C&L's Top 100 Stand-up Comedians of All Time!
By Mark Groubert Friday Jan 25, 2008 4:00pmResearched and compiled by Mark Groubert
This is it. Finally, the Official Crooks and Liars Top 100 Stand-up Comedians of all time. Let's face it, whether you're David Letterman or Oskar Schindler, everyone loves lists. While highly subjective, this list has been scientifically vetted by recently deceased members of the Friar's Club for accuracy and fairness. There is no wiggle room. This is the official list. Anyone thinking otherwise is of course in error but can explain their massive feelings in the comments section. (Please remember to keep all comments to ten words or less so more can vent.)
]John Amato: There are videos hyperlinked to each name so that you can see a small performance of as many of the great stand-ups as we could find. (language alert) Have fun--agree or disagree, but sit down for a few minutes and enjoy a laugh with us.
1. Lenny Bruce
2. Richard Pryor
3. Woody Allen
4. Mort Sahl
5. Buddy Hackett
6. George Carlin
7. Eddie Murphy
8. Richard Lewis
9. Robin Williams
10. Rodney Dangerfield
11. Gilbert Gottfried
12. Jerry Seinfeld
13. Albert Brooks
14. Lord Buckley
15. Steve Martin
16. Chris Rock
17. David Brenner
18. Jonathan Winters
19. Dick Gregory
20. Sam Kinison
21. Bill Cosby
22. Bob Newhart
23. Sarah Silverman
24. Jackie Vernon
25. Bob Hope
26. Don Rickles
27. Shecky Greene
28. Milton Berle
29. Phyllis Diller
30. Andy Kaufman
31. Bill Hicks
32. Martin Lawrence
33. Redd Foxx
34. Jack Benny
35. Jamie Foxx
36. Jim Carrey
37. Joan Rivers
38. Professor Irwin Corey
39. Billy Crystal
40. Shelley Berman
41. Eddie Izzard
42. Jon Stewart
43. David Chappelle
44. Henny Youngman
45. Andrew Dice Clay
46. Elaine Boosler
47. Johnny Carson
48. Bill Maher
49. Freddie Prinze
50. Johnny Yune
51. Jon Pinette
52. Steven Wright
53. Roseanne Barr
54. DL Hughley
55. Mitch Hedberg
56. Alan King
57. Richard Jeni
58. Totie Fields
59. Robert Klein
60. Dennis Miller
61. Gary Shandling
62. George Burns
63. Jackie Gleason
64. Richard Belzer
65. David Steinberg
66. Will Durst
67. Cheech and Chong
68. Pat Paulson
69. Lily Tomlin
70. Sandra Bernhard
71. Martin Mull
72. Ellen DeGeneres
73. Groucho Marx
74. Rick Aviles
75. Damon Wayons
76. Dana Carvey
77. Denis Leary
78. Tommy Davidson
79. David Cross
80. Jackie Mason
81. Moms Mabley
82. Jan Murray
83. Mel Brooks
84. Morty Gunty
85. Larry David
86. Carl Reiner
87. Jerry Lewis
88. Adam Sandler
89. Paula Poundstone
90. Larry Miller
91. Tim Allen
92. Jay Leno
93. Ray Romano
94. Lewis Black
95. Phylliss Yvonne Stickney
96. Joey Bishop
97. Billy Connolly
98. Flip Wilson
99. George Wallace
100. T.K. Kirkland
A WGA screenwriter/producer/journalist based in Hollywood, California, Mark Groubert is the Senior Film and Book Reviewer for CrooksandLiars.com. As a filmmaker he has produced numerous documentaries for HBO. Groubert is also the former editor of National Lampoon Magazine, MTV Magazine and The Weekly World News. In addition, he currently writes for the L.A. Weekly, L.A. City Beat, Penthouse, High Times and other publications while on strike and doing stuff like this.
a list that puts don rickles above bill hicks can't possibly be taken seriously.
Lewis Black
Woody Allen's Stand Up at the top of the list?
I can handle disagreement on some positions and I realize I'm not god.
But, Woody Allen? Please!
