Comedy Central

**Comedy Central** is an American pay television channel owned by MTV Networks, a unit of Verizon Television. The channel is geared for mature audiences and carries comedy programming in the form of both original, licensed, and syndicated series and stand-up comedy specials, as well as feature films.
Since the early 2000s, Comedy Central has expanded globally with localized channels in Southeast Asia, Europe, Latin America, New Zealand, Middle East and Africa. The international channels are operated by Viacom International Media Networks.

Comedy Central is available to approximately 91,859,000 households (78.919% of households with TV) as of January 2016.

## History

### Early years (1989–1991)

On November 15, 1989, Time Warner, owners of HBO launched The Comedy Channel as the first cable channel devoted exclusively to comedy-based programming. On April 1, 1990, Viacom (who owned MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon) launched a rival channel called Ha! that featured reruns of situation comedies and some original sketch comedy.

The Comedy Channel's programs were broadcast from the HBO Downtown Studios at 120 East 23rd Street in Manhattan. The format prior to the merger with Ha! included several original and unconventional programs such as *Onion World* with Rich Hall and *Mystery Science Theater 3000*, as well as laid-back variety/talk shows hosted by comedians, including *The Sweet Life* with Rachel Sweet, *Night After Night with Allan Havey*, *Sports Monster*, and *The Higgins Boys and Gruber*, the latter of whom performed sketches in between showings of vintage television series like *Supercar*, *Clutch Cargo*, and *Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp*.

The standard format for The Comedy Channel's shows usually involved the various hosts introducing clips culled from the acts of stand-up comedians as well as classic comedies of the 1970s and 1980s, such as *Young Frankenstein* and *Kentucky Fried Movie*, presented in a style similar to music videos. In the early days, certain hours of the day when clips were shown without "host segments" were dubbed *Short Attention Span Theater*. In 1990, hosts under this title, Jon Stewart and Patty Rosborough, were introduced. Comedian Marc Maron also hosted the series.

While The Comedy Channel broadcast mostly low-budget original programming, Ha!'s schedule featured sitcom and sketch comedy reruns (many of which had been previously licensed for sister network Nick at Nite) as well as complete 90-minute reruns of *Saturday Night Live* from the sixth through 16th seasons.

After two years of limited distribution, the two channels merged into one, relaunching on April 1, 1991 as CTV: The Comedy Network; it later changed its name to Comedy Central on June 1, 1991 to prevent issues with the Canadian broadcast television network CTV, which would eventually be its Canadian content partner through The Comedy Network when that channel started operations six years later. Comedy Partners was originally a partnership of Home Box Office, Inc., the subsidiary of Time Warner that owned The Comedy Channel and HBO's half and Viacom Hearty Ha! Ha! LLC, the subsidiary that owned Ha! and Viacom's half of the network during its first years on air. Viacom bought out AOL Time Warner's half in April 2003 for $1.23 billion. Despite HBO's exit from the venture, the Viacom Media Networks division in charge of Comedy Central is still called Comedy Partners, currently being a partnership of Viacom International, the operating subsidiary of Viacom of which Viacom Media Networks is a division, and Viacom Hearty Ha! Ha! LLC, the subsidiary that owned Ha! and Viacom's original half of the network.

### 1991–97

 File:Comedy Central logo (1990s).svg
From the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, much of the programming on Comedy Central and its predecessors consisted of comedy films, sitcom reruns, half-hour specials, and clip shows featuring comedians. With the exception of the cult favorite *Mystery Science Theater 3000*, the channel had a relatively small viewership. A notable early success was *Politically Incorrect* with Bill Maher, which after showing promise on Comedy Central was quickly snapped up by ABC. Additionally, *The Daily Show* had got its start with original host Craig Kilborn, although it would take a few more years for the show to reach high popularity (and a shift toward a focus on political humor) with the introduction of Jon Stewart (who was former co-host of *Short Attention Span Theater* from 1991).

*Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist* was also a notable original program from this era, as well as the game show *Win Ben Stein's Money*. Successful non-original programming included Canadian comedy group *The Kids in the Hall* and British shows such as the U.K. edition of *Whose Line Is It Anyway?* (the predecessor of the U.S. version, featuring much of the same American cast as would later be seen in the U.S.) and the sitcom *Absolutely Fabulous*. Some later seasons of *AbFab*, as it was informally known, were partially financed by Comedy Central. Comedy Central also had the national rights to broadcast reruns of Seattle's *Almost Live!* between 1992 and 1993.

An earlier variant of the 1992 logo has the "Comedy Central" text bigger, almost taking up the marquee sign; that variant lasted until 1995.

### 1997–99

The channel made a breakthrough when *South Park* premiered in 1997. Being the first major basic cable show to carry the TV-MA rating for mature audiences, the show was too controversial to be picked up by a mainstream network. As word of mouth spread, the number of people who requested that Comedy Central be added to their cable providers increased, and the channel became available in over 50% of American homes by 1998.

### 2000–03

 File:Comedy Central logo.svg
On November 13, 2000, Comedy Central introduced a modernized version of its globe logo, by straightening the buildings and removing the transmitter and marquee. The management of the network said that the transmitter of the 1992 and 1997 logos was said to "communicate the 1950s broadcast era". In 2002, Comedy Central Records was formed as a means of releasing albums by comedians that have appeared on the network.

