[3] British comedians Richard Herring and Jo Caulfield wrote in an article that observational comedy relies upon the fact that the observation is "universally familiar" but that it "won't necessarily have been consciously noted by your audience", arguing that the statements can be neither too obvious nor too obscure.
[6] Although observational comedy became popular in the United States in the 1950s,[3] one author suggests that even much older jokes commented on human nature in comparable ways.
[3] Other influential observational comics include David Brenner,[8][9] George Carlin,[10] and Jerry Seinfeld.
[14] The British observational comedy tradition began with the Irish comedian Dave Allen's performances in the early 1970s.
[15] Victoria Wood, who came to prominence in the late-1970s and 1980s, used observational comedy to satirise aspects of Britain's social classes.