Now you can get a BA in comedy

A British university is to offer the world’s first full-time degree in comedy.

The three-year BA course aims to teach students how to be stand-ups and writers, as well as treating comedy as an academic subject.

Former stand-up Chris ‘Doc’ Ritchie, pictured, is leading the course at Southampton Solent University, formerly Southampton Institute.  

He said: ‘The course will be 60 per cent performance, 40 per cent academic. It caters for students who want to write comedy, perform it, produce it or write about it, or all four.

‘This degree is not just teaching people to do stand-up but teaches all aspects of comedy history, theory and production.  There is a huge history of comedy practice and theory worth studying. It involves psychology, anthropology and social and political attitudes and concepts of gender. And we will be looking at Shakespeare as much as Max Miller.

 ‘Many people have asked: Can you teach someone to be funny and the answer is no. What you can do is identify someone's aptitude towards something and help develop it.’

The first year of the course will look at stand-up, the second year radio comedy and the third TV sitcoms.

And Ritchie, who wrote his own PhD on alternative comedy, believes the degree will help people get a start in the competitive comedy industry.

‘Comedy is a global industry, it sells around the English speaking world,’ he said. ‘The comedy industry is an ever expanding one and there are many opportunities for graduates to get into it – not just as performers, but also into scriptwriting and production.’

The course, called Comedy: Writing & Performance, starts in September. 

Published: 5 Apr 2006