This insider's memoir about the origins of Comedy Central is "a very, very funny book about an amazing piece of comedy history" (Jerry Zucker, cowriter and director of Airplane!). Finalist, 2020 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest In 1988, a young, mid-level employee named Art Bell pitched a novel concept-a television channel focused 100% on just one thing: comedy-to the chairman of HBO.The station that would soon become Comedy Central, with celebrated programs likeSouth Park,Chapelle's Show,The Daily Show, andThe Colbert Report, was born. Constant Comedytakes you behindthescenes into the comedy startup on its way to becoming one of the most successful and creative purveyors of popular culture in the United States. From disastrous pitch meetings with comedians to the discovery of talents like Bill Maher and Jon Stewart, this intimate biography peers behind the curtain and reveals what it's really like to work, struggle, and ultimatelysucceed at the cutting edge of show business. "The funniest behind-the-scenes memoir I've ever read, full of crazy characters, plot twists, and suspense." -Dan Lyons, New York Times-bestselling author of Disrupted

Auteur

Art Bell is a former media executive best known for creating and building HBO's The Comedy Channel, which went on to become Comedy Central. After Comedy Central, Bell became the president of Court TV and was the guiding force behind one of the most successful brand evolutions in cable television. Bell is the author of Web Sightings: A Collection of Websites We'd Like to See. He lives with his family in Connecticut.