Radio comedy

Radio comedy, or comedic radio programming, is a radio broadcast that may involve sitcom elements, sketches, and many other forms of comedy found on other mediums. It may also include more surreal or fantastic elements, as these can be conveyed on a small budget with just a few sound effects or some simple dialogue. Because of this, it is often less restrictive and can allow for more imaginative and inventive comedy.

Background and history

Although traditional comedy was once a significant part of American broadcast radio programming, it is now mainly found in the archives of Old Time Radio enthusiasts and in Internet streaming of comedy recordings. The majority of mainstream radio comedy now consists of personality-driven shows hosted by shock jocks such as Howard Stern or comedic duos such as Armstrong & Getty and Bob & Tom. Exceptions to this are WSRN's "Audience of Two", Garrison Keillor's work on Minnesota Public Radio: "A Prairie Home Companion" and "Comedy College", and NPR's Car Talk, a comedy show thinly disguised as car advice.

In Britain and Canada, however, the BBC and CBC respectively have continued making new radio comedy and drama. British radio comedy also has a home on Australia's Radio National and in Ireland there are always a few comedy shows in the week's programming on RTÉ.

Many of the BBC's most successful television comedies began life as radio shows. These include Hancock's Half Hour, Goodness Gracious Me!, Knowing Me, Knowing You, The League Of Gentlemen, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Room 101, Have I Got News For You, (based on Radio 4's The News Quiz), Dead Ringers and most recently Absolute Power. The science fiction comedy Red Dwarf was developed from ideas in a radio show called Son Of Cliché. Another science fiction comedy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy went from radio to television but also to books, website and various forms including the h2g2 project (which is both like and unlike Wikipedia). This has unfairly led to some people viewing radio as just a stepping stone to television, ignoring the many advantages of the medium.

Examples of American radio comedy can be heard on streaming internet radio stations. Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" can be heard on public radio stations in the United States and a different version of the shows can be heard on BBC7 and RTÉ under the name "Garrison Keillor's Radio Show". Old shows can be listened to online at the websites of "A Prairie Home Companion" or RTÉ. British radio comedy can be heard on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 2 and BBC7. Minnesota Public Radio maintains a website where it is possible to listen to episodes of "Comedy College". A British commercial station "Oneword" broadcasts American vintage radio comedy as part of their 24 hour-a-day programming of books, comedy and drama and this is streamed on the internet.

Interest in radio comedy and radio drama is currently enjoying a resurgence. Epguides.com ( http://www.epguides.com ) which provides encyclopedic information on television shows has recently begun to build a similar list of radio shows at: http://www.epguides.com/menu/radio.shtml .

In America, new groups have formed to try to bring about a renewed interest in the art-form. At the fore-front of this new wave of audio-only comedic groups is Peeper Radio Theatre.

List of radio comedies

Produced Independently

The Sound of Young America

Produced by or for the CBC

CBC Festival of Comedy
CBC Festival of Funny
Chas Lawther's Stand Up Documentaries
The Chumps Without a Net
The Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour
Double Exposure (comedy series)
*The Frantics Frantic Times, Fran of the Fundy, and The Frantics Look at History
Gary & Ivan's Winnebago Tour
Great Eastern
Growing Up and Having Babies
The Happy Gang
Here Come the Seventies (radio show)
How to Seem Smart
The Irrelevant Show
Laugh in a Half
Madly Off in All Directions
Mr. Interesting's Guide to the Continental United States
The Muckraker
The Norm
Radio Free Vestibule
Rick and Pete Grow Up and Have Babies
The Royal Canadian Air Farce
Running with Scissors with Mr. Interesting
Sunny Days and Nights
This Hour Has 17 Programs
Those People Across the Street
The Vinyl Cafe
What a Week

Produced by or for US public radio

A Prairie Home Companion (Minnesota Public Radio)
Comedy College (Minnesota PR)
Le Show (KCRW)
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! (Chicago Public Radio)

Produced by or for RTÉ

The Apocalypse of Bill Lizard
The Comedy Improv Radio Show
Beyond the Back of Beyond
Scrap Saturday

Produced by or for the BBC

15 Minutes of Misery
15 Storeys High
4 At The Store
The 99p Challenge
Absolute Power
And Now in Colour
The Arthur Smith Lectures
Beat The Kids
Boothby Graffoe, "In No Particular Order"
Creme de la Crime
Concrete Cow
The Consultants
Dead Ringers
Delve Special
Educating Archie
Fist of Fun
Flight of the Conchords
Genius
Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off
Getting Nowhere Fast
Goodness Gracious Me!
The Goon Show
Hancock's Half Hour
The Harpoon
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hole In The Wall Gang
The House of Milton Jones
The Hudson and Pepperdine Show
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again
In One Ear
It's Been a Bad Week
It's That Man Again
Jackie Mason
Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation
Just a Minute
King Street Junior
Knowing Me, Knowing You
The League of Gentlemen
Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World
Lines from My Grandfather's Forehead
Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting
Little Britain
Loose Ends
The Mark Steel Lectures
The Mark Steel Revolution
The Mark Steel Solution
The Mel and Sue Thing
Men from the Ministry
Mitch Benn's Crimes Against Music
Much Binding in the Marsh
The Museum of Everything
The Navy Lark
Nebulous
The News Quiz
The Now Show
Old Harry's Game
On the Hour
The Party Line
Paperback Hell
People Like Us
The Problem with Adam Bloom
Quote... Unquote
Radio Active
The Remains of Foley and McColl
Robin and Wendy's Wet Weekends
Room 101
Ross Noble Goes Global
Round the Horne
Steptoe and Son
The Sunday Format
Take It from Here
Think the Unthinkable
The Very World of Milton Jones
We've Been Here Before
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
World of Pub
Yes Minister (Adapted from television)
You'll Have Had Your Tea (a spin-off from I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue)

Radio comedy: Encyclopedia BETA

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