The Comic is a holodeck recreation of a twentieth-century stand-up comedian whom Data consults in an attempt to learn what makes humans laugh.
The Comic appears in The Outrageous Okona, played by Joe Piscopo. After Okona remarks on Data's lack of humour, the android asks the holodeck for a comedy club and for the funniest performer it can supply.
The Comic runs through jokes and impressions and coaches Data in delivery and timing. Data copies the routine faithfully, but Guinan, his test audience, does not laugh, and he cannot work out why.
He returns to the holodeck and performs for a simulated crowd, which roars at everything. Data realises that the audience has been programmed to laugh whatever he does and ends the programme, concluding that humour is one more human quality still beyond him.