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Stand-up comedy

A film still of a man sitting at a dressing room mirror with lights

In ‘The Humorist,’ Soviet comedy is no joke

Michael Idov’s new film, “The Humorist,” captures the oxymoronic nature of state-sanctioned Soviet comedy and the downfall of the system through the eyes of character, Boris Arkadiev.

Comedian Shecky Greene performs in 1976.

Tough crowd

Culture
The original Broadway recording of Whoopi Goldberg’s one woman show.

Aha Moment: Whoopi Goldberg

Aha Moments
Aparna Nancherla

Aparna Nancherla’s failed science career

Arts
Samia Orosemane tweaks stereotypes about her North African community in her one-woman show in Paris.

Why French Muslim comedian Samia Orosemane says she’s like a UFO

Arts
Kansiime Anne

East Africa’s ‘Queen of Comedy’ is as progressive as she is funny

Arts

Kansiime Anne is a comedic superstar in East Africa. But she’s not just making people laugh. She’s also starting conversations.

Outside Paris' Le Comedy Club before the performace of comedians Younes and Bambi, aka Younes Depardieuis and Samuel Djian. Younes is Muslim. Samuel is Jewish.

A Muslim and a Jew walk into a comedy club in Paris — and hilarity ensues

Culture

After the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were murdered for their irreverent drawings of the Prophet Mohammed, some in France have accused Muslims of lacking a sense of humor. As it turns out, many of France’s most successful comedians are Muslims.

Why What’s Funny in China Might Surprise You

Arts, Culture & Media

Nothing translates as badly as humor and the more different the foreign language the less funny the joke it seems. So how can we in the US understand Chinese humor? The World’s Nina Porzucki recently went to China to figure it out.

Stand-up comedy in the Middle East

Arts, Culture & Media

At the Amman Stand-Up Comedy Festival in Jordan, you won’t hear a lot of jokes about the government, but mother-in-laws are fair game.

Humoring the Chinese: An American Comedian has a Run-in With Chinese Censorship

Global Politics

Fulbright scholar Jesse Appell went to China to study the tradition of Chinese stand-up comedy. But after he made a spoof video of Psy’s megahit, “Gangnam Style” which he called “Laowai Style” he found himself at the center of his own comedy.