Seriously Serious Issue - Funniest Comedian

My favorite comedian of all time is Norm MacDonald. Mitch Hedberg is indeed a close 2nd.

Of course Carlin & Chris Rock are way up there too.

I heard some standup from Demetri Martin this week & it was surprisingly good.

Comedians get no extra consideration from me for working clean. I don’t care if you use bad words or not, I just want you to be funny

And Pablo Francisco a bit. I haven’t really heard Norm MacDonald, but I started following his twitter feed during the Oscar’s and I’d definitely like to hear some of his stuff.

My uncle actually did comedy for a long time. He’s in insurance now, so he wasn’t overly successful, but he did work with a ton of really big name guys. He said Jerry Seinfeld was a pretty nice guy, Dave Chapelle was a wonderful guy when he wasn’t stoned. He did some work with Jeff Dunham… I don’t really think Dunham’s that funny, but apparently he’s a really nice guy. Jeff Foxworthy is apparently a really nice guy too.

I need to ask him who the assholes are. I’ll let you guys know later.

Then everyone else. Don’t get me wrong, Pryor was a genius, but it’s Carlin for me.

But Peter Schickele (PDQ Bach) is some of the most brilliant stuff on earth.

I wish I could remember the name of it.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard him though.

then his career fizzled like a dropped bottle of tonic water.

Carlin was hilarious (didn’t catch his last HBO special but he had one in the mid-late 90s I loved…think it was called ‘You Are All Diseased’?)
I used to love Sandler in high school (the HBO special that featured The Goat) but he’s either lost it or I’ve out grown him.
Rock’s ‘Bigger Blacker & More’ is hilarious and easily quotable.
Harland Williams used to crack me up. I’d look forward to him on Conan…but haven’t heard from him in a while.
There’s a comedian who performed on Letterman that I just recently saw on YouTube but can’t for the life of me think of his name.

And Hedberg is one of the absolute best.

Aziz Ansari and Ricky Gervais are both surprisingly good too.

that dude’s awesome. everything he says cracks me up

i think margaret cho is funny

I think Heisey is a better CF/leadoff option than Drew Stubbs in 2011.

The only other comedy albums I have are the Pablo Francisco one I mentioned, a bunch of Eddie Izzard, a bunch of David Cross, and one or two Bill Hicks albums.

i think foxworthy is occasionally funny, ron white is really funny & the rest of them are turrible

and i saw a name/face from the pace. Ritch Shydner. I thought his “Canyon Man” schtick was fantabulous. Used to slay me.

pretty much any jewish comedian not name Jerry Seinfeld

But I haven’t really seen a lot from him.

its coming up, no???

Also like Lewis Black a lot.

Dennis Miller. I loved his rants on HBO.

she’s pretty

once he became a huge addict of everything when he got huge on the Stern show, he became less funny

I remember this one skit he did on MadTv about some drunk American President that to this day was absolutely hilarious

as for others not mentioned:

Chappelle (someone mentioned him)
Eddie Murphy (Raw, anyone?)
Russell Peters
Katt Williams (in moderation)
Chelsea Handler

Last summer, my wife and I were in Yellow Springs (Chappelle’s hometown) sitting at a table inside a little deli/grocer where we could watch people on the street through the window. So this kinda skinny bald black guy walks by on the sidewalk, and my wife says “Look, it’s Dave Chappelle!” Of course it wasn’t him and she knew it. So I said to my wife (who is black) “Honey, you’re racist.” So we laughed.
Then, less than a minute later, I’m looking down the street a bit and see this guy go into another shop. It’s Dave Chappelle. I inform my wife of this, and she calls bullshit and calls me racist (I’m white). Doesn’t believe me. We were basically done with our food, so I told her to come and sit outside on a bench with me, and wait a few minutes, and Chappelle will come out.
So we did, and he came out and started talking to some people on the sidewalk. My wife was stunned, and wanted to say something to him, but I thought we shouldn’t bug him. Didn’t want to be THOSE people. He’s probably gained 20 pounds or so from his prime. Anyway, he got on his motorcycle and left a few minutes later.

