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84-614: Nicholas Stoller (born March 19, 1976) is a British-American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the comedy films Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), its spin-off/sequel Get Him to the Greek (2010), The Five-Year Engagement (2012), Neighbors (2014), its sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), and Bros (2022). He also co-wrote the screenplays for the films Fun with Dick and Jane (2005), Yes Man (2008), The Muppets (2011), its sequel Muppets Most Wanted (2014), and Sex Tape (2014), as well as co-creating

168-453: A New Hampshire boarding school. He went on to attend Harvard College and wrote for the comedy publication The Harvard Lampoon , and played for the improv comedy troupe The Immediate Gratification Players while an undergraduate. From 2000 to 2001, Stoller wrote for Judd Apatow 's short-lived Fox television series Undeclared and later co-wrote, again with Apatow, the 2005 comedy Fun with Dick and Jane . Stoller's directorial debut,

252-526: A Scottish -born American, a Detroit -based inventor, best known for founding the Buick Motor Company. Harley-Davidson – The Davidson brothers were of Scottish descent (William. A., Walter and Arthur Davidson ) and William S. Harley of English descent. Along with Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company was the largest and most recognizable American motorcycle manufacturer. Baseball – The earliest recorded game of base-ball for which

336-691: A Continental Navy lieutenant) on the ship Alfred in Philadelphia). In addition, some places were named after the kings and queens of the former kingdoms of England and Ireland . The name Virginia was first applied by Queen Elizabeth I (the "Virgin Queen") and Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584., the Carolinas were named after King Charles I and Maryland named so for his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria (Queen Mary). The Borough of Queens in New York

420-620: A first approximation of the truth", the Census Bureau commissioned a study to produce new scientific estimates of the colonial American population, in collaboration with the American Council of Learned Societies , in time to be adopted as basis for legal immigration quotas in 1929, and later published in the journal of the American Historical Association , reproduced in the table below. Note: as in

504-527: A further 25,213,619 identified as having English ancestry, 5,298,861 Scottish ancestry and 1,851,256 Welsh ancestry. The total of these groups, at 34,298,133, was 10.5% of the total population. A further 31,518,129 individuals identified as having Irish ancestry, but this is not differentiated between modern Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom ) and the Republic of Ireland , which was part of

588-598: A game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford , Surrey ; Bray's diary was verified as authentic in September 2008. This early form of the game was apparently brought to North America by British immigrants. The first appearance of the term that exists in print was in " A Little Pretty Pocket-Book " in 1744, where it is called Base-Ball. Today, rounders , which has been played in England since Tudor times, holds

672-495: A marionette to a hand puppet, and he became, really, a spirit of Britain — a subversive maverick who defies authority, a kind of puppet equivalent to our political cartoons ." In early 19th century England, pantomime acquired its present form which includes slapstick comedy and featured the first mainstream clown Joseph Grimaldi , while comedy routines also featured heavily in British music hall theatre which became popular in

756-554: A playwriting workshop for Harvard graduates in 2001. They married in a Jewish ceremony in September 2005. They have two daughters. Appeared as himself British-American British Americans usually refers to Americans whose ancestral origin originates wholly or partly in the United Kingdom ( England , Scotland , Wales , and Northern Ireland and also the Isle of Man , the Channel Islands , and Gibraltar ). It

840-710: A result of the British colonization of the Americas , what became the United States was "easily the greatest single destination of emigrant British". Historically in the 1790 United States census estimate and presently in Australia , Canada , and New Zealand "people of British origin came to constitute the majority of the population" contributing to these states becoming integral to the Anglosphere . There

924-473: A result, much of their art was intentionally amusing. A famous example is Marcel Duchamp 's Fountain (1917), an inverted urinal signed "R. Mutt". This became one of the most famous and influential pieces of art in history, and one of the earliest examples of the found object movement. It is also a joke, relying on the inversion of the item's function as expressed by its title as well as its incongruous presence in an art exhibition. The advent of cinema in

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1008-407: A significant drop overall, especially from the 1980 census where 49.59 million people reported English ancestry and larger numbers reported Scottish, Welsh and North Irish ancestry also. Demographers regard current figures as a "serious under-count", as a large proportion of Americans of British descent have a tendency to simply identify as 'American' since 1980 where over 13.3 million or 5.9% of

