It’s not really clear who can be definitively credited with inventing what is today known as “anti-comedy,” (obviously Andy Kaufman, but also Steve Martin would be in the running, not to mention Brother Theodore) but Albert Brooks’ delightful ventriloquism bit from The Flip Wilson Show in 1972 is surely a key text.
 

 
Bonus clip: The classic “East Coast vs. West Coast Ventriloquism” sketch from Mr. Show after the jump…