Lily Tomlin

Don Rickels?

Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock are good.
Sinbad has a charisma that makes his jokes funnier than they should be, I like him.
Hedberg simply isn’t funny to me, don’t care for him at all.
Dane Cook is really hit or miss; some good stuff, some terrible stuff. My brother loves him.
Jim Gaffigan’s hot pockets thing was hilarious, end of story. Not much else to him though.
Lewis Black is trying a little too hard, but he’s alright.
Ron White is the only thing approaching slightly humorous of the Blue Collar guys.
I have never seen a female comedian that I liked, really.
Cosby is a good comedian.
Eddie Murphy is, eh.
I think Dennis Miller can be (or could be) quite funny, but after that NFL gig it was ruined.
Dunham is terrible.
That kid that draws on the flip posters – he is somewhat funny despite my belief that his act should be terrible based on its premise.
Kings of Comedy were OK, Bernie Mac mainly. Nothing great, but entertaining.

If so, then him.

I think Stephen Lynch is overrated and Bo Burnham is underrated.

Sid Cesar
Mel Brooks
Jack Benny
Milton Berle
Red Skelton
Brendanukkah
Harpo Marx
Carol Burnett
Richard Nixon
Mort Sahl
Dick gregory
The Smother’s Brothers
Bob Hope
George Carlin
Will Rogers
Lenny Bruce
George Burns
and maybe the greatest 20th century comedian
George Bush Jr. err
Groucho Marx

Mrs. Scrabbles and I like to get stand up albums from the library when we go on long car trips, but other than that I don’t consume much of it. I’ll definitely reference this thread next time we take a trip though.

1) George Carlin

the rest of the pack:

David Cross, BIll Cosby, Dave Chapelle, Lewis Black, Lenny Bruce, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor

1. Groucho Marx
2. Woody Allen

Ok, that’s pretty much my list.

old days
Marx brothers
Tim Conway & Carol Burnett
more recently
Gilbert Gottfried
Jimmy Kimmel ( best late night comedian by far )

Jonathan Winters

I still think he was the best stand-up of his generation to never make the jump into a film or TV career.

Tim Hawkins.

He does a lot of musical comedy, like this.

His take on “Hey There Delilah” is pretty awesome. And look for one of his Prince impressions — kinda scary.

Carol Burnette. Jeff Foxworthy. Steven Wright. Chris Rock. Richard Pryor. George Carlin. Dana Carvey.

And while not strictly a comedian I suppose, Johnny Carson made me laugh probably more than anyone else on the planet.

RIP

Drew Carey’s standup was awesome
Bobcat had me in tears a couple years ago
if you can forget that he was on that douche of a show (both of em actually), Bob Saget
My dad and I used to watch Louie Anderson’s HBO special back in the day and just lose it
Bill Cosby’s Himself is an all time classic …

Saw Seinfeld right after he went back on tour after the show. Jim Gaffigan opened for him and completely stole the show. Seinfeld was meh.

Saw Jon Stewart when he came to town 6 or 7 years ago. He had clearly been out of stand up for a while as he didn’t really have material or a rhythm. I remember the guy that opened for him was hilarious, but I don’t remember the guy’s name.

Coincidentally, I just happen to be reading Mike Birbiglia’s book. It’s kind of funny, but it’s interesting to see comedians talk about getting their start. It’s a terrifying occupation. Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up was similar (though much more about developing his stand up than Birbiglia’s). I really enjoy learning about why these guys are so fucked up.

To answer the question, my favorites all time are Steven Wright and Mitch Hedberg. Also a big fan of Bill Hicks, Jim Gaffigan, Jake Johansen, and Louis C.K. I miss old Comedy Central when they used to show stand up all day.