1.
Comedy
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In a modern sense, comedy refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film, and stand-up comedy. The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece, in the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a performance which pits two groups 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 that pose obstacles to his hopes. Satire and political satire use comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, parody subverts popular genres and forms, critiquing those forms without necessarily condemning them. Similarly scatological humour, sexual humour, and race humour create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways, a comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society and uses humor to parody or satirize the behaviour and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms. The adjective comic, which means that which relates to comedy is, in modern usage. Of this, the word came into usage through the Latin comoedia and Italian commedia and has, over time. The Greeks and Romans confined their use of the comedy to descriptions of stage-plays with happy endings. Aristotle defined comedy as an imitation of men worse than the average, however, the characters portrayed in comedies were not worse than average in every way, only insofar as they are Ridiculous, which is a species of the Ugly. The Ridiculous may be defined as a mistake or deformity not productive of pain or harm to others, the mask, for instance, in the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings. It is in this sense that Dante used the term in the title of his poem, as time progressed, the word came more and more to be associated with any sort of performance intended to cause laughter. During the Middle Ages, the comedy became synonymous with satire. They disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms and they viewed comedy as simply the art of reprehension, and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or to the troubling beginnings and happy endings associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century, the term gained a more general meaning in medieval literature. Starting from 425 BCE, Aristophanes, a playwright and satirical author of the Ancient Greek Theater wrote 40 comedies,11 of which survive. Aristophanes developed his type of comedy from the satyr plays
2.
Jacob Wysocki
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Jacob Wysocki is an American actor and comedian. Wysocki became interested in acting while still in high school, during these years, he also performed with ComedySportz and started to act in school plays. Afterwards he was cast as Dante Piznarski in the ABC Family drama series Huge and he took his first leading role in 2011 alongside John C. In 2014 he starred in the horror movie Unfriended
3.
MTV
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MTV is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by Viacom Media Networks and headquartered in New York City. Launched on August 1,1981, the originally aired music videos as guided by television personalities known as video jockeys. In its early years, MTVs main target demographic was young adults and it has received criticism towards this change of focus, both by certain segments of its audience and musicians. MTVs influence on its audience, including issues involving censorship and social activism, has also been a subject of debate for several years, in recent years, MTV had struggled with the secular decline of music-related cable media. In April 2016, MTV announced it would start to return to its original music roots with the reintroduction of the classic MTV series MTV Unplugged. It was also reported that the series MTV Cribs would be making a return on Snapchat, MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the US and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent. As of July 2015, approximately 92,188,000 US households have received MTV, several earlier concepts for music video-based television programming had been around since the early 1960s. The Beatles had used music videos to promote their records starting in the mid-1960s, CBS rejected the idea, but Williams premiered his own musical composition Classical Gas on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, where he was head writer. The series featured clips from various popular artists, but was canceled by its distributor in 1971. The channel, which featured video disc jockeys, signed a deal with US Cable in 1978 to expand its audience from retail to cable television, the service was no longer active by the time MTV launched in 1981. The QUBE system offered many specialized channels, One of these specialized channels was Sight on Sound, a music channel that featured concert footage and music-oriented television programs. With the interactive QUBE service, viewers could vote for their favorite songs, the original programming format of MTV was created by media executive Robert W. Pittman, who later became president and chief executive officer of MTV Networks. Pittman had test-driven the music format by producing and hosting a 15-minute show, Album Tracks, the inspiration for PopClips came from a similar program on New Zealands TVNZ network named Radio with Pictures, which premiered in 1976. The concept itself had been in the works since 1966, when record companies began supplying the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation with promotional music clips to play on the air at no charge. Few artists made the trip to New Zealand to appear live. A shortened version of the shuttle launch ID ran at the top of hour in various forms. The first music video shown on MTV was The Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star and this was followed by the video for Pat Benatars You Better Run. Sporadically, the screen would go black when an employee at MTV inserted a tape into a VCR, MTVs lower third graphics that appeared near the beginning and end of music videos would eventually use the recognizable Kabel typeface for about 25 years
4.
