American humor
American humor refers collectively to the conventions and common threads that tie together humor in the United States. It is often defined in comparison to the humor of another country – for example, how it is different from British humor and Canadian humor. It is, however, difficult to say what makes a particular type or subject of humor particularly American.
Humor usually concerns aspects of American culture, and depends on the historical and current development of the country's culture. The extent to which an individual will personally find something humorous obviously depends on a host of absolute and relative variables, including, but not limited to geographical location, culture, maturity, level of education, and context. People of different countries will therefore find different situations funny. Just as American culture has many aspects which differ from other nations, these cultural differences may be a barrier to how humor translates to other countries.
General features
Themes
One leading analysis of American humor, the 1931 book American Humor: A Study of the National Character by Constance Rourke, identified the character of the "Yankee" as that first American comic figure, the first widely accepted American character that the nation could find funny, make fun of and even export for the amusement of the world – a gangly traveler who told stories, played elaborate practical jokes, was ingenuous, sly, perhaps uneducated. She reports that American comedy sprang forth after the American Revolution, when the country was "freed from the worry of self preservation" and its citizens began to regard themselves as "works of art".Types of humor
American humor has more observational techniques. However, the style of observational humor is very much a staple of the American style of humor since it seeks to point out the aspects of American culture and social discourse which are obvious while at the same time highlighting their ridiculousness.Literature
The earliest example of deliberate, skillful and sustained comedy and satire in American literature is 1637's "New English Canaan" by Thomas Morton of Merrymount, who devoted chapters and poems to his wry observations of Native people and English Puritan colonists alike, including a witty comparison of their cultural values that produced surprising and disturbing answers. A second example is Benjamin Church's "Entertaining Passages from King Philip's War", in which a seasoned frontiersman and friend of Native New Englanders observes the foolish tactics and needless tragedies of the conflict.By the 1830s, regional humor became popular across the US, with examples like Augustus Baldwin Longstreet's Georgia Scenes from the South and Seba Smith's Major Jack Downing series from New England. Smith was influenced by earlier works by John Neal exhibiting Maine and New England accents and cultural references.
Later in the nineteenth century, Ernest Hemingway credited Mark Twain as the 'founding father' of American humor. Twain remained conscious of his humor's relationship with European counterparts, commenting in 1897 that, "The humorous story is American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the comic story and the witty story upon the matter."
This early definition puts emphasis on the performance orientation of American humor, and thereby necessarily the performer her/himself. Indeed, in his time on the lecture circuit Twain essentially 'performed' many of his works, most notably "The American Vandal Abroad" lecture he gave via the Lyceum Movement before the publication of his breakthrough work The Innocents Abroad. Thus, at the root of American humor is the very concept of stand-up comedy itself, and the shift from textual means of conveying humor to that of performance and performer.
His value notwithstanding, Twain represents only one strain of humor in the United States. Another famous American humorist of the 19th century was Ambrose Bierce, whose most famous work is the cynical Devil's Dictionary. Popular humorists who spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries included Samuel Minturn Peck, who wrote My Sweetheart, and Hayden Carruth, who wrote Uncle Bentley and the Roosters. Early 20th-century American humorists included members of the Algonquin Round Table, such as Dorothy Parker, SJ Perelman and Robert Benchley. In more recent times popular writers of American humor include P. J. O'Rourke, Louis Harding, Erma Bombeck, and Dave Barry.
There has also been a history of using humor in children's books, sometimes using rhymed text. Popular choices include Dr. Seuss and Ogden Nash.
Cartoons, magazines and animation
American cartoons and comics have commented, humorously or scathingly, on American life since Thomas Nast or earlier. Humorous print cartoonists of note include Charles Schulz, Berkeley Breathed, Gary Larson, Walt Kelly, Johnny Hart, Bill Watterson, and others.U.S. humor magazines of note include Mad, Humbug, Trump and Help!, as well as National Lampoon and Spy magazine.
National Lampoon began in 1970 as an offshoot of the Harvard Lampoon. The magazine regularly skewered popular culture, the counterculture and politics. The magazine was at its height in the 1970s, and its influence spread to films and comedy programs. In the mid-1970s, some of the magazine's contributors left to join the NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live. The magazine stopped publication in 1998, but films and other programs attributed to "National Lampoon" continue.