Lewis Black at 94?????and Woody Allen in the top 5 - you gotta be kiddin'
Dave Chappelle at 43 Bill Hicks at 31. Are you really telling us that Bob Newhart is funnier than those two?!?
Any list of comedians that does not have Bill Hicks in the top 10 is not worth the paper it is printed on.
Richard Lewis, Gilbert Godfried, Chris Rock, Steve Martin ... ahead of Hicks?...
Hand me a barf bag now.
Hahahaha.......thanks John!!!!!!! Nice to have a laugh!
I agree with Sarah being up that high she is hilarious. Also I don't agree that Chris Rock is so low he should be at the top hes my favorite comedian of all time. AND thank you for not adding Dane Cook he is not funny at ALL.
23. Sarah Silverman??
---------------------
42. Jon Stewart
43. David Chappelle
BS
If top 3 were Lenny Bruce, Richard Prior, Bill Hicks.... then the list could be taken seriously...
carlin is number 3
anything else is bullshit
Sam Kinison at 20 and Lewis Black at 94? Give me a break. The only think Kinison could do was scream and that was more obnoxious than Don Rickles heckling. Mort Sahl at #4? He was about as funny as a truck load of dead babies. I think they need to rethink the list.
Lots of odd things about this list. Sarah Silverman well over Bob Newhart, Andy Kaufman, Bill Maher, and Henny Youngman? Uh, no. Richard Lewis ahead of Steve Martin? Uh, not even close. Still, lots of great talent up there to be sure.
You even have dead comedians ahead of John Stewart....and you have Jay Leno, but not Dave Letterman ??? Dave did write all of his standups when he was first on Johnny- remember ??? ( and is Colbert on the list ?he should be)...and I also did not see Jimmy Kimmel? ( but his girlfriend is real high on the list- and she is not even THAT funny)
Comedy is the only thing that gives me hope. After watching MSM not do their jobs all day,(Missing white chicks or election bullshit) having a laugh is the best way to chill without resorting to valium or whiskey. Jon Stewart and Colbert at least but a smile on my face.
1. Bill Hicks should clearly be number one. The man's comedy was an absolute perfect mixture of brilliant social commentary (the kind you never get famous for. the kind that when you hear he'd died young, your immediate reaction is to think the government had him killed), vulgarity, poetry and courage.
2. For those that haven't heard it, Woody Allen's 1960's era stand up WAS brilliant.
Gilbert Gottfriend @ 11 and Bill Hicks @31?
almost enough to make me switch to Republican.
I said ALMOST ....
Yes Bill Hicks should be in the top 5 at least! Shenanigans!
God knows the top 20 are all men...
I still hate Hillary BTW.
This is a retarded list. Folks that don't know a darn about comedy always seem to do this. 'But see, Mort Sahl was massively important' and 'Lenny Bruce laid the foundation.' Now, look, Bruce was swell, Sahl was swell, but in terms of Bruce's own standard of laughs against seconds, Carlin and Pryor demolish it. They're superior. Putting Buddy Hackett, Richard Lewis, Woody Allen and Robin Williams in the top ten is ridiculous and requires more an academic knowledge of comedy than an actual knowledge of comedy. This list honestly looks like it was written by someone who to write it, studied other, equally bad lists...
Where's George W Bush? Everyone laughs at him.
No John McCain?
Who can forget, "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iraq..."
Side-splitting FUNNY.
Seriously: I love 'em all...comedy is art.
Wow, Bob Newhart was so good, he came in 22nd AND 85th! Hmmm, was 22 based on the years before and during "The Bob Newhart Show" years and 85 on the years of "Newhart" and after?
Some of those on that list by the way haven't done standup in YEARS or they don't do a lot of it. They're now on TV or the occasional STV movie. like Rick Avilas???? I mean I thought he was funny when I first saw him years ago, but since his turn as "The Rat Man" in Stephen King's the Stand, what has he done?
And to put him, Tommy Davidson and Damon Wayans above Larry Miller and MEL FREAKING BROOKS is insanity personified.
just my opinions of course.
Lollimom @ 21:
IraNNNNNNN
Mort Sahl, Gilbert Gottfried and Albert Brooks in the Top 20?
