A Funny Sort of History

A Funny Sort of History

Stories from the history of comedy

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  • You Are Now Leaving Sketch Land

    12 September 2025
    Meta

    I’ve spent the last few weeks focusing mainly on sketch comedy, so I think it’s to depart from that and move onto some other topics. That’s not to say I won’t discuss sketches again in…

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  • SNL: Black Jeopardy with Tom Hanks – Joyfully Making a Point

    SNL: Black Jeopardy with Tom Hanks – Joyfully Making a Point

    5 September 2025
    Analysis

    In recent articles, I’ve written about the basic elements of comedy sketches and also about subtlety in political and satirical sketches. In this article, I’m going to incorporate what I wrote into an analysis of…

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  • Satirical Sketches – Obvious vs. Subtle

    Satirical Sketches – Obvious vs. Subtle

    29 August 2025
    Analysis

    Political or satirical sketches have a bone to pick. They can pick that bone in an obvious way, with overt references to its target, or they can take a more subtle route. Let’s take an…

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  • Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Flouting the Rules? (Part 2)

    Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Flouting the Rules? (Part 2)

    22 August 2025
    Profile

    Last time, we learned about the fledgling careers of the pre-Python Pythons. They’d spent most of the 1960s as jobbing writer-performers, getting into the spirit of that decade and gently pushing against the standard boundaries…

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  • Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Flouting the Rules? (Part 1)

    Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Flouting the Rules? (Part 1)

    15 August 2025
    Profile

    Late one night in October 1969, a new show arrived on British TV. It was called Monty Python’s Flying Circus and despite arriving without much fanfare – it went out on a Sunday barely an…

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A Funny Sort of History

A Funny Sort of History

Stories from the history of comedy