Comedy
Under Comedy is understood in German- room entertaining cabaret programs, certain types of entertainment programs (in television , radio or Internet ) and music whose core the comedy and basically the audience and the mass is to laugh. A person who performs comedy is called a comedian or comedian .
Demarcation and Development
Comedy developed from the cabaret form of stand-up comedy and is related to cabaret . In contrast to this, however, it is mostly not political. In stand-up comedy, conflicts in one's own environment are a typical topic.
Although “Comedy” is the English word for comedy , the terms are not used synonymously in German. While comedy for the classic comedy is, comedy is a modern term for different types of programs. In the meantime, an independent comedy culture with numerous stage programs and comedy clubs with a growing tendency has also emerged in German-speaking countries.
The triggers for this trend were, among other things, the then new comedy programs on television, such as RTL Saturday Night, based on the model of the US show Saturday Night Live, which has been successful for many years . Comedy became popular in the 1990s, when private television stations in particular began to broadcast excerpts from full-length stage programs that were based on these American models.
Current prominent examples are the program Quatsch Comedy Club broadcast by ProSieben , which is recorded in the Friedrichstadtpalast in Berlin, or the former WDR series NightWash , now broadcast by One .
Forerunners of the comedy genre commonly used today in terms of content or style are among others. a. Heinz Erhardt (1950s / 1960s), Gisela Schlüters Snack , Loriot (1960s / 1970s), A Heart and a Soul , Insterburg & Co. , Otto Waalkes , Klimbim , Dieter Hallervordens Nonstop Nonsense (1970s), A crazy couple , Rudi's day show , Sketchup (1980s). In the GDR these were mainly Herricht & Preil , Eberhard Cohrs , Paul Beckers , Rudi Schiemann , Lotte Werkmeister , Manfred Uhlig as well as Helga Hahnemann and OF Weidling .
The term comedy is used in many ways for numerous forms which only have a humorous character in common. In general, one can differentiate between:
- Stand-up comedy (mostly solo stage shows).
- Comedy magic (one of the branches of magic at the German championships or the world championships).
- Mixed shows (various comedians appear in quick succession. On television, for example, NightWash , Quatsch Comedy Club or StandUpMigranten ).
- Sitcoms ( A Terribly Nice Family , How I Met Your Mother , Friends , The Big Bang Theory ).
- Sadcoms (series whose plot is characterized by cynicism, a depressive mood and existential longing. Master of None , Fleabag , MaPa )
- Sketch shows (for example Mensch Markus , Die Dreisten Drei ).
- Panel shows ( 7 days, 7 heads , brilliant next to it ).
- Radio comedy (series or current, one-off skits).
- Trick Comedy ( The Simpsons , Futurama , Family Guy ).
- Improv comedy ( Schillerstraße , free snout XXL , Curb Your Enthusiasm , Hotel Home: Please disturb! ).
- Comedy city tours (comedy shows during a bus tour (e.g. ComedyTour Cologne) through the city or humorous tours).
Well-known festivals and prizes
- Comedy slam
- The big cabaret festival
- German Comedy Award
- International Cologne Comedy Festival
- Just pour rire
- Prix Pantheon
- Salzburg bull
- St. Ingbert pan
literature
- Elke Reinhard: Why is cabaret called comedy today? Metamorphoses in German television entertainment , Lit , Berlin / Münster 2006, ISBN 978-3-8258-9231-9 (= contributions to media aesthetics and media history. Volume 24, also dissertation at the University of Mannheim 2005).
- Michael Maak: Comedy. 1000 ways to a good gag . Henschelverlag Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-894875619
- John Vorhaus: Craft Humor . Two thousand and one 2010, ISBN 978-3-861508427
- Stefan Lehnberg: Comedy for Professionals - The Handbook for Authors and Comedians, Bookmundo 2020, ISBN 9789463989510