Give me a break!
Glad to see the Bill Hicks contingent so vocal today...I'll see rduke's Top 10 and state that any list that doesn't have Bill Hicks in the Top 5 etc etc...
Goddam, do we need him around these days
Only 4 women in the top 50?? Geezzz
BAC
What a lame list made by an old person.
Hello?! Dave Chappelle?
Um... you have Bob Newhart listed twice. At #22 and #85.
Dennis miller?? really???
I agree with the Number One comedian. And I agree with the Bill Hicks commentators. I'd also like to see Mitch Hedberg in there somewhere. I mean come on.
As soon as I saw Bill Hicks missing from the top 10, and Richard Lewis at 8... I knew there'd be comments riot.
There are some REALLY bad comedians that made the cut on here, and I don't see Doug Stanhope, who should be in the top twenty at least.
I agree, Doug Stanhope should be in there as well.
really???
What??? No Doug Stanhope?????????
vrk @ 1:
Amen. Bill HIcks not in the Top 10? No Doug Stanhope???? How can anyone take this list seriously? It's made by the same people who think "American Idol" is entertainment.
I assume this list is in random order. If not, a retraction should be issued.
It is nice to see Bob Newhart make the list twice, though. Bue no Eddie Izzard? No Jake Johannson? No (that one guy who died, wore glasses, always seemed baked)?
I agree with Ed and Lollipopmom. Republicans are the best of bafoons. Trouble is they don't realize they are the joke.
Bob Newhart at 85?!?!?
He should be in the top 25!
Oh wait he's there too.
Bob Dylan and Lenny Bruce prove everyone in the 60's were stoned.
That is just the begining of why this list has no credibility.
hicks at 31??!!! good god man. thats it, im joining HotAir. ;)
Lollimom. Sorry I got your name wrong. It must be the valuim and whiskey.
You forgot Frank Lunz.
You can eliminate at least 2/3 of that list.
And there are some funny females, but certainly not juvenile Sarah Silverman. "Are you god's black friend?"
Or when she puts the microphone up to her vagina?
Kills.
Luntz
Robert Klein's my number 1. One of the first comedians of the modern age. Made me laugh 40 years ago and still makes me laugh. His summer TV show Comedy Tonight killed me, and his stand up act is fantastic. Lenny Bruce, Buddy Hacket, and, uh, Lord Buckley, not so much.
No Todd Barry? No Dom Irrera? No Emo Phillips? No Jeffrey Ross? No Nick DiPaolo?
blah. this list is crap.
at least you got Steven Wright on there.
There is NO way robin williams or richard lewis is better than Rodney Dangerfield
Mitch Hedburg need to be in there somewhere.
I remember when Eddie Murphy used to be funny. Remember Raw and Delirious? :-)
Now we have Norbit :-(
Also, Chris Rock and Sam Kinison are waaaaaaay funnier than Jerry Seinfeld. Just my opinion...
Bravo Out.
Perhaps there should be expiration dates when some of these comics ceased being funny [not when they were de-ceased].
carlos mencia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcbchRnTTr4&feature=related
I would have crapped all over Gilbert Gottfried coming in at such a high ranking, but then I saw The Aristocrats. His delivery of that one joke was pure gold.
Also, Steven Wright at a mere #52? That man is a god.
Shouldn't this read as the top 100 US comedians? Where are all the Brits who walk all over most of these people.
How about Bill Baily, Eddie Izzard, Billy Connolly, Jasper Carrott, Alexie Sayle, Rik Mayall, Tommy Cooper, Victoria Wood etc etc
Oh I forgot, the rest of the World is just what you lot buy, sell, exploit or bomb. Turns out Democracy, Freedom, Bravery AND Comedy are all American inventions.
p.s. Sorry about the rant, I love you guys really xx
I came in here just to complain about the placement of Bill Hicks on the list, and am gratified that many commentors beat me to it.
There are many ways to just a stand-up comedian, but he is top 10 on any rational list.
Jeebus......it's just a damn list to have fun with people. Are you ever happy?
