The relatively new comedy genre stand¬up comedy is just beginning to attract the attention of researchers from different areas of linguistics. A comparative linguistic and cultural analysis of selected sketches of the Russian and German stand¬up comedians is aimed to establish universal and dissimilar typological features of the genre in two linguistic cultures, identify the reception of national culture of laughter in the genre, manifested in the subject of sketches, as well as compare the use of mechanisms for creating and perceiving verbal humor (incongruity theories, hostility theories and release theories) on the material of 20 selected sketches by P. Volya and M. Mittermeier. It was discovered that certain topics that both comics involved to laugh at were similar (new trends in technical sphere, automobiles, holidays and rest) while others varied (social tension, feminism, male and female relations, financial instability).