Comedy and comedians make us laugh and feel a lot better about Life...the brain tends to remember sad events, right?

My favorite comedian: Charlie!

'"In this year, 1915," begins a chapter halfway through Peter Ackroyd's concise, compelling new biography, "Chaplin became the most famous man in the world." This fact is so extraordinary – so improbable, in the light of his origins – that it is allowed to stand alone..'

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/08/charlie-chaplin-peter-ackroyd-review-simon-callow

Dear Nelson, I like many types of humor and comedies. As Concha mentioned I agree, - Monty Python are great comedians. I admire John Cleese and like also a bit absurd sketches by multitalented actress Catherine Tate,

I attache some from her Sketches: "Tactless Allie",

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mnQyK_5iOI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-II846J0hl8

For me, dear @Nelson the man in question is Fernand Contadin-Fernandel! :)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0272794/

The best one Charlie Chaplin

Followed by the Marx Brothers

Then I think Woody Allen

I think you do not need any videos of those ;-)

Local ones:

Spain: Faemino & Cansado

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KIZ3zbKHOA

Even more local:

Galicia: Carlos Blanco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTJbg0ZeFKs

From where I live:

Germany, Aschaffenburg: Urban Priol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI5kjBeu3rM

Another one, Rowan Atkinson, an English comedian!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000100/bio

There are many regional and international commedians I like to watch. In fact, I like to watch "Adel Imam" as a regional comedian, and Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) as an international comedian.

As author of a question, I did my duty and refrained from commenting until a number of people had had their say. Your answers are all spectacular, as not unexpected from the quality I have come to know in most of you. However, I feel that comediennes are underrepresented on this string, and I quickly will correct that absence in the hope that all of you will join me.

In the U.S. comediennes are as plentiful as apples on a tree. My favorite is Carol Burnett for dignifying loneliness in the persona of everyone´s favorite washerwoman.

Lily Tomlin deserves accolades for her slapstick portrayal of Ursula the brash telephone operator who snorts when she laughs.

Betty White is the ladylike comic of senior citizens.

Tina Fey, a magnificent impersonator of public figures like anchorwoman Kathy Currick, contributed to the Republicans´ loss of the Presidential election in 2008.

Others like Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and Margaret Cho are loud, slapsticky but just plain funny and talented.

Tracey Ullman and Ellen De Generes are more softspoken yet subtly funny.

Dear Nelson

I think that comedy works in the mind when you expect something that it will happen in one way and spontaneously occurs different, for example, the most simple is when somebody is walking and in your mind is the sequence of the path, but if this person spontaneously falls it makes you laugh (of course if it's not a tough fall).

In Mexico I like Andres Bustamante because is a very creative person. In my country we have a problem with the comedy because sometimes the imagination is cheap, a lot of comedians have the resource of double sense, it means that they say something and it means another thing that it has to be with the theme of sex, we call it "albur" but that resource is so common that it refers more for the people of low culture. Andres Bustamante does not use the "albur" to make you laugh, he's more elegant and creative. (I hope I could explain myself)

I Once read a book with the premise that humour was bestowed upon humanity as part of a great cosmic experiment. A scientist tracked jokes back to a start point as part of a research project, and in doing so rendered the experiment void. The upshot was that humans lost the capacity to laugh. I found mysel to be deeply troubled at the prospect of the loss of humour as part of the human condition and it took me days to recover my equilibrium.

Dear Nelson, of course Caroll Burnett show and her actors Harvey Korman and Tim Conway Look the sketch "Dentist" so hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk92O0SEjXc

Dear Mario:

What do you think of the humor and talent of Cantinflas? Your explanation of albur was crystal clear.

Dear Mohammed,

Yes, we have to live with politics, as burdensome as it is, so why not be elegant about it and make it funny?

Dear Beata, I had no idea that you knew Carol, Harvey, and Tim! Thanks for the sketch, which I had seen and laughed to before.

Dear Mark, thanks for your appreciation of humo(u)r. The Greeks believe that the gods laughed and lived at play, so that if we humans had no humor, we would be a little less godlike.

I want to get your intake on the question of off-color humor. How does sex or eschatology strike us as funny? How does this work? We know that off-color humor existed even in Antiquity. Why?

U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson used to receive his advisors while using the Presidential bathroom. Spanish novelist Francisco Ayala showed his fictional dictator Antón Bocanegra doing the same in the novel "Muertes de perro" (A Dog´s Death). Why is this amusing? Because it shows that even the most exalted humans are not immune to base animal functions? Because it shows that one human can reify another in the most humiliating way, can convert him into a thing? There has to be a good explanation!

Incidentally, a very beautiful female senator from Southern Spain once told me that she liked to read my edition of "Muertes de perro" while in the senatorial lavatory. Why did I feel like laughing out loud?

Really hilarious, dear Concha. I share sketch of funny British group "Big Train"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxUm-2x-2dM

To all, thank you for the excellent links.

@Concha, you are welcome and of course allow to repost and comment on my answer. I thank you.

I am Galician (so Spaniard, and both at the same level) and live in Germany.

Humor can be very local and then (if other language than english) limited in its spread.

Further humor can be very local if addressing social, actual, political questions.

sorry for my emphasis on Spanish ones, but these were part of my childhood. Of course the already mentioned Cantinflas, but also the genius Chespirito (an awkward spanish pronunciation of little Shakespeare):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixEu3DHBAp4

Charlie Chaplin in his autobiography makes a very interesting distinction between comedy and humor (I need to find the paragraph and comment it here).

But one of the most comedy moments I remember form a US star was Billy Crystal at the Oscars 2004:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381851/quotes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZEbwDyUe3Y

Now for my comedy must reconcile being verosimil (credible) and at the same time surprising. In my opinion, the comedian shall also not be afraid of laughing at himself.