My Top 25 List of All-Time Great Comedians from the list provided above:
1. George Carlin
2. Richard Pryor
3. Chris Rock
4. David Chappelle
5. DL Hughley
6. Bill Maher
7. Lenny Bruce
8. Sid Caesar
9. Jack Benny
10. George Burns
11. Jackie Gleason
12. Rodney Dangerfield
13. Don Rickles
14. Bob Hope
15. Sandra Bernhard
16. Dana Carvey
17. Lily Tomlin
18. Redd Foxx
19. Ellen DeGeneres
20. Billy Crystal
21. Jim Carrey
22. Dick Gregory
23. Johnny Carson
24. Joan Rivers
25. Howard Stern on Sirius Satellite Radio Channel #100
I was going rant and rave about Bill Hicks low on the list but people beat me to it. Get a clue! Chappelle too! #43? Yikes. Bruce, Carlin, Hicks, Pryor, Chappelle, Williams all at the top!!
Your right ConcernedCanuck. But this is more entertaining that watching CNN or MSNBC.
ConcernedCanuck @ 54:
Thank you. Make your own list and post youtubes of your favorite comedians.That's what this is about...
Sounds like this list itself is a troll to start an open thread. Lots of unfunny white guys.
Omitted comedians? Dennis Wolfberg should be SOMEWHERE there.
wow... really bad job with that list, really bad... not even close.
Many of the reasons have already been mentioned, but I have to echo the wtf? on Woody Allen... also, Buddy Hacket in the top 10?
I'm not even talking about the choices were I might disagree by even 15 to 20 spots.... but there are many many on that list that should probably be 40 to 50 spots different than where they are.
I'd think about taking that list down to preserve cred
sorry to be such a negative nancy about it, but sheesh
i like to add my own 'WFT!!!!' to Bill Hicks not being in the top 5, .... in fact not being in the top 30 :O
dave attell and Nick DiPaolo would be on my top 10 list.
John Amato @ 58:
Yes, I agree John....Calm down everyone....its just something fun to be involved with. Don't get all mad for nothing....Thanks for the thought John!
Filthy Harry @ 15:
sorry, but without bruce, there is no hicks..
For such a great blog, political site it seems you too suffer from the disease of American Isolationism. So only Americans ( apart from Eddie Izzard) can be stand up comedians. Check out Hans Teeuven from the Netherlands. BTW Just so you know Bill Hicks was and is the greatest stand up comedian from America. Without a doubt ...............
These lists are total BS and are more about who is fashionable now, with a nod to some of the greats. In 20 years you could compile another top 100 and most of those names wont be on it, not because they are no good, but because they wont be stand ups anymore.
The concept is as lame as all best/worst lists and filled with tokenism. Sarah Silverman at 23? I love her but come on her career is in its infancy compared to others who had 50 years at the top of their game. Groucho Marx at 73? Billy Connolly at 97?
How can any official Crooks&Liars list put Jay Leno or Dennis Miller ahead of Lewis Black?
Just askin'.
I would also move up Eddie Izzard and Bill Hicks and move down Jon Stewart. Jon is hilarious on the Daily Show, but his younger stand-up days were terrible.
uncle joe mccarthy @ 64:
Hicks always maintained that it was Pryor more than Bruce that inspired him.
Jon Stewart reads a auto cue.
no Mitch Hedberg.
this was either a glaring omission or somebody needs to go to school!!
OK.. list surely is not in ranking order?
Bill Hicks should certainly be top 5 otherwise there's no point in having people
who have NO sense of humor compile a list of comedians.
Newhart is twice as funny as half those people, so I'm fine with his double-listing.
Rickles is funny as well.
Glad to see Bill Hicks' poor ranking has been addressed. Another outrage: Seinfeld. One might assume, judging from the amount of airtime he gets with "Seinfeld" reruns, but has anyone ever actually heard anything funny come out of Jerry Seinfeld's mouth? Maybe he's notable for being the quintessential "And what's up with those airplane peanuts?" comedian, but that dubious distinction hardly earns him a place on any list of top comedians of all time.
