In Japan, we have several comedy competitions on TV at end of the year. The most famous one called M-1 Grand Prix was held last week, and one comedy duo won in more than 5,000 entries. M for M-1 comes from 漫才(Manzai) in Japanese. 漫才 is a format of Japanese comedy. You might know 落語(Rakugo) ,which is the most traditional Japanese comedy format, from Japanese anime or movies, but it's not as common as it is used to. Nowadays Japanese comedy format is divided into 2, 漫才 or コント. 漫才 is based on the conversion among 2 or 3 persons. There are rolles called ボケ and ツッコミ among them. ボケ always say something wrong or weird, and ツッコミ point out their inconsistency for the audience. Usually they start conversation with saying " I'd like to talk about..." to set the theme, then ボケ start ボケる, which means doing or saying something funny. Sometimes ツッコミ talk to the audience from the stage like " don't you think he's crazy?" to draw laughter. However their rolls could be switched occasionally. It's said that most of the comedians have scripts, but sometimes there improvise depends on the situation as it's based on conversation. On the other hand, コント is more like a drama. They play other persons on the stage. Usually there are sets or props, and the audience would understand their setting from the situations and conversations. Also they have rolls ボケ and ツッコミ in this format. ボケ always do or say something crazy or weird, and ツッコミ are surprised with that on their rolls. However ツッコミ never talk to the audience, which in 漫才 format they do, it's expressed as their monologue. Therefore, the audience laugh about funniness in that situation. I believe this format should widely spread around all over the world. Do you have some comedy format in your country? Is it similar with ours?