1092-574: A similarity to baseball. Although, literary references to early forms of "base-ball" in the United Kingdom pre-date use of the term "rounders". In addition to baseball, American football is a sport that developed from soccer and Rugby , which are both sports that originated in the British Isles. Bowling or ten-pin bowling derived from Nine-Pins ( nine-pin bowling ) brought over by early British settlers. The Grand Union Flag

1176-541: A subversion of audience's expectations, so that amusement is founded on unpredictability , separate from a logical analysis of the situation. The humour derived gets its appeal from the ridiculousness and unlikeliness of the situation. The genre has roots in Surrealism in the arts. Surreal humour is the effect of illogic and absurdity being used for humorous effect. Under such premises, people can identify precursors and early examples of surreal humour at least since

1260-464: A sympathetic character. Aristotle divides comedy into three categories or subgenres: farce , romantic comedy , and satire . On the other hand, Plato taught that comedy is a destruction to the self. He believed that it produces an emotion that overrides rational self-control and learning. In The Republic , he says that the guardians of the state should avoid laughter, "for ordinarily when one abandons himself to violent laughter, his condition provokes

1344-416: A total of 11.0% being "not specified". Additional responses were Cornish (3,991), Northern Irish 4,009 and Manx 6,317. Most of the population who stated their ancestry as "American" (20,625,093 or 7.3%) are said to be of old colonial British ancestry. Following are the top 10 highest percentage of people of English, Scottish and Welsh ancestry, in U.S. communities with 500 or more total inhabitants (for

1428-465: A violent reaction." Plato says comedy should be tightly controlled if one wants to achieve the ideal state. Also in Poetics , Aristotle defined comedy as one of the original four genres of literature . The other three genres are tragedy , epic poetry , and lyric poetry . Literature, in general, is defined by Aristotle as a mimesis , or imitation of life. Comedy is the third form of literature, being

1512-669: Is also a significant population of people with British ancestry in South Africa . An English presence in North America began with the Roanoke Colony and Colony of Virginia in the late-16th century, but the first successful English settlement was established in 1607, on the James River at Jamestown . By the 1610s, an estimated 1,300 English people had traveled to North America, the "first of many millions from

1596-454: Is characterized by a form of humor that includes darker aspects of human behavior or human nature. Similarly scatological humor , sexual humor, and race humor create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways, which can often be taken as offensive by the subjects of the joke. A comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society (usually upper-class society) and uses humor to parody or satirize

1680-571: Is concentrated in countries that had mass migration such as the United States and that are part of the English-speaking world . A 2006 publication from the Institute for Public Policy Research estimated 5.6 million British-born people lived outside of the United Kingdom. After the Age of Discovery , the British were one of the earliest and largest communities to emigrate out of Europe, and

1764-472: Is considered to be the first national flag of the United States . The design consisted of 13 stripes, red and white, representing the original Thirteen Colonies , the canton on the upper left-hand corner bearing the British Union Flag , the red cross of St. George of England with the white cross of St. Andrew of Scotland. The flag was first flown on December 2, 1775, by John Paul Jones (then

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1848-801: Is not only a genius, he is the man who originated slapstick comedy. We in Hollywood owe much to him." American vaudeville emerged in the 1880s and remained popular until the 1930s, and featured comedians such as W. C. Fields , Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers . Surreal humour (also known as 'absurdist humour'), or 'surreal comedy', is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causal reasoning, producing events and behaviours that are obviously illogical . Constructions of surreal humour tend to involve bizarre juxtapositions, incongruity, non-sequiturs , irrational or absurd situations and expressions of nonsense . The humour arises from

1932-425: Is otherwise a serious commentary on the state of foreign relations serves to frame the segment comically, creating a serious tone underlying the comedic agenda presented by Stewart. Comedy may be divided into multiple genres based on the source of humor, the method of delivery, and the context in which it is delivered. The different forms of comedy often overlap, and most comedy can fit into multiple genres. Some of

2016-446: Is primarily a demographic or historical research category for people who have at least partial descent from peoples of Great Britain and the modern United Kingdom , i.e. English , Scottish , Irish , Welsh , Scotch-Irish , Orcadian , Manx , Cornish Americans and those from the Channel Islands and Gibraltar . Based on 2020 American Community Survey estimates, 1,934,397 individuals identified as having British ancestry, while