I think people are upset with the placement of Bill Hicks :P
I love these lists, I've been able to find a lot of comedians through these list. I'd have to listen to many more comedians to put together a credible list. This list does lack British comedians though (I'm American btw.. Just throwing in my 2 cents)
I agree with Sarah being up that high she is hilarious and says stuff nobody will..how many white people are brave enough to make racist jokes about blacks? and say "******"? For whatever reason that is taboo and shouldn't be. Black people make racial jokes about white people all the time and make fun of gays and say faggot.
Also I don't agree that Chris Rock is so low he should be at the top hes my favorite comedian of all time. AND thank you for not adding Dane Cook he is not funny at ALL.
WHERE IS DEMETRI MARTIN?!?!?!?! He deserves number one on that fucking list, this is bullshit.
hyperlink,
http://comedians.comedycentral.com/demetri-ma...
lenny bruce is certainly not lmfao off funny- he may have been important. richard lewis is about as funny as contracting herpes- i put him right up there with howie mandel funny. but i'm more angry about your omissions- louis ck, ron white, dave attell, patton oswalt, jim breuer
Reading this blog and the comments that people are writing I just couldnt help but think that comedy tastes are so different between America and the UK, there was a similer list done over here and very few of the people on this list are in it. There are very few comedians that are successful in both the US and the UK, However it has upset me greatly that billy connolly (our no 1) only reaches 97 on this list. This is greatly disrespectful to the greatest funny man to ever come from this part of the world
I could never do a list like that. i couldn't decide myself who's better than who. They are all so different. They're all comedians but it's still apples to oranges unless you use a standard of comparison like relative success or popularity. If I did that list, then went back to square one and did it again, the two lists would probably be completely different.
It's just fun to go back and watch some of these though. I'm digging the ones i'd never heard of before.
Sara Silverman ahead of Bill Hicks?
You're insane.
Yeah, if Bill Hicks isn't in *at least* the top 20, then the list itself is pretty much a joke, and a lame one at that.
Any list which includes Gilbert Gottfried, but not the word WORST, is instantly invalid.
Dom Irrera has got to be in the top 10.
Richard Lewis? RICHARD LEWIS? RICHARD F***ing LEWIS, are you Kidding me? Why not just crown Pauly Shore and Rich Little and pulverize your credibility on the subject. Maybe you meant the wrong Lewis - after all you got Lewis Black at 94 - about 60 or so spaces out of position at least
[sitemonitor - feel free to disagree, but there's no need for insults.]
Phyllis Diller has to be higher than 29th.
What about Yakov Smirnoff? He didn't even make the list!
There! I just used ten words . . . oops!
I give you the UK listing of same, courtesy of Channel 4:
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/C/comedy_standups/re...
(there's a shed-load on there I don't agree with too, but it may provide a little bit of balance. For the English-Speaking world at large anyway).
And when was Dennis Miller *ever* funny?
This list is all over the place. What's the criteria? It is hard to compare the early ones with the modern ones.
Don't know if I could pick a "king of comedy", so many have busted my sides open, but I think of Phyllis Diller as the "queen of comedy".
what is apparent, is that the author of this list spent little or no time in san francisco during the late 70s or early 80s
bobcat goldthwaite, the first punk comic deserves a place on the list, as does bobby slayton
dice clay should not be on this list, as he stole the majority of the act that made him famous
and as robin williams may be brilliant, most of his act was culled from guys who never became famous....
and for those of you riffing on the choice of allen, i believe some of his stand-up can be found on the web...and it is brilliant
Where's George W. Bush? Or is this just for intentional comics?
rati @ 8:
This was obviously meant to be funny.
-GSD
Matt in Texas @ 25:
ever see any of their standup acts live??
i did...they belong in the top 20
bet you are pissed that dane cook didnt make it
I only see one reference to Dane Cook, and it was a negative one, there is a god.
No Roseanne, no Cathy Griffith, no Gilda Radner, Stephanie Wier? Just to name a few. Geez guys....
Groucho Marx at #73? Are you mad???
Groucho is the only comedian to stop Wall Street execs from trading with his routine. He should be at #1.
Paulahaha @ 88:
No Margaret Cho either.
Suicidal Zebra @ 81:
thats a rather britcentric list
connoly the best comic of all time?? ahahhhah
Love your list, but no Patton Oswalt?
