The current Comedy Central cable channel grew out of the merger of two separate comedy-focused channels that launched around the beginning of the 1990s. HBO's The Comedy Channel debuted in 1989, and Viacom's Ha! premiered in 1990. The Comedy Channel's schedule included feature films that were introduced by on-air hosts, while Ha! featured more original series. Future staples of Comedy Central-including host Jon Stewart and cult favorite series "Mystery Science Theater 3000"-were introduced in the pre-merger days.
In 1991, Ha! and The Comedy Channel merged into a joint venture between HBO and Viacom, and the new channel was called Comedy Central. "Mystery Science Theater" continued on the new channel, and new series such as "Politically Incorrect" with Bill Maher and "The Daily Show" with Craig Kilborn made relatively big splashes with the channel's relatively small audience.
In the early 2000s, however, some of Comedy Central's original series began to draw much more attention. "South Park" used its irreverent, controversial style to attract respectable ratings, and Dave Chappelle's "Chappelle's Show" and "Reno 911!" also generated significant buzz. It was in the second decade of the century, though, that Comedy Central series really hit their stride, as "The Daily Show," now hosted by Jon Stewart, and "The Colbert Report" successfully merged comedy, satire and political reporting and became a much-talked-about part of American pop culture.
