his network.

Stand-up also became a fixture in the Borscht Belt, the nickname for the Jewish vacation communities in upstate New York, where comedians like Milton Berle, Mel Brooks, and Joan Rivers cut their teeth. Black comedians regularly toured the Chitlin Circuit, an informal entertainment network that developed comics like Redd Foxx during the Jim Crow era.

Punching Up

As stand-up grew more popular, it created new media. The stand-up comedy album was born in 1958, with Mort Sahl’s “The Future Lies Ahead.” Three years later, Bob Newhart’s “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” reached the top of the Billboard charts and stayed there for 14 weeks.

By the ‘70s, the fledgling HBO effectively created the hourlong stand-up special with “An Evening with Robert Klein.” Eddie Murphy’s 1983 special for the network, titled “Comedian,” kicked off a nationwide comedy boom.

But even as stand-up became mainstream, many practitioners held on to the subversive, countercultural spirit of its burlesque days. Lenny Bruce was arrested for obscenity in 1961 and then again, several times over, through the mid-1960s. (See a timeline.)

Bruce’s confrontational and satirical comedy inspired some of the biggest names in comedy, including Richard Pryor and George Carlin, whose most famous bit, “Seven Dirty Words,” led to a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court.

By Popular Demand

Through the ‘80s, ‘90s, and early 2000s, stand-up comedians regularly found success through spots on late-night talk shows, appearances on "Saturday Night Live," and—for stars like Ellen DeGeneres, Ray Romano, and Jerry Seinfeld—with their own sitcoms.

In 2009, Marc Maron created his podcast “WTF,” featuring the stand-up holding long, candid conversations with an eclectic selection of guests. That template now defines modern podcasting, including some of the medium’s most popular shows, like “The Joe Rogan Experience” and “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von.”

Despite changes in media, stand-up comedy at its core is not much different from its earliest days: There’s a comic standing in front of an audience, trying to make them laugh.

Explore Stand-up Comedy

Cultural Context

Beyond our weekly deep dives, we love finding great takes on the culture currently shaping our lives. Here are some of the best reactions, profiles, and think pieces we encountered this week.

> The Life and Death of the American Foodie

Eater | Jaya Saxena. Saxena traces "foodie" back to the early aughts, when "Top Chef" and "No Reservations" lionized chefs and social apps like Yelp turned everyday diners into critics. More pressingly, she analyzes how the term turned into a loathsome stereotype—and if it’s a term worth reclaiming. (Read)

> Canon

Substack | Ken Baumann. Baumann, a novelist and former actor, reflects on his time at St. John’s College, which follows a “Great Books” model of education by assigning classic works of literature and little else. He argues reading these texts isn’t just about ingesting important ideas—it’s about reckoning with their totality. (Read)

> A Four-Part Rave for Geese's 'Getting Killed'

Uproxx | Steven Hyden. There’s no rock record that’s received more buzz this year than the latest from this New York band. Hyden calls it the best album of the year, amazed by how the young band has internalized rock’s history in order to offer their own genre-shifting contribution. (Read)

> Touching Grass at the Andrew Yang Party

Pitchfork | Kieran Press-Reynolds. The former presidential candidate's offline events say they encourage real-world conversations through anti-algorithmic programming. The only problem is they also seem designed for social media, a conundrum that Press-Reynolds tries to understand. (Read)

> The Hacker Folk Art of Esoteric Coding

MIT Press Reader | Daniel Temkin. Temkin makes the case for code as artistic language, one that uses metaphor to bring ideas to life. More significantly, he argues these languages are often created collaboratively, mimicking the many folk traditions we’ve been handing down for centuries. (Read)

New in 1440 Society & Culture

We spend our days tracking the latest trends in the creative world. Here are some of the best rabbit holes we found ourselves falling down this week.

> Disney’s Magic Kingdom has a massive network of underground tunnels.

> Picasso wrote poetry, though some critics suggested he focus on painting.

> For early drafts of “The Simpsons,” one man voices nearly every character.

> From pencil-thin to big and bushy, eyebrow fashion is constantly changing.

> William Eggleston turned color photography into an art form.

> The identity of the world’s first novelist is shrouded in mystery.

> A 1950s Senate subcommittee investigated the comics industry.

> Yes, the beer mile is exactly what it sounds like.

> England’s Stoke-on-Trent once produced most of the world’s pottery.

> Before it was a drink, coffee was used for handwashing.

Other topics to explore:

Bruce Springsteen, Cannes, Fantasy Football, Steven Spielberg, WNBA.

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