Insult Comic

Ever since the dawn of humor, people have clung to one simple truth: Other peoples' pain or discomfort is hilarious. Of course, people in a polite society will generally be hesitant to crowd around someone with a horrible, disfiguring physical condition or a debilitating social disorder... at least, not without help.

Enter the Insult Comic. When someone needs to be humiliated on a large scale, and it would require too much suspension of disbelief to get them to wind up on television or the front page, the Insult Comic can take a large room of people and get them to laugh at the unfortunate target.

However, most writers are not stand-up comedians, and this trope is more about highlighting the insecurities of a character than providing legitimate jokes. As a result, the Insult Comic will often have the inexplicable ability to make a crowd of people laugh, even when the 'jokes' are delivered in pure insult form and devoid of legitimate humor.

Film

 * The remake of The Nutty Professor has Dave Chappelle make Eddie Murphy the target of his jokes.

Western Animation

 * In one episode of Recess, Randall tries to gain popularity by becoming a stand-up comedian. He very quickly resorts to making Mikey the butt of his jokes.
 * In one episode of Baby Looney Tunes, Melissa decides to become an insult comic after watching one on TV. True to the trope, her inspiration is incredibly unfunny.
 * One episode of The Simpsons had Springfield trying to win the right to host the next Olympic Games. They pretty much had it in the bag until Bart played Insult Comic to the members of the IOC, costing them the games and getting Bart in a lot of hot water.
 * In the Pinky and The Brain episode "TV or No TV", Brain's latest world takeover scheme involves wearing a set of hypnosis-inducing dentures and using his smile to get people to bend to his will. To this end, he decides to become a stand-up comedian. When his first set of jokes (cribbed from other comedians) gets him nothing but boos, he resorts to insulting the audience ("You're repugnant!" became his Catch Phrase for that episode), and they eat it up.

Video Games

 * Hadrian, a Ghoul in Fallout: New Vegas is explicitly named the insult comic.

Comedians

 * Don Rickles, the king of this trope
 * Ricky Gervais
 * Daniel Tosh
 * Sam Kinison
 * Sarah Silverman
 * Lisa Lampanelli, "The Queen of Mean"
 * Chelsea Handler