2100-561: The Appalachia . Much of American culture shows influences from nation states of British culture . Colonial ties to Great Britain spread the English language , legal system and other cultural attributes. Historian David Hackett Fischer has posited that four major streams of immigration from the British Isles in the colonial era contributed to the formation of a new American culture, summarized as follows: Fischer's theory acknowledges

2184-677: The Australian comedian Paul Hogan , famous for Crocodile Dundee . Other centres of creative comic activity have been the cinema of Hong Kong , Bollywood , and French farce . American television has also been an influential force in world comedy: with American series like M*A*S*H , Seinfeld and The Simpsons achieving large followings around the world. British television comedy also remains influential, with quintessential works including Fawlty Towers , Monty Python , Dad's Army , Blackadder , and The Office . Australian satirist Barry Humphries , whose comic creations include

2268-576: The British Empire 's expansion during the latter half of the 18th century and first half of the 19th century saw an "extraordinary dispersion of the British people", with particular concentrations "in Australasia and North America ". The British Empire was "built on waves of migration overseas by British people", who left the United Kingdom and "reached across the globe and permanently affected population structures in three continents". As

2352-684: The Immigration Act of 1924 , which imposed numerical quotas on each country of Europe limiting the number of immigrants to be admitted out of a finite total annual pool. The size of each national quota was determined by the National Origins Formula , in part computed by estimating the origins of the colonial stock population descended from White Americans enumerated in the 1790 Census . The undercount of other colonial stocks like German Americans and Irish Americans would thus have contemporary policy consequences. When CPG

2436-553: The Middle Ages , the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings. It is in this sense that Dante used the term in the title of his poem, La Commedia . As time progressed, the word came more and more to be associated with any sort of performance intended to cause laughter. During the Middle Ages, the term "comedy" became synonymous with satire , and later with humour in general. Aristotle's Poetics

2520-583: The Three Stooges , Abbott and Costello , Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis , Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller during the mid-20th century, to performers like George Carlin , Bill Cosby , Joan Rivers , Robin Williams , and Eddie Murphy toward the end of the century. Hollywood attracted many international talents like the British comics Peter Sellers , Dudley Moore and Sacha Baron Cohen , Canadian comics Dan Aykroyd , Jim Carrey , and Mike Myers , and

2604-633: The United Kingdom . In 1927, proposed immigration quotas based on CPG figures were rejected by the President's Committee chaired by the Secretaries of State , Commerce , and Labor , with the President reporting to Congress "the statistical and historical information available raises grave doubts as to the whole value of these computations as the basis for the purposes intended." Among the criticisms of A Century of Population Growth : Concluding that CPG "had not been accepted by scholars as better than

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2688-451: The comedy television series Friends from College , which premiered on Netflix in July 2017. Stoller directed all eight episodes of the first season. More recently, his Stoller Global Solutions company has renewed an overall deal with Sony Pictures Television. Stoller met Francesca Delbanco (daughter of writer Nicholas Delbanco and granddaughter of cellist Bernard Greenhouse ) at

2772-513: The right of the Parliament of Great Britain to govern them without representation ; they proclaimed their independence in 1776, and subsequently constituted the first thirteen states of the United States of America, which became a sovereign state in 1781 with the ratification of the Articles of Confederation . The 1783 Treaty of Paris represented Great Britain's formal acknowledgment of

2856-461: The "art of reprehension", and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or to the troubling beginnings and happy endings associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century , the term "comedy" gained a more general meaning in medieval literature . In the late 20th century, many scholars preferred to use the term laughter to refer to the whole gamut of

2940-568: The 1850s. British comedians who honed their skills in music hall sketches include Charlie Chaplin , Stan Laurel and Dan Leno . English music hall comedian and theatre impresario Fred Karno developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue in the 1890s, and Chaplin and Laurel were among the comedians who worked for his company. Karno was a pioneer of slapstick , and in his biography, Laurel stated, "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie [Chaplin] and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it". Film producer Hal Roach stated: "Fred Karno

3024-524: The 19th century, such as Lewis Carroll 's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass , which both use illogic and absurdity ( hookah -smoking caterpillars , croquet matches using live flamingos as mallets, etc.) for humorous effect. Many of Edward Lear 's children stories and poems contain nonsense and are basically surreal in approach. For example, The Story of