Since 2003, Comedy Central has created a tradition of roasting comedians in the style of the New York Friars' Club roasts. During these roasts, friends of the roastee, along with other comedians, take turns making fun of the roastee, the other roasters, and occasionally audience members. So far, the roastees have included Denis Leary, Jeff Foxworthy, Pamela Anderson, William Shatner, Flavor Flav, Bob Saget, Larry the Cable Guy, Joan Rivers, Rob Reiner, David Hasselhoff, Donald Trump, Charlie Sheen, Roseanne Barr, James Franco, Justin Bieber, Rob Lowe, and Bruce Willis.

#### The Secret Stash

The success of *South Park*, despite its mature content, encouraged the network to continue to push the limits on adult language. Every Saturday and Sunday morning at 1 a.m. ET, a movie, comedy special, or animated program is shown unedited for language as part of a block called the *Secret Stash*. It premiered on July 4, 2003 with the unedited cable television debut of *South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut*. Though no language is censored on the Secret Stash, most nudity in the programs is still edited out, with the exception of limited nudity allowed in animated programs such as *Drawn Together*, and rear nudity.

### 2004–06

In late 2004, it was reported that the four highest-rated shows on Comedy Central were, in descending order, *South Park*, *Chappelle's Show*, *The Daily Show* and *Reno 911!*. Shortly thereafter, Dave Chappelle backed out of the much-anticipated third season of *Chappelle's Show*. Meanwhile, *The Daily Show* continued to climb in the ratings. In October 2005, on the occasion of a new three-year contract for *South Park* and the launch of *Daily Show* spin-off *The Colbert Report*, it was reported that *South Park* and *The Daily Show* were the two highest-rated shows on Comedy Central. Comedy Central chief Doug Herzog was reported as saying that he hoped to continue to air new seasons of *South Park* forever, and that *The Colbert Report* fulfilled a long-held plan to extend the *Daily Show* brand.

On April 5, 2006, in a controversial two-part episode arc titled "Cartoon Wars Part I" and "Cartoon Wars Part II", *South Park* touched the issue of the recent protest over the Danish cartoon drawings depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad. The image of Muhammad did not appear in the episode. The episode also mocked fellow cartoon *Family Guy*. On April 13, 2006, Comedy Central issued a statement which appears to confirm that the network prohibited the show's creators from airing an image of Muhammad. The statement reads, *"In light of recent world events, we feel we made the right decision."* An anonymous source close to the show indicatedTemplate:Citation needed that *South Park* creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were informed of the policy several weeks earlier, and wrote this story arc in protest. This was a change of policy for Comedy Central, having allowed *South Park* to portray an image of Muhammad in an earlier episode, "Super Best Friends". Oddly enough, an image of Muhammad was still briefly visible in the opening credits of the "Cartoon Wars" episodes (the image had been there as a call-back to "Super Best Friends").

## High definition channels and service

The 1080i high definition simulcast feed of Comedy Central launched in 2009 and is available on all major cable and satellite providers.

## Programming

*Main article: List of programs broadcast by Comedy Central*

## International

Localized versions of Comedy Central include:

* Arabia (MENA)
* Australia
* Belgium
* Brazil (article in Portuguese)
* France
* Germany, Austria and Switzerland
* Hungary
* India
* Israel
* Italy
* Latin America
* New Zealand
* Netherlands
* Poland
* Romania
* Spain
* Taiwan
* UK & Ireland
* Poland
* Hungary

**Comedy Central Extra:**
* Netherlands
* Bulgaria
* Balkans
* UK & Ireland

**Paramount Comedy:**
* Russia
* Ukraine

**Prima Comedy Central:**
* Czech Republic

## Criticism

Comedy Central has been a frequent target of criticism from the conservative group Parents Television Council, criticizing their programming for what they perceive as bigotry and blasphemy, especially in regards to the programs *South Park*, *The Sarah Silverman Program*, *Halfway Home*, and the annual "Roast" special. The PTC has used their criticisms against Comedy Central for their support of the Family and Consumer Choice Act of 2007, which would allow American cable television subscribers to choose which channels they subscribe to and impose the same decency standards that are already in place on broadcast TV, and to persuade advertisers to stop advertising on the channel. PTC founder and former president L. Brent Bozell III has called the channel unfunny, claiming the channel has managed "to reach the top of its field in spite of – or, better put, because of – the network's sheer lack of comedic talent" by its "extensive reliance on shocking or disgusting humor". The organization has also criticized the network for airing regular-length and infomercial-length advertising for "Girls Gone Wild". The channel airs the least censored version of the film *Not Another Teen Movie*, as well as uncut versions of films such as *Coming to America*, *Dogma* and *Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back*.

On November 5, 2007, an open letter was written by VideoSift to protest the blocking of Comedy Central's embedded video content for non-U.S.-based viewers.

On April 21, 2010, Comedy Central censored the *South Park* episode, "201", in response to a death threat issued by users of a radical Muslim website over the episode's planned depiction of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, which led several newspaper columnists to condemn the network's actions as tantamount to abetting terrorism. As a result, "201" and the episode that preceded it were heavily edited and not shown in repeats.

## External links

* Official website

Template:Comedy Central programming