Sometimes a comedy "spark" is sufficient for me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ux_5CcleM

"Marge: Say Lou. Did ya hear the one about the guy who couldn't afford personalized plates, so he went and changed his name to J3L 2404?"

As a negative (but disputable) comment, let me tell you what I do not consider good comedy or humor (and I go beyond the "taboo breaking" concept):

Sacha Baron Cohen, it is not for me.

By the way:

Monty Python, of course!

Fry and Laurie, great!

American one, George Carlin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcBIC_4y3tU

As alternative "coral comedians" I can only recommend "The young ones"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLRbJkfn2AY

Now you may also help me with another TV comedy series about a man becoming rich after opening a shop called "trash" and selling absolutely demential useless products...

I thought this was happening in "The rise and fall of Reginald Perrin" but I am not very sure though...

As a continuation in part from Monty Python: Fawlty Towers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwYPCFfbhZM

And to finalize my spread contribution for the day, comedy as it best in radio format by the Marx Brothers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNiEstE5CLs

Louis Ck, Bill Burr, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor... The main reason i love good comedy is its spin on the truth. I think in order to be truly funny (aside from the physical comedians (Chris Farley) and/or goofy ones (Will Ferrell) one needs to speak the truth. Its the study of humans and behavior with specialized delivery through insight and verbal skill. They find the perfect words and timing to enact the most potent delivery for exposing some of mans most uncomfortable behaviors. When done correctly, the most controversial topics can be discussed in mixed company without generating animosity, while provoking analysis. Its beautiful when done right.

I was yesterday and on friday doubting on adding this or not, but since you ask also not only comediants names but also how comedy works, and deeping into my comments of yesterday, I would add that the mechanism is better when are just slight subtilities the ones breaking the rules, and provoking the joke.

The best example for that (but not a comediant itself) is "Amanece que no es poco" (I doubt it is dubbed in languages other than spanish):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnlORWT-hT0

Dear Nelson, you're right, in the past we had Cantinflas, Germán Valdéz best known as TIN TAN, and also Pedro Infante was a comedian. We have others around those years, but i prefer TIN TAN because is more complete, he danced, sang, he made very funny faces and promoted a style called "pachucos". Another comedian from the 70's and 80's that was very creative was Roberto Gómez Bolaños, best known as "Chespirito" (as I know it was the diminutive of Shakespeare, but for a common way they changed the "Sh" for the "Ch", and notice that in spanish the combination "CH" is used for words of slang or funny things like Chale, Chole, Chido, Chanfle, Chiripa, Chundo, etc.)

Dear Concha

I really enjoyed too, the combination of acting and the intelligence of the dialogues were very creative. You can find a lot of this in youtube, I hope you can enjoy it.

Dear Nelson

One of my favorite political cartoonist in Mexico is Paco Calderón, he draws at Reforma's newspaper, and is very creative too, sometimes is elegant but sometimes he has a cutting humor with politicians (as it should be, I think). In a cartoon he doesn't miss a detail of what he's explaining and with just a few lines.

About the question of why do we laugh at eschatology themes I think that sometimes it depends of the joke. As I told you, the albur is most of it and, even if we know what is all about, I don't laugh if it's not very creative (and I don't consider myself the bitter uncle, jaja).

Mario, Any possibility of posting your favorite cartoon by Paco Calderon? I have a feeling that humor differs by nation. This thread can prove it.

Of course. The first one doesn't need words. The thing I like the most is that with just a few lines the cartoon says everything. The second one is a little bit more complex. In Mexico there's a colloquial phrase "le metieron un gol" when you fail for something (is like pulled of a fast one), so, our president has a lot of "goals" to solve but he wished success to our football team.

The second one

Dear Concha, you're right about the expression patata caliente o papa caliente in Mexico. It is like "I wish you luck with the crown, my son". In the second cartoon, "meter un gol" it is a general expression, for example, when you're responsable for something but you missed or fail in your charge - cuando fallaste en algo, pero principalmente cuando alguien en particular logra vencerte o burlar tu responsabilidad, te metieron un gol.

Dear @Concha, I am watching Rafa vs Nole! 1:1 in sets ! I'm cheering for the Novak Djokovic, and it is not funny! :)

Yes dear @Concha, Nole is a whole character himself, national hero in Serbia, my hero! Congratulation for Rafa's victory! They both are the kings!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/tennis/french-open-rafael-nadal-v-871729

"There is not much funny about a comedian than serious about our society." Wow! That is a lapidary statement , Pardeep, that educates us about society and literature in general.  Many, many thanks.  In our last two centuries, not a few figures have passed from the theater to the political arena. 

Many of you have heard that U.S. comedienne Joan Rivers has just died at age 81. She had a mordant, acerbic wit, and was not above lacing jokes with considerable profanity. Each to his own taste!

As Joan Rivers would have wanted, yesterday Sunday Sept. 7, she had a spectacular funeral worthy of Hollywood right in the middle of New York City-- she had been born in the nearby borough of Brooklyn--, There was a parade with bagpipes, and the stars gave eulogies from the pulpit of Saint Patrick´s Cathedral in Manhattan. "She lived to make others laugh."

Hi,  

As we so many answers already, there are various ways for comedy/humour. My favourite is my cartoon character Strategy Guru Husmukh Doordarshi ( Funny Visionary Strategy Teacher).  Have a look at my hilarious cartoon book Strategic Humour @ www.strategichumour.com  which explains the complex and boring topic of strategy in a hilarious ways using different types of humour techniques.

Thanks

Rajesh

The comic effects, of course, mainly are created by comic situation or/and comic character.If the both elements are presented- comedy is more impressive. See one classical example-Luois de Funes-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNsI_mAVQN0