3108-422: The 2008 film Forgetting Sarah Marshall , is a romantic comedy starring Jason Segel , Mila Kunis , Jonah Hill , Kristen Bell , Bill Hader and Russell Brand . The film was produced by Apatow Productions and was released by Universal on April 18, 2008. In 2007, he wrote a single-camera comedy about a new teacher taking a job at the boarding school he once attended. He wrote Yes Man , starring Jim Carrey ;

3192-510: The 2020 census. Response rates for the question on ancestry was 83.1% (1980) 90.4% (1990) and 80.1% (2000) for the total population of the United States. Ethnic distribution in 1700. According to estimates by Thomas L. Purvis (1984), published in the European ancestry of the United States , gives the ethnic composition of the American colonies from 1700 to 1755. British ancestry in 1755

3276-653: The British Isles". In 1620, the Pilgrims established the English imperial venture of Plymouth Colony , beginning "a remarkable acceleration of permanent emigration from England" with over 60% of trans-Atlantic English migrants settling in the New England Colonies . During the 17th century, an estimated 350,000 English and Welsh migrants arrived in North America, which in the century after the Acts of Union 1707

3360-571: The Four Little Children Who Went Round the World (1871) is filled with contradictory statements and odd images intended to provoke amusement, such as the following: After a time they saw some land at a distance; and when they came to it, they found it was an island made of water quite surrounded by earth. Besides that, it was bordered by evanescent isthmuses with a great Gulf-stream running about all over it, so that it

3444-615: The Neapolitan stock character of Pulcinella . The figure who later became Mr. Punch made his first recorded appearance in England in 1662. Punch and Judy are performed in the spirit of outrageous comedy — often provoking shocked laughter — and are dominated by the anarchic clowning of Mr. Punch. Appearing at a significant period in British history, professor Glyn Edwards states: "[Pulcinella] went down particularly well with Restoration British audiences, fun-starved after years of Puritanism . We soon changed Punch's name, transformed him from

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3528-402: The U.S. and their influence on the country's population. A leading specialist, Charlotte Erickson, found them to be ethnically "invisible". This may be due to the early establishment of British settlements; as well as to non-English groups having emigrated in order to establish significant communities. Table below shows census results between 1980 (when data on ancestry was first collected) and

3612-494: The United Kingdom during the greatest phase of Irish immigration. Figures for Manx and Cornish ancestries are not separately reported, although Manx was reported prior to 1990, numbering 9,220 on the 1980 census, and some estimates put Cornish ancestry as high as 2 million. This figure also does not include people reporting ancestries in countries with majority or plurality British ancestries, such as Canadian, South African, New Zealander (21,575) or Australian (105,152). There has been

3696-670: The United States' sovereignty at the end of the American Revolutionary War . In the original Thirteen Colonies , most laws contained elements found in the English common law system. The vast majority of the Founding Fathers of the United States were of mixed British extraction. Most of them were of English descent, with smaller numbers of those of Scottish, Irish or Scots-Irish, and Welsh ancestry. A minority were of high social status and can be classified as White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP). Many of

3780-545: The United States, the British find Americans a "mysterious and paradoxical people, physically distant but culturally close, engagingly similar yet irritatingly different". For over two centuries (1789–2009) of early U.S. history, all Presidents with the exception of two (Van Buren and Kennedy) were descended from the varied colonial British stock, from the Pilgrims and Puritans to the Scotch-Irish and English who settled

3864-417: The aims. "Comedy", in its Elizabethan usage, had a very different meaning from modern comedy. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays. The Punch and Judy show has roots in the 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte . The figure of Punch derives from

3948-570: The behavior and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms and focuses on the foibles of those who are falling in love. Dean Rubin says the word "comedy" is derived from the Classical Greek κωμῳδία kōmōidía , which is a compound of κῶμος kômos (revel) and ᾠδή ōidḗ (singing; ode). The adjective "comic" (Greek κωμικός kōmikós), which strictly means that which relates to comedy is, in modern usage, generally confined to

4032-462: The charitable attitude towards people that is required for purposes of persuasion and co-operation, but at the same time maintains our shrewdness concerning the simplicities of 'cashing in. ' " The purpose of the comic frame is to satirize a given circumstance and promote change by doing so. The comic frame makes fun of situations and people, while simultaneously provoking thought. The comic frame does not aim to vilify in its analysis, but rather, rebuke

