A Legend of the Comedy World

Comedy Central is a venerable television network that has been entertaining audiences for decades with its comedic content. For the past thirty years, it has consistently produced some of the most famous and critically acclaimed comedy programs in history, such as Chapelle's Show, Key and Peele, Inside Amy Schumer, Crank Yankers, The Man Show, and The Kroll Show. Some of Comedy Central's most successful series include South Park, Reno 911!, Drunk History, Broad City, and Workaholics (just to name a few). Beloved by many for its comedic content over the years, Comedy Central has left an indelible mark on television with some of the greatest sketch comedy shows ever made. From Chapelle's Show to Key and Peele to Inside Amy Schumer to Crank Yankers to The Man Show and The Kroll Show – this channel has consistently put out some of the funniest programming ever developed. Thanks in no small part to Comedy Central's brilliance as a producer of hilarious TV shows, generations have grown up enjoying its unique brand of humor. The network responsible for creating The Daily Show, as well as the Roasts which are a series of comedic tributes and eviscerations of famous figures, is Comedy Central.

Comedy Central has been a major force in the world of comedy, not only launching countless careers, but also providing exclusive specials that have helped shape the genre. Almost every comedian in the game has at one point or another performed standup for Comedy Central, and it makes for an interesting trip through the history of standup comedy.

Time-Life, who owns HBO, created the world's first all comedy cable channel in November of 1989. Two years later, a rival network was created by Viacom? Ha! Eventually, however, The Comedy Channel and Ha! would merge, which resulted in the very first iteration of programming that looks like the Comedy Central that we know and love today.

Prior to the merger, Ha! specialized in airing reruns of sitcoms and sketch comedy shows. The Comedy Channel, acquired its syndication power from this specialization. In the early days, shows on The Comedy Channel tended to be talk show oriented - comedian hosts interviewing guests or telling jokes between sketches - with a few exceptions, like the unique and unconventional shows, Mystery Science Theater and Onion World with Rich Hall.

After the merger, Comedy Channel changed its name to The Comedy Network in order to reflect their changing focus towards comedy programming. However, this change did not take place until around 1991. Some of the early successes on The Comedy Network include Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher and Mystery Science Theater.

In the early 1990s, Comedy Central became home to some of the most groundbreaking and popular comedy programming ever seen on television. Shows like Win Ben Stein's Money and Whose Line is it Anyway? helped to popularize the comedy game show as a mainstream genre of television programming.

In 1997, Comedy Central became a staple of cable networks in the US. This was due to the addition of South Park, which game-changed the animated television genre. By 1998, 50% of US homes had access to Comedy Central. This continued to increase throughout the years, reaching 81% by 2007. In that year, new comedic talents were introduced to the scene with the creation of John Stewart's Daily Show and The Colbert Report. These hit shows helped solidify Comedy Central's place in the comedy industry and cement its legacy as one of America's most important television networks.

From Unknown Cable Channel to Streaming Giant

As a result, Comedy Central's streaming site has been very successful in recent years, even surpassing the viewership of some of the network's cable TV episodes. However, not every network can say the same. Some streaming services are just not as good as others. In order to access Comedy Central's streaming service, you must be a cable or satellite subscriber. Unfortunately, that is the only way to log into Comedy Central's streaming site. Comedy Central accepts cable and satellite customers of AT&T, Century Link, Spectrum, COX, DirecTV, Dish, Frontier, Mediacom, Optimum, SuddenLink, Verizon, and Wow. If you are not a customer of one of these companies and want to access the entirety of Comedy Central's content (including all their shows), then you will need to subscribe to a different streaming service.

That would truly be a shame, because there is a lot of it to be enjoyed. Not only can you stream entire episodes of all your favorite shows (new and old alike), you can access Comedy Central?s enormous back catalog of canceled shows, old standup specials, short-form Comedy Central online skits, and Comedy Central Roasts. Of course, you can also watch Comedy Central programming live in real-time. If it?s ever been on Comedy Central or is currently airing on Comedy Central, the network?s streaming service will enable you to watch it.

Comedy Central's streaming site has a lot of award-winning and iconic shows to watch, as well as some classic and beloved syndicated programming. For example, you can stream full episodes of Netflix's Bojack Horseman, The Office, and Parks and Recreation. As far as content is concerned, there's no arguing with Comedy Central's penchant for quality - that is for sure.

There are lots of things to like about Comedy Central. But there are also a few things that could be improved. For example, the site could use more functionality and features, the streaming quality could be better, and the site could be more organized. Let's take a look at each of these in more detail.

Time to Roast this Site

First of all, I have to say that I am torn on how I feel about the site's overall design. It is certainly professional looking, but it isn't the easiest or most streamlined site in the world. So, as far as site design is concerned: it looks incredible, but it leaves a little bit to be desired in the way of practical functionality. For example, every show has its own individualized site design and layout. Clicking on South Park, for instance, will bring you to an entirely different site. But clicking on Chapelle's Show stays in step with the rest of Comedy Central's site design. It can be a little confusing - maybe it's just me, but I like my sites, especially ones that peddle a large quantity of content, to be consistent. I want to be able to quickly and without much thought begin watching the show I want to watch. Unfortunately, that is not the case with Comedy Central.

The biggest downside to Comedy Central when it comes to streaming is the fact that they do not have an easy way to browse content. All of their programming is archived alphabetically, which can be helpful if you know the show's name, but it's not ideal when you're looking for something new to watch. Netflix and Hulu are better organized sites, with content recommended based on your viewing history and categories divided by genre and comedian. A better organizational structure would make Comedy Central an even better streaming site.

Other than that, Comedy Central streaming is great. Crystal clear picture quality (even on live TV), tons of classic shows, and rare standup specials make for a great streaming experience overall. If you already have cable or satellite, what are you waiting for? Go over to comedycentral.com now and log in to start streaming the laughs.