Comedy Lab is a British television series which showcases pilots of experimental comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 shows. Series have been aired irregularly on Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 and E4

E4

E4, E.IV or E-4 may refer to:In entertainment:* E4 , a digital television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland* Every Extend Extra Extreme a video game from Q Entertainment* Entertainment for All video game expo...

 since 1998.

Several pilots first shown on Comedy Lab have gone on to spawn full series, most notably Trigger Happy TV

Trigger Happy TV

Trigger Happy TV was a hidden camera/practical joke reality television program. The original British edition of the show, produced by Absolutely Productions, starred Dom Joly and ran for two series on the British television channel Channel 4 from 2000 until 2002...

, Fonejacker

Fonejacker

Fonejacker is a British comedy programme broadcast on E4 featuring a series of prank calls involving a number of different characters performed by British Iranian television actor Kayvan Novak. It first appeared in May 2006, although it did not become a full series until 2007.The first series began...

, That Peter Kay Thing

That Peter Kay Thing

That Peter Kay Thing was a series of six spoof documentaries shown on Channel 4 in January 2000. Set in and around Bolton, these followed the lives of different characters and starred Peter Kay as the subject of each documentary. All of the episodes displayed Kay's penchant for nostalgic humour and...

, Meet the Magoons

Meet the Magoons

Meet the Magoons is a six part comedy television series in the United Kingdom aired on Channel 4 in 2005, directed by and starring Hardeep Singh Kohli. The main characters are a Punjabi family who live in Glasgow, and own an Indian restaurant called "The Spice".It received mixed reviews. A. A...

and FM

FM (TV series)

FM was a British sitcom which aired on ITV2, starring Chris O'Dowd , Kevin Bishop and Nina Sosanya . The series followed the lives of two DJs and their producer on their FM radio progamme, "Skin 86.5 FM"...

. It also gave Jimmy Carr

Jimmy Carr

James Anthony Patrick "Jimmy" Carr is an English-Irish comedian and humourist. He is known for his deadpan delivery and dark humour. He is also a writer, actor and presenter of radio and television....

 his first television appearance in Jimmy Carr's World of…Corporate Videos.

The 2001 series features the episodes Knife and Wife (featuring actor Kevin Eldon), Orcadia (featuring Alice Lowe

Alice Lowe

Alice Lowe is an English actress and writer mainly in comedy, from the English Midlands.Lowe attended a comprehensive school and graduated from Cambridge University. She began her career co-devising and performing in surreal experimental theatre shows such as City Haunts, Snowbound and Progress In...

), Daydream Believers: Brand New Beamer (featuring David Mitchell

David Mitchell (actor)

David James Stuart Mitchell is a British actor, comedian and writer. He is half of the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb, alongside Robert Webb, whom he met at Cambridge University. There they were both part of the Cambridge Footlights, of which Mitchell became President. Together the duo star in the...

 and Robert Webb

Robert Webb (actor)

Robert Webb is an English actor, comedian and writer, and one half of the double act Mitchell and Webb, alongside David Mitchell.-Early life:...

) and Jimmy Carr's World of…Corporate Videos featuring Jimmy Carr.

The 2008 series features the episodes Headwreckers (featuring David McSavage

David McSavage

David McSavage is an Irish comedy writer and performer. He has performed at national and international comedy festivals such as the Kilkenny Comedy Festival, and appeared on Irish television comedy programmes, including The Savage Eye...

), Mr and Mrs Fandango, Olivia Lee

Olivia Lee

Olivia Lee is an English comedienne, actress and television presenter.-Life and career:Lee is from a Jewish family. She studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama...

's Naughty Bits, Pappy's Fun Club

Pappy's Fun Club

Pappy's is an English sketch-comedy team consisting of comedians Ben Clark, Matthew Crosby and Tom Parry. After 5 years as the four-man team "Pappy's Fun Club", the group decided to change the name to "Pappy's" and continue without fourth member, Brendan Dodds...

, School of Comedy

School of Comedy

School of Comedy is a British comedy sketch show written and performed by a cast of teenagers. A television spin-off of a revue performed in London and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, School of Comedy was piloted on Channel 4's Comedy Lab in 2008, before a six-part series ran on E4 from 2 October...

and Slaterwood.

2010's shows are iCandy, Happy Finish, Penelope Princess of Pets

Penelope Princess of Pets

Penelope: Princess of Pets is a comedy series by comedy duo Kurt Braunohler and Kristen Schaal, in which Schaal stars as Penelope, a woman who can talk with animals. On a mission to save the world by killing a legislator named Stone before it's too late, Penelope is accompanied on her quest by her...

, Jack Whitehall

Jack Whitehall

Jack Peter Benedict Whitehall is an English comedian, television presenter and actor, best known for hosting the E4 show Big Brother's Big Mouth in 2008, Celebrity Big Brother's Big Mouth in January 2009, and the Channel 4 topical entertainment show the TNT Show.-Early life:Whitehall was born in...

 Secret Census, Filth, Moviemash and Hung Out

Hung Out

Hung Out is a British situation comedy in the 2010 Channel 4 Comedy Lab strand about the etiquette of friendship and focuses on a group of close mates living in London...

.

The 2011 lineup includes: Anna & Katy (featuring Anna Crilly

Anna Crilly

Anna Crilly is an English actress and comedian. Secondary school: Kent College, Pembury. Crilly attended Middlesex University where she studied performing arts...

 and Katy Wix

Katy Wix

Katy Wix is a Welsh actress who has appeared in Not Going Out, Comic Relief Special, Rush Hour, Miranda and Torchwood.She also has numerous recurring roles in Horrible Histories...

), Totally Tom and Rick and Peter (featuring Rick Edwards

Rick Edwards

Rick Edwards is a British TV presenter who mainly works on Channel 4 and E4. Rick has presented T4 with co-hosts Georgie Okell, Miquita Oliver, Jameela Jamil and Alexa Chung from which he left on 3 July 2011...

).