Owarai (お笑い owarai) is a broad word used to describe Japanese comedy as seen on television. The word owarai is the honorific form of the word warai, meaning "a laugh" or "a smile".
Manzai (漫才) is a traditional style of stand-up comedy in Japanese culture, which usually involves two performers (manzaishi) —a straight man (tsukkomi) and a funny man (boke)—trading jokes at great speed. Most of the jokes revolve around mutual misunderstandings, double-talk, puns and other verbal gags.
In recent times, manzai has often been associated with the Osaka region, and manzai comedians often speak in the Kansai dialect during their acts. Yoshimoto Kogyo, a large entertainment conglomerate based in Osaka, introduced Osaka-style manzai to Tokyo audiences, and coined the term "漫才" (one of several ways of writing the word manzai in Japanese) in 1933.
Originally based around a festival to welcome the New Year, manzai traces its origins back to the Heian period. The two manzai
performers came with messages from the gods and this was worked into a
standup routine, with one performer showing some sort of opposition to
the word of the other. This pattern still exists in the roles of the boke and the tsukkomi.
Nininbaori (二人羽織り) is a Japanese comedic act where two people wear the same large coat (haori) and pretend to be one (hunchbacked)
person. One person is the "face" and the other is the "arms". Humor
arises from the arms never being coordinated with the face.
This type of skit is considered a staple of Japanese comedy, traditional[citation needed] and modern, and is commonly used as a part of comedy shows; both live stage performances and Owarai (television comedy).
The basic concept of nininbaori-type humour is seen in the comedy of many cultures. The English comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? has a similar act called "Helping Hands".
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