I guess this list must be just personal taste because if it was for the most ground breaking comedians it would be:
1. Lenny Bruce
2. Richard Pryor
3. George Carlin
4. Bill Hicks
5. Mort Sahl
6. Martin Mull
7. Sam Kinison
8. Steve Martin
9. Groucho Marx
10. Rodney Dangerfield (and the only reason Rodney would be on the list is because he gave so many young comedians their first big break, in some cases when no one else would.)
andy @ 68:
fine....no bruce....no pryor....no hicks
How come Billy Crystal gets two entries? (#39 and #55) If he's #39 and #55, Jerry Seinfeld should at least be #12 AND #25, and don't get me started on the three slots George Carlin should have.
Oh yeah! and where the hell is Katt Williams?
Zenrage @ 89:
groucho deserves a place in the top 20
fastest man with a one liner
Carol Burnett, Madeline Khan, Margarette Cho.
Mike N. @ 95:
crystal's ego is so big, he needs the two slots
he never had a good standup, much better as a skit comic and actor
i think many of you are mixing up comedic actors with standup comics
andy @ 68:
Forget who inspired him, if it wasn't for Lenny Bruce then Bill Hicks wouldn't have been able to say any of what he said in his stand up.
I don't see Ricky Gervais:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NaEj3g5GOYA&feature=related
And has been mentioned, Mitch Hedberg is missing. I think he's as funny as Steven Wright at least.
No Mitch Hedberg? Youtube him if you are not familiar...
uncle joe mccarthy @ 99:
Have to disagree. I thought his standup show was decent the one time I got to go see him, but I've never much cared for him as an actor or sketch comic. You got the ego thing right, though.
Mr. XXXX @ 55:
wanker!
This list can't be in order of how funny they are, it may be how well known they are but who voted and when? I never saw a comedy thread on C&L did anyone? And where the hell is Milton Beryl?
(49.) Freddie Prinze ??? Above (52.) Steven Wright? and many others? Huh????
I watched a documentary not too long ago about the new comedians who came up in Boston during the 80s, and Steven Wright was top dog.
This list...? PLEASE !
Jack Benny @ #34?
Dick Gregory @ 19?
Groucho @ 73?
Bill Hicks outside the top 15?
Andy Dice Clay - Why?
Bill Hicks is 31?. Ridiculous! Top FIVE hands downs. It's actually even more ridiculous when you take into account this is liberal political blog. Nay. Pathetic. And no Doug Stanhope or Mitch Hedberg? Really? REALLY?
You might wanna rethink this whole Mark Groubert thing you've got going. Yeesh.
Let him know the Shinola is the can.
Pfffffffth
Here for you clueless folks that seemed to have missed the Bill Hicks train...
(and naturally for those of us on it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg2_MntkMzg <- This bit alone about Rush Limbaugh makes him in the top 3 no question about it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMB5L0VoszI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fntiAF3OSts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJcebIEOkhY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C99eZY4V5w8
Based on longevity, social significance, challenging conventional wisdom, thinking out of the box, and just plain FUNNY ... GEORGE CARLIN is the Babe Ruth of comedians.
i am shocked....shocked i tell you
where is jackie the joke man martling???
What about Will Rogers, Jack Paar, Will Shriner, Fred Allen?
Billy Crystal twice
teegee @ 36:
Yes! One can't take this list seriously without Eddie Izzard.... and, how come so few comedians from Great Britain? Being so Americacentric, this list can't really be what it states to be... it's like the World Series games ...
lost_nacf_gop @ 77:
Right on. I would place Lewis Lapham ahead of Richard Lewis. Richard Lewis one of the most annoying "comedians" ever. Right up there with Joe Piscapo and David Brenner. Sheesh.
Lynda from Australia @ 115:
Check #41...
Patrick @ 79:
Agreed :-) :-) :-)
I'm surprised Dennis Miller is on there at all. His OLD sort of funny stuff has since been canceled out due to his new very unfunny bullshit. In a nut shell, Dennis Miller totally sucks ass.