Sasheer Zamata
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Sasheer Zamata Moore, known professionally as Sasheer Zamata, is an American actress and comedian who is a cast member on Saturday Night Live. Her first appearance on the show was January 18,2014 and she also has served as a celebrity ambassador for the ACLU. Zamata was raised in Indianapolis, Indiana and is a graduate of Pike High School and she is the daughter of Ivory Steward and Henry Moore, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. She attended the University of Virginia, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Zamata was a founding member of the Universitys long-form improv comedy troupe, Amuse Bouche. Zamata has performed regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City since 2009, Zamata co-starred in the ABC News hidden camera series Primetime, Would You Fall For That. She was a cast member on MTVs series Hey Girl, Zamata has also appeared in sketches on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell and Inside Amy Schumer. She stars in the webseries Pursuit of Sexiness, additionally, she has appeared in sketches for CollegeHumor. Videos on Zamatas YouTube channel include impersonations of Michelle Obama, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Tyra Banks, in 2014, Zamata joined the cast of NBCs Saturday Night Live during its 39th season. Zamata is the first black female cast member on SNL since Maya Rudolph departed midway through the shows 33rd season in 2007, Zamata debuted on SNL as a featured player in the January 18 episode hosted by Drake, in which she impersonated Rihanna. She was promoted to repertory player in the first episode of Season 41, Zamata was named a celebrity ambassador to the American Civil Liberties Union in 2015, and began work with the Womens Rights Project. The ACLU Womens Rights project seeks to break down gender biases and ensure equal opportunities, educational equity. She has spoken out on gender discrimination in the U. S. today, in an interview with Allure Magazine, Zamata opened up about her experiences with discrimination and colorism. Though often stigmatized for her skin tone, she hopes to turn her experiences into a message of self-acceptance. Official website Sasheer Zamata at the Internet Movie Database
5.
Kerri Kenney-Silver
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Kerri Kenney-Silver is an American actress, comedian, singer and writer best known as a cast member on MTVs The State and for her role as Deputy Trudy Wiegel on the Comedy Central series Reno 911. Kenney-Silver was born Kerri Kenney in Westport, Connecticut, the daughter of Sharon and Larry Kenney and she has a sister, Ashley, and a brother, Tanner. During the early 1990s, Kenney-Silver was the singer and bass guitarist of the indie rock band Cake Like. Kenney-Silver attended NYU where she joined the comedy group The New Group which ultimately became The State. The group was picked up for a sketch comedy show on MTV, The State. After the shows completion, Kenney-Silver continued working with her fellow members on other projects. In 1996, she co-wrote and starred in Viva Variety, a parody of variety shows aired on Comedy Central for two seasons. In 2000, Kenney-Silver voiced the character of Gravitina in the childrens cartoon Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and she has since done a number of voices on the Nickelodeon series Invader Zim. Additionally, she was cast as a regular on The Ellen Show and she later found success with Reno 911. A series on Comedy Central that parodied police reality shows like COPS, which featured former members of the State, Thomas Lennon, Ben Garant. The show was cancelled in 2009 after six seasons, Kenney-Silver also appeared on the TV series Still Standing. In July 2008, Kenney-Silver made her debut as Dame Delilah, on the site, various comedians give video testimony as characters working at or otherwise visiting the fictional Cat House. Kenney-Silver created the series and it was produced by her husband, Steve Silver, Kenney-Silver was among the cast of Suburban Shootout, a pilot episode directed and executive produced by Barry Sonnenfeld for HBO. The pilot filmed in The Hamptons, Long Island, in September 2008, HBO has not announced if it will pick up the pilot for a season. The pilot is based on the British comedy of the same name, Kenney-Silver has appeared in films such as All About Steve, Reno 911. Balls of Fury, The Ten, Role Models, and Wanderlust, in March 2012 it was announced Kenney-Silver had been cast a lead role in the ABC comedy pilot Counter Culture about three aging sisters running their family diner together in West Texas. The pilot was not picked up for production by ABC, in 2015 she began voicing the character of Miriam in the Nickelodeon series Harvey Beaks. In 2016 she appeared in the role of Syd, Mickeys neighbor
6.
