The Modern Stand-Up Special: A Shift In Consumer Culture

Abstract

Stand-up comedy is an art form with many genres and subgenres that have risen and sank in popularity over the years. In the nineteen-sixties, political and social comedy became the mainstay stand-up comedy genre. By the time the nineteen-eighties arrived, comedians and audiences alike were familiar enough with the structure that experimental acts became extremely popular in the mainstream. The current stand-up genre that has been rising to mainstream prominence has only begun to become established within the mid-twenty-teens. It focuses less on traditional stand-up jokes, and much more on serious social and political issues with only a light sheen of humor to make the content slightly palatable. The new sub-genre breaks stand-up conventions, sometimes showing outright contempt for the established artform's structure and content. The rise of this sub-genre shows a change in the consumer base for stand-up comedy and the culture influencing it.