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===Modern era=== {{Main|History of stand-up comedy}} American performance comedy has its roots in the 1840s from the [[Three-act structure|three-act]], [[variety show]] format of [[minstrel show]]s (via [[blackface]] performances of the [[Jim Crow (character)|Jim Crow character]]); [[Frederick Douglass]] criticized these shows for profiting from and perpetuating [[racism]].<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Kippola |first=Karl M. |date=August 2012 |chapter=Conclusion: Affirming White Masculinity by Deriding the Other |title=Acts of Manhood: The Performance of Masculinity on the American Stage, 1828β1865 |series=Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History |location=New York, NY |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |pages=176β77 |doi=10.1057/9781137068774 |isbn=978-1-349-34304-1 |quote=[[Thomas D. Rice]] (1808β1860) originated the Jim Crow character, inspiring the minstrel show, which evolved into one of the most popular forms of variety entertainment through the end of the century and into the first distinctly American form of theatrical entertainment ... In the 1840s and 50s, the Virginia and Christy Minstrels built upon Rice's success, formalizing a three-act structure of music and humor, variety entertainment, and scenes from plantation life (or burlesques of popular plays). Appealing across class lines, the minstrel show employed archetypal characters, created derogatory and fictitious pictures of African American males, and provided a lens through which whites viewed blacks ... Frederick Douglass described the purveyors of minstrel entertainment as 'filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied to them by nature, in which to make money, and pander to the corrupt taste of their white fellow citizens.' Minstrelsy relied on the promise of presenting 'real' Southern life.}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite web |url=https://news.psu.edu/story/141330/2008/09/12/research/probing-question-what-are-roots-stand-comedy |title=Probing Question: What are the roots of stand-up comedy? |last=Parker |first=Bethany |date=12 September 2008 |department=Research |website=PennState News |publisher=The Pennsylvania State University |location=University Park, Pennsylvania |access-date=24 February 2019 |quote=American stand-up comedy has its beginnings in the minstrel shows of the early 1800s}}</ref> Minstrelsy [[monologist]]s performed second-act, [[Stump speech (minstrelsy)|stump-speech monologues]] from within minstrel shows until 1896.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vshtml/vsforms.html |title=Forms of Variety Theater |author=<!--Not stated--> |department=American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment: 1870β1920 |website=Library of Congress |type=exhibit |access-date=24 January 2021 |quote=[T]he minstrel show was the most popular form of public amusement in the United States from the 1840s through the 1870s. It virtually ended, in its original form, by 1896, although vestiges lasted well into the twentieth century. Much humor in later comedy forms originated in minstrelsy and adapted itself to new topics and circumstances. The minstrel show also provided American burlesque and other variety forms with a prototypical three-part format. The minstrel show began with a 'walk around' with a verbal exchange between the 'end' men and the interlocutor. An 'olio,' or variety section, followed. Finally, a one-act skit completed the show.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1= Oliar | first1= Dotan | last2= Sprigman | first2= Christopher | date= 2008 | title= There's No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy | url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/25470605 | journal= Virginia Law Review | volume= 94 | issue= 8 | page= 1843 | jstor= 25470605 | access-date= 16 September 2020 | quote= Stand-up's early roots can also be traced back to minstrel, a variety show format based in racial stereotypes which was widely performed in America between the 1840s and the 1940s. Minstrel acts would script dedicated ad-lib moments for direct actor-audience communication: these spots often were used for telling quick jokes.}}</ref> American standup also emerged in [[vaudeville]] theatre from the 1880s to the 1930s, with such comics as [[W. C. Fields]], [[Buster Keaton]] and the [[Marx Brothers]]. British performance comedy has its roots in 1850 [[music hall]] theatres, where [[Charlie Chaplin]], [[Stan Laurel]], and [[Dan Leno]] first performed,<ref name="Karno"/> mentored by comedian and theatre impresario [[Fred Karno]], who developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue in the 1890s and also pioneered [[slapstick comedy]].<ref name="Karno">McCabe, John. "Comedy World of Stan Laurel". p. 143. London: Robson Books, 2005, First edition 1975</ref>
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