Observational comedy is a form of

humor Humour ( Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids i ...

based on the commonplace aspects of

everyday life Everyday life, daily life or routine life comprises the ways in which people typically act, think, and feel on a daily basis. Everyday life may be described as mundane, routine, natural, habitual, or Normality (behavior), normal. Human diurna ...

. It is one of the main types of humor in

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage (theatre), stage and delivers humour, humorous and satire, satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical comedy, physical acts. These ...

. In an observational comedy act, the comedian makes an observation about something which is common enough to be familiar to their audience, but not commonly discussed. Such observations are typically presented with the phrase "Have you ever noticed...?" or "Did you ever notice...?" which has become a comedy

cliché A cliché ( or ; ) is a saying, idea, or element of an artistic work that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning, novelty, or literal and figurative language, figurative or artistic power, even to the point of now being b ...

Analysis

British comedians Richard Herring and Jo Caulfield wrote in an article that observational comedy relies upon the fact that the observation is "universally familiar" but that it "won't necessarily have been consciously noted by your audience", arguing that the statements can be neither too obvious nor too obscure. Similarly, Eddie Izzard noted that a comedian's observations need to be relatable in order to be successful.

Douglas Coupland Douglas Coupland (born 30 December 1961) is a Canadian novelist, designer and visual artist. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller '' Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'', popularized the terms Generation X and McJob. He ...

claims that "it takes a good observational comedian to tell you what, exactly, is the 'deal with the phenomenon they are observing, and he describes ideal topics for observational comedy as "those banalities and fragments of minutiae lurking just below the threshold of perception". Observational comedy has been compared to

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

History

Although observational comedy became popular in the United States in the 1950s, one author suggests that even much older jokes commented on human nature in comparable ways. Shelley Berman was one of the pioneers in the field. Other influential observational comics include David Brenner,

George Carlin George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential comedians of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of countercultur ...

, and

Jerry Seinfeld Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. As a stand-up comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy. Seinfeld gained stardom playing a semi-fictionalized version ...

. A 1989 ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' article wrote that Seinfeld is "clearly the standard of excellence in observational comedy", while Judd Apatow called Seinfeld "the greatest observational comedian who ever lived". The British observational comedy tradition began with the Irish comedian Dave Allen's performances in the early 1970s. Victoria Wood, who came to prominence in the late-1970s and 1980s, used observational comedy to satirise aspects of Britain's social classes. More recently, James Acaster has developed a form of "uber-trivial" observational comedy, which has been described as a spoof of the traditional observational form.

References

{{Comedy footer Comedy genres Observation Stand-up comedy