IT is the comedy format that has created some of the biggest stars of stage and screen - but now it seems the sketch show is going out of fashion.
For years the sketch show has been the staple of television comedy - and many of the acts have emerged from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Acts such as The League of Gentlemen, Flight of the Conchords and the Cambridge Footlights team all first shot to prominence by learnign their craft at the festival.
But Nica Burns, director of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, says the sketch format is largely absent at the festival this year.
Cost and the need for arduous preparation are among factors working against the traditional sketch show, she said.
She said: "It is the 20th anniversary of The League of Gentlemen winning in 1997, and I remember it so clearly because they were so dark, and they went on almost immediately to their TV show [in 1999].
"I think it is really hard to get a sketch show together, and it is more expensive.
"If you look at the history of the Fringe, these shows are people that do these shows met at college - The League of Gentlemen met at Bretton Hall [a drama school in Yorkshire].
"The economies of putting these shows on are great, its a lot more work than a solo show, a lot more time to write it.
"There are some very practical considerations why there are not many sketch shows."
The League of Gentlemen - Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith - went on to star in a successful comedy series on BBC Two, and the famed Cambridge Footlights winners, in 1981, featured Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Slattery, and Emma Thompson, among others, who all became stars in various fields over the next 20 years.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here