4116-749: The circus clown also continued, with such as Bozo the Clown in the United States and Oleg Popov in Russia. Radio provided new possibilities — with Britain producing the influential surreal humour of the Goon Show after the Second World War. The Goons' influence spread to the American radio and recording troupe the Firesign Theatre . American cinema has produced a great number of globally renowned comedy artists, from Laurel and Hardy ,

4200-487: The civilization of a country ... I take to be the flourishing of the Comic idea and Comedy, and the test of true Comedy is that it shall awaken thoughtful laughter." Laughter is said to be the cure for being sick. Studies show that people who laugh more often get sick less. American literary theorist Kenneth Burke writes that the "comic frame" in rhetoric is "neither wholly euphemistic, nor wholly debunking—hence it provides

4284-495: The comic, in order to avoid the use of ambiguous and problematically defined genres such as the grotesque , irony , and satire . Starting from 425 BCE, Aristophanes , a comic play and satirical author of the Ancient Greek Theater , wrote 40 comedies, 11 of which survive. Aristophanes developed his type of comedy from the earlier satyr plays , which were often highly obscene . The only surviving examples of

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4368-490: The ethnic composition. A study published in 1909 titled A Century of Population Growth by the Census Bureau estimated the British origin combined were around 90% of the white population. Another source by Thomas L. Purvis in 1984 estimated that people of British ancestry made up about 62% of the total population or 74% of the white or European American population. Some 81% of the total United States population

4452-414: The film was produced by Richard Zanuck and David Heyman . Stoller next wrote and directed a new film for Universal and Apatow Productions titled Get Him to the Greek . The film reteamed Stoller and Apatow with Forgetting Sarah Marshall co-stars Jonah Hill and Russell Brand. The film premiered on May 25, 2010, and opened in theaters on June 4, 2010. In 2008, Stoller and Segel co-wrote The Muppets ,

4536-418: The housewife and "gigastar" Dame Edna Everage , for his delivery of Dadaist and absurdist humour to millions, was described by biographer Anne Pender in 2010 as not only "the most significant theatrical figure of our time ... [but] the most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin ". By 200 BC, in ancient Sanskrit drama , Bharata Muni 's Natya Shastra defined humour ( hāsyam ) as one of

4620-413: The late 19th century, and later radio and television in the 20th century broadened the access of comedians to the general public. Charlie Chaplin , through silent film, became one of the best-known faces on Earth. The silent tradition lived on well into the late 20th century through mime artists like Marcel Marceau , and the slapstick comedy of artists like Rowan Atkinson (as Mr. Bean ). The tradition of

4704-431: The latest film incarnation to feature the characters in nearly 12 years. The film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and released on November 23, 2011. After the film's success, Stoller and the film's director, James Bobin , wrote Muppets Most Wanted , a semi-sequel to the film. Stoller also directed The Five-Year Engagement (2012), which he co-wrote with Jason Segel, who also starred. Apatow Productions produced

4788-400: The most divorced from a true mimesis. Tragedy is the truest mimesis, followed by epic poetry, comedy, and lyric poetry. The genre of comedy is defined by a certain pattern according to Aristotle's definition. Comedies begin with low or base characters seeking insignificant aims and end with some accomplishment of the aims which either lightens the initial baseness or reveals the insignificance of

4872-441: The nine nava rasas , or principle rasas (emotional responses), which can be inspired in the audience by bhavas , the imitations of emotions that the actors perform. Each rasa was associated with a specific bhavas portrayed on stage. In the case of humour, it was associated with mirth ( hasya ). The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it have been carefully investigated by psychologists. They agree

4956-547: The original CPG report, the "English" category encompassed England and Wales , grouping together all names classified as either " Anglican " (from England ) or " Cambrian " (from Wales ). [REDACTED] Estimated British American population in the Continental United States as of the 1790 Census [REDACTED] The 1980 census was the first that asked people's ancestry . The 1980 United States Census reported 61,327,867 individuals or 31.67% of

5040-662: The original source survives, involved the family of George II of Great Britain , played indoors in London in November 1748. The Prince is reported as playing "Bass-Ball" again in September 1749 in Walton-on-Thames , Surrey, against Lord Middlesex. The English lawyer William Bray wrote in his diary that he had played a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford , also in Surrey . English lawyer William Bray recorded

