Claim: Andy Kaufman acted.

Sketch comedy comprises a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes , called `` sketches '' , commonly between one and ten minutes long . Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians , either on stage or through an audio or visual medium such as radio and television . Often sketches are first improvised by the actors and written down based on the outcome of these improv sessions ; however , such improvisation is not necessarily involved in sketch comedy .   An individual comedy sketch is a brief scene or vignette of the type formerly used in vaudeville , and now used widely in comedy and variety shows , talk shows and some children 's television series -LRB- such as Sesame Street -RRB- .   Sketch comedians routinely differentiate their product from a `` skit '' , maintaining that a skit is a -LRB- single -RRB- dramatized joke -LRB- or `` bit '' -RRB- while a sketch is a comedic exploration of a concept , character or situation .