Comedy Ensembles

A comedy ensemble is a group of comedians made up of two or more elements, usually acting under a collective pseudonym and specializing in performing live or recorded humorous sketches. An ensemble normally utilizes the same artistic procedures and devices as stand-up comedians and is able to create articulated humorous situations thanks to its [Page 145]extended team. In this entry, an overview is given of the history of ensembles and how they work, and some particularly famous examples of ensembles in the history of TV and cinema are discussed.

From the documental evidence that has survived, the origins of comedy ensembles as we know them go as far back as those of comedy itself, around 6th century BCE, with the rise of Old Comedy in ancient Greece. Back then, temporary and permanent associations of actors performed humorous numbers and satires for the first time as part of the yearly rituals dedicated to Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstasy. Comedy was highly regarded also in republican and imperial Rome and stable companies of actors regularly staged the works of renowned comedy playwrights, such as the Greek Aristophanes and Menander and the Latin Plautus and Terence.

After a long period of neglect following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the rebirth of theater in the High Middle Ages (after the year 1000) favored the formation of stable companies that staged at first morality and miracle plays and eventually switched to diableries (devilish plays) and comedies, at the time still carrying a religious moral. The rediscovery of the ancient Greek and Roman authors brought about by Humanism and the Renaissance in 14th-century Italy allowed comedy to gain strength and to free itself completely from any residual religious meanings. Comedies began to be staged by professional companies especially in Italy, France, England, and Spain. Notably, William Shakespeare's companies in Elizabethan England distinguished themselves for their uncommon ability in playing both comedies and tragedies. Since then, the major changes involving comedy ensembles have occurred starting from the end of the 19th century, with the inventions of radio, cinema, and TV, which originated a specialization and a proliferation of comedy ensembles in the new media.

Today, the most common formation for ensembles is the comedy duo, also called double act, where two people play the often stereotyped, complementary roles of the straight man, also known as feed, dead wood, or stooge, and the comic, also called banana man or funny man. The straight man is in most cases the serious, balanced, even deadpan persona who provides the audience with a commonsense perspective with which one can easily identify, but can also prove to be sarcastic and poignant in the remarks made on the comic's actions, appearances, or words. The comic, on the other hand, draws upon the framework provided by the straight man—hence the “feed” nickname of the former— and disrupts it through a distorted reasoning often ending in a series of punch lines. These in most of cases exploit the double meanings of classical rhetorical devices such as metaphor, similitude, synecdoche, or metonymy, thus exposing incongruities and arousing laughter. In addition to verbal humor, the ensemble can employ a variety of visual devices ranging from funny disguises to parodic objects.

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