This paper explores the question: Stand-up comedy, like jazz, is a unique American art form.” Critically evaluate this statement by reference to entertainment history, and critically evaluate the idea that there is such a thing as “American humor.”

Research questions
1. Does stand-up comedy qualify to be regarded a uniquely American art form given the several criticisms leveled against it? As a probable answer to the question, though most studies rubbish the contribution of stand-up comedy to the American theatrical culture, this paper nevertheless finds its contribution quite significant.
2. Is it true that Americans are naturally not humorous? Although American stand-up is arguably much weaker than it used to be, the fact that huge television audiences are increasingly being plied with jokes coupled with plenty of good comic fiction is an indication of the efforts made to make Americans laugh again.
Literature review
Charles Dickens once regarded the Americans as a not a very funny lot. Indeed, he wrote, “they are certainly are not humorous persons, and their temperament always impresses me as being of a dull and gloomy character (Peter, and Joel, 2014).” Probably, it was Dickens’ criticism of the old American comedy that saw the development of the modern stand-up comedy. However, this did not mean that there were not early American humorists in his times given that individuals like Augustus Baldwin Longstreet and Mark Twain had helped shape a unique strain of American comedy. Nevertheless, perhaps what made Dickens regard Americans an unhappy lot were the protracted tales and recurrent references to small-town life that characterized American comedy.
Stand-up comedy, like jazz, has no narrative structure, plot, sets, editors, producers or even a backstory (Moira’s, 2012). According to Peter, and Joel, (2014), stand-up is basically comedy boiled down to the comedian and the audience with the actor tasked with the duty of scoring a laugh. British comedians are nonetheless very critical of stand-up comedy, arguing that it is an unusual performance art in which a space packed with persons with a comedian facing the wrong direction, the only being not laughing (Benwilson’s, 2012). Proponents of this view regard stand-up comedy regard it as a “people’s nightmare, and very far from being a career aspiration’ (Lakeland, 1972).
Peter, and Joel, (2014) follow the origins of stand-up comedy to the variety, of parody plays that throve in New York City’s turn of the century burlesque auditoria. Though Lakeland, (1972) faults it for its racy stripteases and dancing girl performances, Benwilson’s, (2012) nonetheless finds solace in the energetic, fast-paced nature of the stand-up. Indeed, most stand-ups were designed to conciliate a new class of spectators, a multifarious crew of native-born Americans and migrant labors. Unlike the older generation, this new audience was intimately conversant with the physical and the frenzied nature of contemporary city life and were never fascinated in the disheveled campfire tales of the ancient days (Peter, and Joel, 2014). Thus, what made stand-comedy be part of the American culture is that it has gradually grown alongside the American populace.
Stand-up comedy has over the years become ubiquitous given its cultural contribution to the American society. Indeed, Peter and Joel, (2014) note that ways of describing a truly unique American experience require new and innovative means of expressions that can probably be done by stand-up comedians. Stand-up comedians have managed to contribute to the American culture in some of the funniest, most insightful, at times most stringy sad, and poetic ways (Benwilson’s, 2012).