5124-418: The origins of comedy are obscure because it was not treated seriously from its inception. However, comedy had its own Muse : Thalia . Aristotle taught that comedy was generally positive for society, since it brings forth happiness, which for Aristotle was the ideal state, the final goal in any activity. For Aristotle, a comedy did not need to involve sexual humor. A comedy is about the fortunate rise of

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5208-426: The other three being of Spanish origin. Not to be confused are cases when the term is also used in an entirely different (although possibly overlapping) sense to refer to people who are dual citizens of both the United Kingdom and the United States. Americans of British heritage are often seen, and identify, as simply " American " due to the many historic, linguistic and cultural ties between Great Britain and

5292-420: The picture, which is about the ups and downs of a couple's five-year engagement. Stoller directed the film Neighbors , its sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and shared a screenwriting credit on Sex Tape . In 2016, Stoller wrote and directed the animated comedy film Storks for Warner Animation Group . The film was released on September 23, 2016. Along with his wife Francesca Delbanco, Stoller created

5376-497: The predominant characteristics are incongruity or contrast in the object and shock or emotional seizure on the part of the subject. It has also been held that the feeling of superiority is an essential factor: thus Thomas Hobbes speaks of laughter as a "sudden glory". Modern investigators have paid much attention to the origin both of laughter and of smiling, as well as the development of the "play instinct" and its emotional expression. George Meredith said that "One excellent test of

5460-560: The presence of other groups of immigrants during the colonial period, both from the British Isles (the Welsh and the Highland Scots) and not (Germans, Dutch, and French Huguenots), but believes that these did not culturally contribute as substantially to the United States as his main four. Apple pie – New England was the first region to experience large-scale English colonization in the early 17th century, beginning in 1620, and it

5544-589: The prewar WASP elite were Loyalists who left the new nation. Nevertheless, longstanding cultural and historical ties have, in more modern times, resulted in the Special Relationship , the exceptionally close political, diplomatic and military co-operation of United Kingdom – United States relations . Linda Colley , a professor of history at Princeton University and specialist in Britishness, suggested that because of their colonial influence on

5628-428: The same role. Self-deprecation is a technique of comedy used by many comedians who focus on their misfortunes and foibles in order to entertain. Stand-up comedy is a mode of comic performance in which the performer addresses the audience directly, usually speaking in their own person rather than as a dramatic character . The deliberate use by Menard of the term 'le rire' rather than 'l'humour' reflects accurately

5712-441: The satyr plays are by Euripides , which are much later examples and not representative of the genre. In ancient Greece, comedy originated in bawdy and ribald songs or recitations apropos of phallic processions and fertility festivals or gatherings. Around 335 BCE, Aristotle , in his work Poetics , stated that comedy originated in phallic processions and the light treatment of the otherwise base and ugly. He also adds that

5796-453: The sense of "laughter-provoking". Of this, the word came into modern usage through the Latin comoedia and Italian commedia and has, over time, passed through various shades of meaning. The Greeks and Romans confined their use of the word "comedy" to descriptions of stage-plays with happy endings. Aristotle defined comedy as an imitation of men worse than the average (where tragedy

5880-664: The stupidity and foolery of those involved in the circumstances. For example, on The Daily Show , Jon Stewart uses the "comic frame" to intervene in political arguments, often offering crude humor in sudden contrast to serious news. In a segment on President Obama 's trip to China, Stewart remarks on America's debt to the Chinese government while also having a weak relationship with the country. After depicting this dismal situation, Stewart shifts to speak directly to President Obama, calling upon him to "shine that turd up." For Stewart and his audience, introducing coarse language into what

5964-529: The subgenres of comedy are farce , comedy of manners , burlesque , and satire . Some comedy apes certain cultural forms: for instance, parody and satire often imitate the conventions of the genre they are parodying or satirizing. For example, in the United States, parodies of newspapers and television news include The Onion , and The Colbert Report ; in Australia, shows such as Kath & Kim , Utopia , and Shaun Micallef's Mad As Hell perform

6048-546: The television series The Carmichael Show (2015–2017), Friends from College (2017–2019), and Platonic (2023–present). Stoller was born on March 19, 1976, in London , and was raised in Miami , Florida , U.S., with his brother, Matt Stoller , a columnist. His mother, Phyllis, is a travel tour operator, and his father, Eric C. Stoller, is a bank executive. Stoller was raised Jewish . He attended high school at St. Paul's ,