Oh and this classic...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YiPKy1NO3A
Sarah Silverman?? Sandra Bernhard??? but no Lisa freakin' Lampanelli?
no brad stine?!
(just kidding, thought i'd piss of some trolls)
Dennis Miller? The guy is a neo-con shill.
How disappointing.
Ummmmm... I know this is just a fun list, but I find it surprising there aren't more women on the list.
Many of the women listed should be much higher in the rankings!
My 2¢ :-o
I know it's "just a list", but how in hell could you NOT include Marc Maron?? He is a brilliant comic with a sharp wit!
Now I'm officially pissed off. No MONTY PYTHON!!!!??? Alright... who wrote this list and where do they live??
No Mitch Hedberg?
1. I recently listened to all the available Bill Hicks albums and videos. The guy was good, but he was topical. He would have been a sort of capstone on hippie liberalism if it hadn't collapsed. And he might have transcended his comedy roots if he had lived. Top 20? Probably. Top 5? No.
2. Dave Chappelle is in the early part of his career. He's hard to judge, but he's already proved able to keep it together for more TV shows than Richard Pryor - to whom he is to be compared. (By contrast, I think Eddie Murphy has been washed up for at least 15 years, and what Dave did with his BROTHER is almost proof of it. Eddie was really funny on SNL but after that - just movies.) Dave should def be Top 20, and could be Top 10.
NOTE: there really should be a Classic Era list for people like Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl who were more literate because the audiences were. It's like Modern Era in baseball: not completely different, but not the same either.
3. Robin Williams, his comedy style hasn't changed in so long that young'uns discount him - but in his day he changed what comedy was about. He was one of the very few comedians that Johnny Carson allowed to take over shows ("Jean-Claude Killy for Jimmy Dean's pure pork sausage..."). Top 20, or Classic, if the cut off is late.
4. Carlin deserves his high ranking, but it should at least be pointed out that he has transitioned from being a shtick guy to being a (very bitter) commentator on American life in his cable specials - in which he aspires to Classic status, like some kind of evil Mark Twain, and succeeds. Top 10 probably, Top 20 certainly.
5. Again, there may be a time warp-disconnect here, but by the Carson-gets-out-of-way standard, and also by a Letterman-gets-out-of-way standard, Don Rickles was one of the most unexpectedly funny people ever. The premise of his entire shtick is that he is worthy and aware AND YOU AREN'T. We all think we are, and so Don's attacks, when they are in rhythm, can elicit convulsions, not just laughs. Check him out on YouTube, and if anybody can find a decent tape of him at Foxwoods PLEASE post it because he is STILL ("Hey, little girl! COME HERE...) killing. Top 20 for sure and for me Top 10.
6. Again, maybe it's my age, but Jonathan Winters for me had that edge of unexpectedness, and a completely unpredictable insanity that caused Carson, once again, to wisely hold still and let this guy create. Robin Williams owes JW a lot. Winters is in a sense the only true successor to Ernie Kovacs, a REAL classic and somebody you guys appear never to have heard of. Top 10.
7. I don't think Groucho or Jerry Lewis belong on this list. They weren't joke tellers. As a Hollywood icon and as a global star The Marx Brothers are a lot bigger than Lenny Bruce or anybody else listed. Jerry Lewis wasn't a joke teller, he was an actor and a physical comedian, and the proper comparisons for him are people like Marcel Marceau. He belongs with Keaton and Harold Lloyd and Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy.
The thing about the list is that almost everybody belongs on it somewhere...but I'm now trying to find a name that is way too low, or a name that really should have been included but isn't...
8. Let me make a comment about Bob Hope, Jack Benny, and Jackie Gleason. Again, there's a difference of time. You have to have seen these guys a lot on television to understand their effect. Bob Hope was of course a movie star, who more or less created the comic buddy film as we know it. He had great timing telling jokes but he hired lots of writers. Jack Benny had a persona - the somewhat effeminate skinflint - and his timing was even better than Hope's. These guys started out getting laughs on the radio, and that is harder than TV. Jackie Gleason created one of the greatest television characters in TV history - and he was really part of a comedy doppelganger with Art Carney, which also confers special status on him, and its not for nothing that he was known as The Great One. As for Hope and Benny, they were national icons in a way that no one else on the list, except Groucho, could comprehend. Woody Allen affected a lot of us, our sensibilities developed through his; but Hope and Benny bridged the wars, they started in the Thirties and ran straight through the Eighties.
