The Alt Comedy Timeline: 70 Years of Breaking the Rules
From a man with a newspaper at the hungry i to a special premiering on YouTube, here are the moments that shaped alternative comedy, decade by decade.
Alternative comedy doesn't have a single birthday, but it does have turning points. This alt comedy timeline collects the moments that mattered most, from the 1950s comics who first broke stand-up's rules, through the London scene that named the movement in 1979 and the American rooms of the 1990s, to the streaming specials, podcasts and YouTube releases of today. We've included only dates we can stand behind; where an exact day is uncertain, we give the year.
For the full story behind each era, read our decade series on the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s and the 2020s, or start with what alternative comedy is.
1950s–1960s: the forerunners
Before anyone said “alternative”, a handful of comics in coffeehouses, small clubs and university revues showed that comedy could be personal, political and strange.
- 1953
Mort Sahl at the hungry i
In San Francisco, Mort Sahl starts riffing on politics in a sweater, holding a newspaper. Conversational, topical stand-up is born.
- 1959
The Second City opens in Chicago
The improvised revue theatre becomes the training ground for generations of sketch and improv performers.
- 1960
Beyond the Fringe at Edinburgh
Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller's revue launches the British satire boom.
- 1961
Dick Gregory breaks through
His sharp, cool-headed set about race at Chicago's Playboy Club makes him a national star. In London, Peter Cook opens the satirical nightclub the Establishment.
- 1964
Lenny Bruce convicted
After years of arrests, Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity in New York over his Cafe Au Go Go shows. He dies in 1966; New York grants him a posthumous pardon in 2003.
- 1969
Monty Python's Flying Circus
The BBC debuts the sketch show whose stream-of-consciousness surrealism will influence nearly every alt comedian who follows.
1970s: anti-comedy and the comedy club
- 1972
Comedy clubs and dirty words
The Comedy Store opens on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. George Carlin records his routine on the words you can't say on television; a radio broadcast of a later version leads to the 1978 Supreme Court case FCC v. Pacifica.
- 1975
Andy Kaufman on the first SNL
On Saturday Night Live's debut episode, Andy Kaufman stands nervously beside a record player and mimes a single line of the Mighty Mouse theme. Anti-comedy reaches network television.
- 1977
Steve Martin's Let's Get Small
Martin's punchline-free parody of a showbiz comic becomes a hit album, and he is soon filling arenas.
- 1979
The Comedy Store opens in London
On 19 May, Peter Rosengard and Don Ward open a comedy club above a Soho strip club. Alexei Sayle becomes its compère. The same year, Tony Allen, Sayle and others form Alternative Cabaret. The British alternative comedy movement begins.
1980s: the British movement
- 1980
The Comic Strip opens
In October, Peter Richardson starts the Comic Strip at Soho's Boulevard Theatre, with Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Alexei Sayle. See our Comic Strip profile.
- 1981
The first Perrier Award
Edinburgh's new comedy prize (now the Edinburgh Comedy Award) goes to the Cambridge Footlights revue. The award will become the Fringe's most important comedy honour.
- 1982
Alt comedy reaches television
David Letterman's Late Night premieres on NBC in February. On 2 November, Channel 4's opening night includes The Comic Strip Presents...; a week later, BBC Two launches The Young Ones.
- 1984
Andy Kaufman dies
Kaufman dies of lung cancer at 35. Rumours that it is another hoax persist for years.
- 1985
Saturday Live
Channel 4's live stand-up show, soon hosted by Ben Elton, brings British alternative comedians to a national audience.
- 1986
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Paul Reubens's children's show, designed by underground artists, smuggles avant-garde comedy into Saturday mornings.
- 1988
Un-Cabaret is born
Beth Lapides launches Un-Cabaret in Los Angeles, where comics are asked to drop their club acts and tell the truth. The Canadian troupe the Kids in the Hall make their TV debut with an HBO special the same year.
1990s: the American alt scene
- 1990
Vic Reeves Big Night Out
Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's surreal variety parody arrives on Channel 4.
- 1992
The Ben Stiller Show and Largo
The Fox sketch show, with Janeane Garofalo, Bob Odenkirk and writer David Cross, is cancelled after 13 episodes and wins an Emmy anyway. Mark Flanagan takes over Largo on Fairfax Avenue.
- 1993
Conan and LunaPark
Late Night with Conan O'Brien begins. Un-Cabaret settles into Sunday nights at LunaPark in West Hollywood.
- 1994
Space Ghost and The Day Today
Cartoon Network's Space Ghost Coast to Coast plants the seed of Adult Swim. In Britain, Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci's news parody The Day Today airs on BBC Two.
- 1995
Luna Lounge, Dr. Katz and Mr. Show
The Luna Lounge opens on Ludlow Street, home of the Monday show Eating It. Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist premieres on Comedy Central, and in November Mr. Show with Bob and David debuts on HBO.
- 1996
UCB moves to New York
The Upright Citizens Brigade (Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh) relocates from Chicago.
- 1998
Mr. Show ends
HBO airs the last episode in December. UCB's sketch series runs on Comedy Central.
- 1999
The UCB Theatre opens
The UCB Theatre opens in Chelsea and becomes the centre of New York alt comedy for two decades. Jon Stewart takes over The Daily Show.
2000s: Adult Swim, YouTube and the podcast
- 2001
Adult Swim launches
Cartoon Network's late-night block becomes America's home for absurdist comedy.