6132-560: The total U.S. population self-identified as "American" or "United States", this was counted under "not specified". This response is highly overrepresented in the Upland South , a region settled historically by the British. Those of mixed European ancestry may identify with a more recent and differentiated ethnic group. Of the top ten family names in the United States (2010), seven have English origins or having possible mixed British Isles heritage (such as Welsh, Scottish or Cornish),

6216-490: The total U.S. population self-identified as having British descent. In 1980, 16,418 Americans reported "Northern Islander". No Scots-Irish (descendants of Ulster-Scots ) ancestry was recorded, although over ten million people identified as Scottish. This figure fell to over 5 million each in the following census when the Scotch-Irish were first counted. Over 90.4% of the United States population reported at least one ancestry, 9.6% (23,921,371) individuals as "not stated" with

6300-419: The total list of the 101 communities, see references) As of 2020, the distribution of British Americans (combined English, Welsh, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, and British ancestry self-identification) across the 50 states and DC is as presented in the following table: The British diaspora consists of the scattering of British people and their descendants who emigrated from the United Kingdom. The diaspora

6384-459: Was an imitation of men better than the average). However, the characters portrayed in comedies were not worse than average in every way, only insofar as they are Ridiculous, which is a species of the Ugly. The Ridiculous may be defined as a mistake or deformity not productive of pain or harm to others; the mask, for instance, that excites laughter is something ugly and distorted without causing pain. In

6468-521: Was dominated by East Anglian Calvinists, better known as the Puritans . Baking was a particular favorite of the New Englanders and was the origin of dishes seen today as quintessentially "American", such as apple pie and the oven-roasted Thanksgiving turkey. "As American as apple pie" is a well-known phrase used to suggest that something is all-American. Buick – David Dunbar Buick was

6552-516: Was estimated to be 63%, comprising 52% English and Welsh, 7.0% Scots-Irish, and 4% Scottish. The ancestry of the 3,929,214 population in 1790 has been estimated by various sources by sampling last names in the very first United States official census and assigning them a country of origin. There is debate over the accuracy between the studies with individual scholars and the Federal Government using different techniques and conclusion for

6636-629: Was named after Catherine of Braganza (Queen Catherine), the wife of the King Charles II . Comedy Satire and political satire use comedy to portray people or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, thus alienating their audience from the object of their humor. Parody subverts popular genres and forms, critiquing those forms without necessarily condemning them. Other forms of comedy include screwball comedy , which derives its humor largely from bizarre, surprising (and improbable) situations or characters, and black comedy , which

6720-452: Was of European heritage. Around 757,208 were of African descent with 697,624 being slaves. Estimated British American population in the Continental United States as of the 1790 Census . The 1909 Century of Population Growth report came under intense scrutiny in the 1920s; its methodology was subject to criticism over fundamental flaws that cast doubt on the accuracy of its conclusions. The catalyst for controversy had been passage of

6804-441: Was perfectly beautiful, and contained only a single tree, 503 feet high. In the early 20th century, several avant-garde movements, including the dadaists , surrealists , and futurists , began to argue for an art that was random, jarring and illogical. The goals of these movements were in some sense serious, and they were committed to undermining the solemnity and self-satisfaction of the contemporary artistic establishment . As

6888-546: Was produced in 1909, the concept of independent Ireland did not even exist. CPG made no attempt to further classify its estimated 1.9% Irish population to distinguish Celtic Irish Catholics of Gaelic Ireland , who in 1922 formed the independent Irish Free State , from the Scotch-Irish descendants of Ulster Scots and Anglo-Irish of the Plantation of Ulster , which became Northern Ireland and remained part of

6972-543: Was surpassed in rate and number by Scottish and Irish migrants. The British policy of salutary neglect for its North American colonies intended to minimize trade restrictions as a way of ensuring they stayed loyal to British interests. This permitted the development of the American Dream , a cultural spirit distinct from that of its European founders. The Thirteen Colonies of British America began an armed rebellion against British rule in 1775 when they rejected

7056-409: Was translated into Arabic in the medieval Islamic world , where it was elaborated upon by Arabic writers and Islamic philosophers , such as Abu Bishr , and his pupils Al-Farabi , Avicenna , and Averroes . They disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms, such as hija (satirical poetry). They viewed comedy as simply

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