9. Way down the list, there's another name of somebody who got knocked off the career path because she tried to go head to head against Carson, and somebody whose shtick - her husband Edgar - was a real person, went horribly wrong, and then even died: Joan Rivers. Carson could have fallen for her. She was a beautiful, sexy, dirty-mouthed broad whose instinct for insults was second only to Rickles'. Top 20, there might be an argument, but there is this category of comics - Hicks, Andy Kaufman - whose careers were sort of cut short or derailed, and this is the case with Joan Rivers. As a woman, she somehow has permission to insult the BODIES of people like Liz Taylor with utter impunity, something no man can really do without seeming ungallant.
10. Seeing Billy Connolly at the bottom - a token Brit - reminds me that he scored in the Top 5 of British comedians (you can Google that list I think) - but the UNQUESTIONED champion was PETER COOK - not on this list. With Dudley Moore (also snubbed here), his Derek and Clive albums, especially the unrated ones, are in a sense way funnier than Monty Python, who based themselves on Cook and Moore. More philosophical than Carlin, yet as visceral at times as Kinison, as well-paired as Kramden and Norton, as vicious as Rickles and as perverted as Joan Rivers, plus they are really very modern because they focus on the cultural bullshit of TV from their earliest bits. Seriously, folks - we're talking about comedy bits that are on line word for word, and people write in to debate what they actually did say.
At the end of this long post I would encourage someone to just separate out the older and newer comics - everything will immediately make more sense...
Bill Hicks
Motowngirl @ 125:
maron does standup?
i get depressed listening to him on the radio
GhostofMurrow @ 121:
Wasn't intending to comment on her, but I'm glad she's not on the list. She's annoying on Howard Stern and just has the same comments over and over (I'm ugly! I have sex with a lot of black guys! I'm black! I'm outrageous!), and they're not presented in any clever ways.
I have a feeling a ton of the names on the list, especially those high on it, are on only because people feel they have to be and not because in the year 2008 people still laugh out loud at their routines. Alas, this is the nature of lists such as these. Side note, isn't Robin Williams known for stealing other people's jokes, then saying "Well, if I do them on a national forum first, they're mine"? Unfortunately I've been suckered once again by one of these lists, commenting in futility on something subjective when the real motive behind all of these lists is only to stir up conversation.
Wow, I have to edit my comment at 131, I don't think Lisa's black. I meant to type "I'm fat!" but instead was looking at the word "black" when I was typing.
Woody Allen in number 3?
Are you high?
Is he a comedian?
Molesting little girls isn't funny where I come from.
Lenny
Richard
George
end of list.
I beat Rickles. Nothing else matters.
Terrible list, terrible order. So many glaring omissions... Just awful.
Oh yah, Derek and Clive. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. I have all their records. And The Goons, Peter Sellers, C'mon.
1) bill hicks
then the rest of them.
Mort Sahl, yeah! He belongs up there.
Slaughter @ 22:
IMHO, this double-listing should easily push Bob into the top 10 where he belongs. Thanks C&L!
Your all still sucking my dick? I was soooo stoned back in the day. Whateva.
Patton Oswalt is a glaring, glaring omission - he is easily the best stand-up comic of the current generation. The lack of Eddie Izzard is another indictment of this list, and the inclusion of Andrew Dice Clay and Wayans brothers is pretty weak. On top of all that, Miller no longer qualifies as a comedian and he has canceled out all of his previous good work with the soul-crushing shilling he has been doing since Bush got into office.
This may be the C&L "official" 100, but I demand a recount! ; )
Banal = devoid of freshness or originality = woody allen, rodney dangerfield, jerry seinfeld, albert brooks, (gawd i'd rather poke myself in the eye with a fork than look or listen to this loudmouth) joan rivers, richard lewis steve martin.
there's been too many left off this list that are much funnier and certainly more creative than the ones i've listed here.