Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term originated in ancient Greece: In Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses which engender dramatic irony, which provokes laughter.

Stand-up comedy is a type of comedy performance directed to a live audience in which the performer stands on a stage and delivers humorous and satirical monologues, with occasional physical acts. The performance is usually a rhetorical sketch with rehearsed scripts, but many performers also employ varying degrees of live crowd interaction as part of their routine. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, observations, or shticks that may incorporate props, music, impressions, magic tricks, or ventriloquism.