It has been said that there are just two types of comic characters: a crazy person in a normal world and a normal person in a crazy world. But America has developed a unique set of comic characters that appear and reappear in different forms throughout our history. Their origins can be traced back to the revolution when the American character was established, although those roots can be seen more as a reaction to the circumstances of the times.

It's helpful to look at this from an even earlier perspective. In Greek drama there were two comic types: the Alazon, a boastful, blustering, elaborate story-telling character, one we might now call a loudmouth or blowhard, who always exaggerates things, especially when it comes to his own prowess. His opposite was the Eiron, the character who always portrays himself as less than he is, carrying humility to an extreme. Usually a soft-spoken, poker-faced type, he is generally very reserved; some might even say he's prim and proper.

In the early days of American humor, the contrast between the American and his former British colonizers was the embodiment of these contrasting types. The British were portrayed as pompous, stuffy, and arrogant (and that hasnt changed much) while the American was the crude boor who delighted in poking fun at the Brit.

The clip below provides a good example of these characters. Groucho as the Alazon and Margaret Dumont is the Eiron. Notice how Groucho makes a fool of the upper class Dumont.

Here's a few. If you know of any others, please contribute to the list.

The Con Man: The first of these was Simon Suggs, developed in the Middle 1800's. He was a fast-talking, sly salesman who cheated people out of their money or goods, but the most appreciated humor came when he himself was tricked.

The Foreigner: The immigrant who usually speaks with an accent that creates a comic effect; he or she doesn't understand the American way of doing things and falls into troubles because of it. A lot of early writing using this character is nearly unreadable, since the writers tried to duplicate the accent. (Try to read the original version of "Tales of Uncle Remus" for an example.) Some more modern examples include Chico Marx (who played an Italian and delivered the famous line "Everybody knows…there is no Sanity Clause.") Yakov Smirnoff cashed in on this. But this character s rare now, since it has become politically incorrect to mock those who are different this way.

The Rube: AKA the country bumpkin, the dolt, the redneck, etc. Ben Franklin's Poor Richard is one of the original incarnations of this character. He appears again as Mortimer Snerd (one of 'Edgar Bergen's 'dummies') and Jeff Foxworthy makes frequent reference to this character.

The Windbag: Northrop Frye describes this type of character as lacking self-knowledge and there fore speaking of his greatness rather than proving it with great deeds. W.C. Fields played him to perfection.

The Dumb Blonde: (With apologies to the blonde ladies in class) This character has two incarnations: the truly dumb blonde (who really doesn't know anything, e.g. Jessica Simpson who said she thought Chicken of the Sea was chicken [not tuna]) and the blonde who is dumb :like a fox. In other words, she cashes in on the expectation that she's dumb, e.g. "Legally Blonde."

The Buffoon: In "Seinfeld" this character is Kramer; by merely entering the room he gets a laugh. His actions are exaggerated, like those of a circus clown.