Just as the English word "comic" shares its root with the term "comedy," the Japanese "manga" also has the meaning of "comical." The original term in Chinese characters meant "light-hearted jokes expressed in pictures." "Manga," then, were pictures intended to make people laugh. Although the postwar period saw comedic manga eclipsed by narrative manga, laughter remains an important element of the genre and it is this element that I will discuss today.

Comedic manga can be grouped in the following categories.

Satirical Manga: including caricatures, manga on current events, politics, and social issues, are typically single-frame although some may be longer. They are published in newspapers and general magazines. Despite the fact that virtually every newspaper carries a few, not once over the last thirty years has a satirical manga made much of a splash. Most are done by manga artists of the older generation.

Nonsense Manga: humorous manga of one or several frames which are not satirical. They are referred to as "nonsense" manga from the perspective of those who think of satire as the only proper mode of manga. The same term, however, has sometimes been used to describe manga which play with and undermine everyday common sense. In either case, it is used exclusively by manga artists of the old school.

Gag Manga: Although the term "gag" originally refers to a spur of the moment joke, beginning with the comedy revolution of the late 1960s which I will discuss later "gag manga" has been used to refer to all comedic manga.