Let me tell you the plan for this site.

Funny…

On this site, I’ll publish articles about comedy in its many forms.

From the subjects I cover, I’ll pepper in samples for you to read, watch or hear. I might even drop in a few gags of my own too.

A History…

This is not a comedy masterclass. I’m not telling you how to be funny or get into the business. Even if I told you, you shouldn’t listen to me.

And I’m not dealing with comedy in the abstract.

I mainly want to tell you about the history of actual comedy: TV shows, films, books, and so on. If it was made to elicit laughter, it’s fair game for me to write about. That goes for the people behind it too, performers, writers, producers etc.

Sort of…

I’m not a scholar of comedy. I just like it and want to write about it.

I’m not going to be particularly comprehensive. I’ll focus mainly on English language comedy from the 20th century onward. I’m sure there’s a fascinating story to tell about a court jester from 16th century France who wrote the first knock-knock joke, or an ancient Roman graffiti explaining the rule of three beside a picture of a phallus. I’ll leave those for the serious scholars.

I’m not going to go linearly through history. That would drive me mad. Instead I’ll jump around in time.

I’ll not even be particularly systematic. I go wherever my mood takes me.

But there is a slight method to my madness. My plan is that each article will either:

1. Introduce a concept from comedy
2. Profile a performer, TV show, episode, film, novel etc.
3. Analyse something from comedy, either to explain how it works or argue a case

In early articles, I’ll focus on the broad foundational concepts. As time goes on, I’ll build on the concepts I’ve introduced already. For example, I might one week talk about sitcom. Then, a few articles later, I’ll drill down and talk about audience sitcom.

And that’s about it.

Enjoy.