A
humorist (
American English) or humourist (
British English) is an
intellectual who uses
humor in writing or public speaking.[1] Humorists are distinct from
comedians, who are
show business entertainers whose business is to make an audience laugh, though it is possible for some persons to occupy both roles in the course of their careers.
Renowned
polymathBenjamin Franklin (1706–1790), as a newspaper editor and printer, became one of America's first humorists,[2] most famously for Poor Richard's Almanack published under the pen name "Richard Saunders".[3]
Seba Smith (1792–1868) American writer and editor,[4] most famous for his editorial character, Jack Downing.[5]
John Neal (1793–1876) American critic, activist, lecturer, and writer who played a pivotal role in the development of satirical and humorous short stories between the 1820s and 1840s.[6][7]
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish poet and playwright known for his biting wit.
Kajetan Abgarowicz (1856–1909) Armenian-Polish journalist, novelist and short story writer.
Sholom Aleichem (1859–1916) pen name of the leading
Yiddish author and playwright Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, on whose stories the musical Fiddler on the Roof was based.
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) journalist, satirist, cultural critic and scholar of
American English.[8] Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians and contemporary movements. He is known for dubbing the
Scopes trial "the Monkey Trial".
Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) writer for Vanity Fair, Vogue and other magazines, playwright, and a close friend of Benchley, was known for her biting, satirical wit.
Bennett Cerf (1898–1971) one of the founders of the publishing firm
Random House, known for his own compilations of jokes and
puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances on the panel game show What's My Line?[9]
P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century.[10]
Alan Coren (1938–2007) could be considered the English equivalent of Bennett Cerf: a writer and satirist who was well known as a regular panelist on the BBC radio quiz The News Quiz and a team captain on BBC television's Call My Bluff. Coren was also a journalist, and for almost a decade was the editor of Punch magazine.
Moin Akhter (1950–2011) Pakistani TV and radio comedian.
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) author known for
comic fantasy novels, most notably the Discworld series of 41 novels. He was strongly influenced by Wodehouse, Sharpe, Jerome, Coren,[11] and Twain.[12]
Garrison Keilor (born 1942) author, storyteller, voice actor, and radio personality, best known as the creator and host of the
Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show A Prairie Home Companion from 1974 to 2016. He created the fictional Minnesota town
Lake Wobegon, the setting of many of his books. He created and voiced the
hardboiled detective parody character
Guy Noir on his radio show.
^Baumgartner, Jody C., ed. (2019). American Political Humor: Masters of Satire and Their Impact on U.S. Policy and Culture. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. xvi.
ISBN9781440854866.
^Sears, Donald A. (1978). John Neal. Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne Publishers. pp. 93, 96.
ISBN080-5-7723-08.
^Baumgartner, Jody C., ed. (2019). American Political Humor: Masters of Satire and Their Impact on U.S. Policy and Culture. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. xvi.
ISBN9781440854866.
^Voorhees, Richard (1985). "P.G. Wodehouse". In Stayley, Thomas F. (ed.).
Dictionary of Literary Biography: British Novelists, 1890–1929: Traditionalists. Detroit: Gale. pp.
341–342.
ISBN978-0-8103-1712-3. [I]t is now abundantly clear that Wodehouse is one of the funniest and most productive men who ever wrote in English. He is far from being a mere jokesmith: he is an authentic craftsman, a wit and humorist of the first water, the inventor of a prose style which is a kind of comic poetry.
^"Terry Pratchett". Guardian Unlimited. September 24, 2014. Retrieved September 24, 2014.