3,335 articles
John Robins (comedian)
John Robins (born 1982) is an English stand-up comedian, writer, and BBC Radio 5 Live host with Elis James. He shared the 2017 Edinburgh Comedy Award for The Darkness of Robins, won Taskmaster series 17, and wrote the 2026 sobriety memoir Thirst.
John Sessions
John Sessions (John Gibb Marshall, 1953-2020), Scottish actor, comedian and impressionist; star of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Stella Street and QI, and portrayer of Harold Wilson and Ted Heath.
John Thomson (comedian)
John Thomson (born 1969, Salford) is an English comedian and actor, star of The Fast Show (Jazz Club Man) and Cold Feet's Pete Gifford, Perrier Award collaborator with Steve Coogan.
John Van Druten
John William Van Druten (1901–1957), Anglo-American playwright and director of small-cast drawing-room comedies: Young Woodley, The Voice of the Turtle, I Remember Mama, Bell Book and Candle, I Am a Camera, source of Cabaret.
John Vanbrugh
Sir John Vanbrugh (1664–1726) was an English dramatist and Baroque architect who wrote the Restoration comedies The Relapse and The Provoked Wife and designed Blenheim Palace.
John Webster
John Webster (c.1580–c.1634) was a Jacobean English dramatist, son of a London coach maker, author of The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (c.1614), often ranked second only to Shakespeare among Jacobean tragedians.
Johnny Vegas
Johnny Vegas, stage name of Michael Joseph Pennington (born 1971, St Helens), English comedian and actor; 1997 Edinburgh Perrier-nominated newcomer, star of Ideal, Benidorm, Bleak House, and the ITV Digital monkey adverts.
Joice Heth
Joice Heth, enslaved African American woman (died February 19, 1836) exhibited by P.T. Barnum from 1835 as George Washington's 161-year-old nurse; a public autopsy concluded she was about 80, exposing the hoax that launched Barnum's show-business career.
Joke
Joke: a short two-part verbal humor form, setup plus punchline, the prototypical canned joke in humor research. Distinguished from conversational wit; explained by superiority, relief, incongruity, and benign violation theories; now also generated and judged by AI models.
Jon Daly
Jon Daly, American actor, comedian, writer, and producer from Pittsburgh, known for Kroll Show, UCB Theatre, Fallout, A Futile and Stupid Gesture, and the Jon Daly is John Daly search stunt; distinct from the Irish football manager and golfer John Daly.
Jon Glaser
Jon Glaser (Jonathan Daniel Glaser, born 1968) is an American comedian, actor, and writer, a Conan O'Brien writer and Emmy nominee, creator of Delocated, Neon Joe Werewolf Hunter, and Jon Glaser Loves Gear, and Parks and Recreation's Councilman Jamm.
Jon Lovitz
Jon Lovitz (Jonathan Michael Lovitz), American comedian and actor, SNL cast member 1985–1990, creator of Tommy Flanagan and Master Thespian, voice of Jay Sherman on The Critic, later stand-up and comedy club owner.
Jon Richardson
Jon Richardson (born 1982, Lancaster) is an English stand-up comedian, writer, and presenter, team captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, star of Meet the Richardsons, Absolute Radio host, and author of The Teenage Diaries of a Stand-Up Comedian.
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz, 1962) is an American comedian who hosted Comedy Central's The Daily Show 1999-2015 and returned as Monday host in 2024, now contracted through December 2028; known for political satire, Crossfire, 9/11 advocacy, and books like America (The Book).
Jonah Platt
Jonah Platt (born 1986) is an American actor, singer, writer, and Jewish advocate; Broadway's Fiyero in Wicked (2015-2016), host of the Being Jewish with Jonah Platt podcast, son of producer Marc Platt and brother of Ben Platt.
Jonah Ray
Jonah Ray (Jonah Ray Rodrigues), American comedian and actor born 1982 in Honolulu; Nerdist Podcast co-host, Comedy Central's The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, and host of the Netflix Mystery Science Theater 3000 revival as Jonah Heston.
Jonathan Larson
Jonathan Larson was an American composer and playwright who wrote the musical Rent and died at 35, winning a Pulitzer Prize and four Tony Awards posthumously.
Jonathan Mangum
Jonathan Mangum (born 1971) is an American improvisational comedian, actor, and announcer, co-host of Let's Make a Deal since 2009 and a rotating fourth-chair performer on the CW Whose Line Is It Anyway? revival.
Jonathan Miller
Sir Jonathan Miller (1934–2019), British polymath: physician, Beyond the Fringe satirist with Cook, Moore, and Bennett, and leading opera and theatre director known for ENO's mafia Rigoletto and The Mikado.
Jonathan Winters
Jonathan Winters (Jonathan Harshman Winters III, 1925-2013) was an American improvisational comedian, actor, author, television host, and artist from Ohio radio to NBC's The Jonathan Winters Show, creator of Maude Frickert, 1991 Emmy and 1999 Mark Twain Prize winner.
Jordan Raskopoulos
Jordan Raskopoulos (born 1982) is an Australian comedian, musician and digital creator, lead singer of The Axis of Awesome ('4 Chords'), Ronnie Johns co-creator, transgender advocate, TikTok and Twitch creator.
Jordan Roth
Jordan Roth is an American Broadway producer and theater owner who won seven Tony Awards for shows including Hadestown, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, and Angels in America.
Jorma Taccone
Jorma Taccone (born 1977, Berkeley, California) is an American comedy writer, actor, and director, one third of The Lonely Island with Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer. He created SNL Digital Shorts, won a 2007 Emmy for "Dick in a Box," and directed MacGruber, Popstar, and Over Your Dead Body.
Jōruri shōhon
Jōruri shōhon (浄瑠璃正本) are Edo-period woodblock-printed play texts of jōruri, the chanted narration underlying bunraku puppet theater, published as certified, complete scripts used for practice and reading.
Josef Kajetán Tyl
Josef Kajetán Tyl, born Josef František Till, was a Czech dramatist and writer of the National Revival who wrote the text of the Czech national anthem.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a sung-through Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical based on Genesis, first staged 1 March 1968 as a short Colet Court School cantata, expanded to full length, reaching the West End in 1973 and Broadway in 1982.
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker (Freda Josephine McDonald, 1906–1975), American-born French music-hall star of La Revue nègre and the Folies Bergère banana dance, French Resistance intelligence agent, civil rights activist, and first Black woman inducted into the Panthéon (2021).
Josephine Dillon
Josephine Dillon (1884-1971), American actress, drama coach, and author of Modern Acting: A Guide for Stage, Screen and Radio (1940); coached and married Clark Gable, 1924-1930.
Josh Blue
Josh Blue (born 1978) is an American stand-up comedian, winner of Last Comic Standing season 4 (2006) and third place on America's Got Talent 2021, known for cerebral palsy humor and 2004 Paralympic soccer.
Josh Johnson (comedian)
Josh Johnson, American stand-up comedian and Emmy-nominated writer from Alexandria, Louisiana; Daily Show rotating host since 2025; weekly YouTube hours; HBO special Symphony (2026).