In the 20th-century, film allowed for animated cartoons of a humorous nature, the most notable of these perhaps being Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry. Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Friz Freleng and Mel Blanc, were instrumental in these and many other animated shorts continued popularity. What's Opera, Doc?, Duck Amuck, and One Froggy Evening garnered enough critical appeal to be inducted into the National Film Registry. Warner Brothers' cartoons often dealt with themes beyond US culture or society, but did involve a great deal of commentary on American life. Although many of the American winners of the Academy Award for Animated Short Film are not examples of American humor, a significant percentage would qualify as such. On television, noteworthy American animated series include The Flintstones, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Futurama, Beavis and Butt-head, King of the Hill, Robot Chicken, Ren and Stimpy, SpongeBob SquarePants, South Park, American Dad!, Rick & Morty, and BoJack Horseman.
Theater and vaudeville
A popular form of theater during the 19th century was the minstrelsy show. These shows featured white actors dressed in blackface and playing up racial stereotypes.Burlesque became a popular form of entertainment in the middle of the 19th century. Originally a form of farce in which females in male roles mocked the politics and culture of the day, burlesque was condemned by opinion makers for its sexuality and outspokenness. The form was hounded off the "legitimate stage" and found itself relegated to saloons and barrooms, and its content mostly raunchy jokes.
Vaudeville is a style of variety entertainment predominant in America in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Developing from many sources including shows in saloons, minstrelsy, British pantomimes, and other popular entertainments, vaudeville became one of the most popular types of entertainment in America. Part of this entertainment was usually one or more comedians. Vaudeville provided generations of American entertainers including George M. Cohan, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Mae West, Fanny Brice, and W.C. Fields, among others. Vaudeville grew less popular as movies replaced live entertainment, but vaudeville performers were able to move into those other fields. Former vaudeville performers who were successful in film, radio and television include Buster Keaton, Marx Brothers, Edgar Bergen, Three Stooges, and Abbott & Costello.
Radio and recorded
Early radio shows include what is labeled as the first situation comedy, Sam and Henry, which debuted on WGN radio in 1926. It was partially inspired by Sidney Smith's popular comic strip The Gumps. Amos & Andy began as one of the first radio comedy serials which debuted on CBS in 1928. This was a show written and performed by white actors about black farmhands moving to the big city. The show was successful enough that in 1930 a film was made with the characters and in 1951 it became a television sitcom. The film starred the white actors in blackface. The television show starred African American actors.Radio in its early years was a showcase for comedy stars from the vaudeville circuit. Jack Benny was among the early comedy stars in this medium. When Benny moved to television in the 1950s, his time slot was filled by Stan Freberg, a voice actor and comedian. Freberg began in 1950 to produce records of his comedy routines, which involved parodies of popular tunes and spoofs of modern entertainment personalities and on political topics. He was also on radio from 1954 to 1957.
Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding were an American comedy team who began in radio in 1946 with a daily 15-minute show titled Matinee With Bob and Ray. Their format was typically to satirize the medium in which they were performing, such as conducting interviews, with off-the-wall dialogue presented in a generally deadpan style as though it were a serious interview. They continued on the air for over four decades on radio and television, ending in 1987.
In more recent times the medium fell out of favor as a source of humor, with Garrison Keillor being perhaps a rare modern example.
As podcasts have seen increasing popularity through the early 21st century, one part-comedic, part-confessional program has seen marked success. Stand-up comedian Marc Maron garnered a considerable following in 2009–10 with his free WTF with Marc Maron podcast, in which he conducts humorous interviews with a range of major and minor figures in the world of comedy, from lesser lights such as the now-deceased Patrice O'Neal, to a more famous crowd, including Robin Williams, Ben Stiller, Amy Poehler, and Judd Apatow. Maron himself prefaces each episode with a brief summary of his own life and attempts to overcome his neuroses, and despite the potential for seriousness, these challenges are generally presented in a comedic, if not exasperated light.