Modern Comedy

myth:modern_comedy

The great swell reaches the present: the silent clowns Chaplin and Keaton, straight out of the commedia; the absurd and the nonsense of Carroll and Lear and the Theatre of the Absurd, the comedy of meaninglessness itself; the surreal sketch of Monty Python; and the lone stand-up comedian — the modern court jester, licensed still to mock the king, now upon a stage before millions. — genre history