Sheryl Lee Ralph
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Sheryl Lee Ralph is an American actress, singer, and activist. Ralph has appeared in a number of movies during her career, in 1991, she received Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her role in the drama film To Sleep with Anger. Her other film credits include The Mighty Quinn, The Distinguished Gentleman, Sister Act 2, Back in the Habit, and Deterrence. On television, Ralph starred from 1986 to 1989 in the syndicated sitcom Its a Living, and later had the roles in the short-lived ABC sitcom New Attitude. From 1996 to 2001, she starred as Dee Mitchell in the UPN sitcom Moesha, sheryl Lee Ralph released her first book Redefining Diva, Life Lessons from the Original Dreamgirl by Simon & Schuster. In 2016 she played Madame Morrible in Wicked on Broadway, Ralph was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, the daughter of Ivy, a fashion designer, and Stanley Ralph, a college professor. Her father was African-American and her mother Afro-Jamaican, according to a DNA analysis, she descends partly from the Tikar people of Cameroon. She was raised between Mandeville, Jamaica, and Long Island, Ralph attended Uniondale High School in Uniondale, New York. She starred in a production of the musical Oklahoma. Earlier that year, she was crowned Miss Black Teen-age New York, also that year she was named one of the top ten college women in America by Glamour magazine. Many years later, she served as the commencement speaker at Rutgers for the Class of 2003, Ralph began her career on the stage, and was nominated in 1982 for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Deena Jones in Dreamgirls. In 1984, Ralph released her only album In the Evening, in 1988 she starred in the Disney movie Oliver & Company, providing the voice of Rita. Her first leading role in a film came as Denzel Washingtons wife in The Mighty Quinn, in 1992 she starred with Robert De Niro in the title role in Mistress. That same year, she co-starred with Eddie Murphy in The Distinguished Gentleman, during the 1990s she also had roles in The Flintstones, Deterrence, and Unconditional Love. On television, she was in the cast of the CBS daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow while starring on Broadway in Dreamgirls and she is known for playing Ginger St. James on Its a Living, Etienne Toussaint-Bouvier on Designing Women, and Dee Mitchell on Moesha. She provided the voice of Cheetah in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited and she also played Florence Watson, the mother of Rita Louise Watson in the 1993 film Sister Act 2, Back in the Habit. Ralph produced Divas Simply Singing, which has become an important AIDS fundraiser and she also appeared on the Showtime series Barbershop as Claire. Sheryl brought a new face to the sufferings of war in the NBC hit series ER, ralphs 2002 project Baby of the Family concerns a young child who is born with a caul over her head, which enables her to see ghosts and the future
7.
Common Sense Media
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Common Sense Media is a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that provides education and advocacy to families to promote safe technology and media for children. Common Sense Media has also developed a set of ratings that are intended to gauge the educational value of videos, games, the nonprofits Learning Ratings attempt to assess different types of learning qualities within various forms of media. The new rating system was funded in part by SCEFDNs $10 million learning initiative program, donations from foundations and individuals and fees from media partners finance Common Sense Media. Today, the organization distributes its content to more than 100 million US homes via partnerships with a variety of traditional, Common Sense Media describes itself as the nation’s largest membership organization dedicated to improving kids’ media lives. By 2016, the organization had over 65 million unique users, in 2016, Charlie Rose reported that Common Sense Media was the United States largest non-profit dedicated to childrens issues. In addition to its English language services, Common Sense Media also offers resources in Spanish, after founding JP Kids, an educational media company for children, and Children Now, a national child advocacy and media group, Jim Steyer founded Common Sense Media in 2003. In an interview with the New York Times, Steyer said he intended to “create a huge constituency for parents, the group received $500,000 in seed money from a group of donors including Charles Schwab, George Roberts, and James Coulter. It said that 81 percent expressed concern that the media in general were encouraging violent or antisocial behavior in children. ”Common Sense Media reviews thousands of movies, TV shows, music, video games, apps, web sites and books. For each title, Common Sense Media indicates the age for which a title is appropriate or most relevant. An overall five-star quality rating is included, as are discussion questions to help families talk about their entertainment. In addition to Common Sense Medias traditional rating system, they offer a set of learning based ratings. Common Sense Media partners with a number of companies that distribute the organization’s free content to more than 100 million homes in the United States. According to Common Sense Media’s website, the organization has content distribution contracts with Road Runner, TiVo, the organization’s current rating system differs from the system used by the Motion Picture Association of America and the Entertainment Software Rating Board. It has received support from parents, and was singled out by US President Barack Obama as a model for using technology to empower parents. Common Sense Media began allowing studios to use their ratings and endorsements in order to promote family-friendly movies in 2014, the first film to use the endorsement was Disney’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Common Sense Media has played a role in influencing billions of dollars in government spending on education-related technologies including classroom broadband access and various learning apps. In April 2015, they launched the national effort, Common Sense Kids Action, to push for certain state. As of 2016, the Common Sense Education program had grown to include over 300,000 member teachers in approximately 100,000 schools
8.
IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