- 2002
Indie stand-up
Invite Them Up starts its weekly run at Rififi in the East Village. Sub Pop releases David Cross's Shut Up You F**king Baby!
- 2003
Arrested Development and Peep Show
Two cult sitcoms arrive: Mitchell Hurwitz's dense Fox comedy and Channel 4's point-of-view cringe classic.
- 2004
Comedians of Comedy and The Mighty Boosh
Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford and Zach Galifianakis take alt stand-up to rock clubs. The Mighty Boosh debuts on BBC Three, and Tim and Eric's Tom Goes to the Mayor premieres on Adult Swim.
- 2005
YouTube and “Lazy Sunday”
YouTube launches. In December, the Lonely Island's SNL Digital Short “Lazy Sunday” goes viral. The Luna Lounge closes.
- 2007
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
Tim and Eric's public-access fever dream premieres on Adult Swim. HBO launches Flight of the Conchords, and Funny or Die goes online.
- 2008
Between Two Ferns and the Coronet
Zach Galifianakis's awkward web talk show debuts on Funny or Die. Largo moves to the Coronet on La Cienega. Rififi closes, ending Invite Them Up's weekly run.
- 2009
The podcast year
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle premieres on BBC Two. In May, Scott Aukerman launches Comedy Death-Ray Radio (later Comedy Bang! Bang!); in September, Marc Maron starts WTF.
2010s: streaming and the prestige turn
- 2010
Earwolf and Louie
Aukerman and Jeff Ullrich found the Earwolf podcast network. Louis C.K.'s Louie premieres on FX.
- 2011
The $5 special
Louis C.K. sells Live at the Beacon Theater directly from his website, a landmark for comedy self-release.
- 2012
Tig Notaro's Live
In August, Tig Notaro performs at Largo days after a cancer diagnosis; the recording is released that autumn. Maria Bamford releases The Special Special Special, Netflix releases Bill Burr's You People Are All the Same, and The Eric Andre Show debuts.
- 2013
Nathan for You
Nathan Fielder's business-makeover show premieres on Comedy Central.
- 2014
Broad City and Too Many Cooks
Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson's web series becomes a Comedy Central hit. Adult Swim's Too Many Cooks becomes a viral sensation.
- 2015
Obama in the garage
Marc Maron interviews President Obama for WTF. In Britain, Taskmaster debuts.
- 2017
Nanette wins at Edinburgh; a reckoning
Hannah Gadsby shares the Edinburgh Comedy Award. In November, The New York Times reports allegations of sexual misconduct by Louis C.K., which he admits.
- 2018
Nanette on Netflix
Gadsby's Nanette sparks a worldwide debate about what stand-up is for. James Acaster's four-part Repertoire arrives on Netflix.
- 2019
I Think You Should Leave
Tim Robinson's sketch show debuts on Netflix in April and becomes a meme machine. Julio Torres's My Favorite Shapes airs on HBO.
2020s: lockdown, theatre and self-release
- 2020
The shutdown
Live comedy stops in March. In April, UCB closes its New York theatre and training centre.
- 2021
Inside
Bo Burnham's one-room lockdown special arrives on Netflix in May. Sarah Sherman joins Saturday Night Live.
- 2022
Rothaniel and The Rehearsal
HBO releases Jerrod Carmichael's Rothaniel in April and Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal in July.
- 2023
Solo shows and strikes
Alex Edelman's Just for Us plays Broadway. I Think You Should Leave returns for a third season. Writers' and actors' strikes halt much of Hollywood for months.
- 2024
Get On Your Knees and UCB's return
Jacqueline Novak's theatrical hour premieres on Netflix in January. UCB reopens in New York on East 14th Street in September.
- 2025
Fielder and Robinson return
The second season of The Rehearsal airs in spring. In October, Tim Robinson's The Chair Company premieres on HBO.
- 2026
Self-release and the end of an era
In April, David Cross premieres his special The End of the Beginning of the End on YouTube. In May, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs its final episode, a symbol of late-night TV's fading role as comedy's gatekeeper.
What the timeline shows
Read top to bottom, the timeline shows a repeating cycle. A mainstream format hardens (the nightclub gag-teller, the brick-wall club comic, the glossy streaming hour); a group of performers builds somewhere else to work (a coffeehouse, a pub back room, a bar on Ludlow Street, a YouTube channel); and within a decade or so the mainstream absorbs what they found. The venues change faster than the impulse. For the people at the start of that cycle, see our essay on who invented alt comedy, and for the terms used on this page, the alt comedy glossary.
Frequently asked questions
When did alternative comedy start?
The term and the movement started in London in 1979, when the Comedy Store opened in Soho and the Alternative Cabaret collective began its political comedy nights. The American alt scene developed from the late 1980s, with Un-Cabaret in Los Angeles in 1988 and New York's Luna Lounge in 1995.
What alternative comedy happened in the UK in the 1980s?
The Comedy Store (1979) and the Comic Strip (1980) launched a generation including Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Ben Elton. It reached TV in 1982 with The Comic Strip Presents on Channel 4's opening night and The Young Ones on BBC Two, followed by Saturday Live in 1985.
When was Mr. Show on TV?
Mr. Show with Bob and David premiered on HBO in November 1995 and ended in December 1998.
When did comedy podcasts start?
Comedians were podcasting from 2005, but 2009 was the turning point, with the launches of Comedy Death-Ray Radio (later Comedy Bang! Bang!) in May and WTF with Marc Maron in September.