As "Shin sarugoki" (a kind of textbook about manners and cultures of Kyoto in Heian era), where parts of the entertainment and social situation during the 11th century were written, has the description 'senzumanzai no sakahogai,' we can know that manzai as an entertainment already existed around the Heian period.
11世紀に当時の芸能や世相の一端を書き記した『新猿楽記』の「千秋万歳之酒祷（せんずまんざいのさかほがい）」という記述からも、平安時代頃すでに芸能として成立していったことが伺える。