Comedy Central is an American cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan.

included several original and unconventional programs such as Onion World with Rich Hall and Mystery Science Theater 3000, as well as laid-back variety/talk shows hosted by comedians, including The Sweet Life with Rachel Sweet, Night After Night with Allan Havey, Sports Monster, and The Higgins Boys and Gruber, the latter of whom performed sketches in between showings of vintage television series like Supercar, Clutch Cargo, and Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp.

Around this time, the network introduced their now-iconic logo, which is a globe showing the Americas with tall buildings on the North American part and a black marquee ring (see below).

A notable early success was Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, which after showing promise on Comedy Central was quickly snapped up by ABC.

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist was also a notable original program from this era, as well as the game show Win Ben Stein's Money.

Successful non-original programming included Canadian comedy group The Kids in the Hall and British shows such as the UK edition of Whose Line Is It Anyway?

As word of mouth spread, the number of people who requested that Comedy Central should be added to their cable providers increased, and the channel became available in over 50% of American homes by 1998.

So far, the roastees have included Denis Leary,[11] Jeff Foxworthy,[12] Pamela Anderson,[13] William Shatner,[14] Flavor Flav,[15] Bob Saget, Larry the Cable Guy, Joan Rivers, Rob Reiner, David Hasselhoff, Donald Trump, Charlie Sheen, Roseanne Barr, James Franco, Justin Bieber, Rob Lowe, Bruce Willis, and Alec Baldwin.

The success of South Park, despite its mature content, encouraged the network to continue to push the limits on adult language.

On April 13, 2006, Comedy Central issued a statement[17] which appears to confirm that the network prohibited the show's creators from airing an image of Muhammad.

An anonymous source close to the show indicated[citation needed] that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were informed of the policy several weeks earlier and wrote this story arc in protest.

This was a change of policy for Comedy Central, having allowed South Park to portray an image of Muhammad in an earlier episode, "Super Best Friends".

[20] On June 27, 2007, CTVglobemedia-owned networks CTV and The Comedy Network obtained the exclusive Canadian rights to the entire Comedy Central library of past and current programs on all electronic platforms, under a multi-year agreement with Viacom, expanding on past programming agreements between the two channels.

On January 9, 2008, it was announced the Comedy Central and MTV would allow the streaming its programs online for free starting in February that year.

[24] On March 27, 2008, the Swedish Radio and TV Authority approved an application from Comedy Central regarding being allowed to air television programs in Sweden.

[33] In 2009, Comedy Central launched a 1080i high definition simulcast feed,[34] which was available on all major cable and satellite providers.

The standard definition Comedy Central downscales the HD feed and broadcasts in 16:9 letterboxed to fit the 4:3 ratio.

[citation needed] Segments from Tosh.0's past seasons have received more views on Comedy Central's YouTube channel than any other show.

South Park episodes "200" and "201" aired in April 2010, revisiting the issue of the Islamic religious figure Muhammad's perceived immunity to parody, for fear of violent retaliation.

The Super Best Friends returned, but Muhammad was entirely covered by a black bar reading "CENSORED" through all of his screen time.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone have since issued a statement to the press, confirming that the "bleeps" were added weeks after the show was finished and that Comedy Central has refused to let them post the original version of South Park, in addition to retroactively removing the original "Super Best Friends" episode.

[41] StarHub launched Comedy Central Asia in Singapore on November 1, 2012; the channel was added to its Basic Entertainment Upsize group.

The finale was the most-watched cable program of the night in its time slot, beating The Daily Show which was seen by 2.032 million viewers.

[58] In 2020, Comedy Central began shifting its programming towards adult animation, with series pickups of Beavis and Butt-Head, a reboot of The Ren & Stimpy Show, and Daria spin-off Jodie (later changed to a television movie); the first of these titles initially premiered on Paramount+.

[61] South Side and The Other Two would move to the Warner-owned HBO Max,[62] while a second season of Alternatino with Arturo Castro was slated to premiere on Quibi, but has since failed to materialize after the platform folded.

Comedy Central has been a target of criticism from some advocacy groups, including the Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC).

[66] PTMC founder and former president L. Brent Bozell III said the channel has managed "to reach the top of its field in spite of – or, better put, because of – the network's sheer lack of comedic talent" by its "extensive reliance on shocking or disgusting humor.

"[67] On November 5, 2007, an open letter[68] was written by VideoSift to protest the blocking of Comedy Central's embedded video content for non-American viewers.

On April 21, 2010, Comedy Central censored the South Park episode "201" in response to a death threat issued by users of a radical Muslim website over the episode's planned depiction of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, which led several newspaper columnists to condemn the network's actions as tantamount to abetting terrorism.

Since the early 2000s, Comedy Central has expanded globally with localized channels in Europe (including the United Kingdom), India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand,[69][70] Middle East, Africa[71] Spain and in the Commonwealth of Independent States.