It makes me want to zip off to Youtube to see some clips from the people that I’m unfamiliar with.
Hey! Who is the Welshman? in “Something about Mary” that played the guy on crutches?
He does some great stand-up comedy, and sweats buckets. I’m not so much into physical comedy, but he and “Kramer” were/are two of the best at it.
I guess the Monty Python crew were tough to beat. I met Michael Palin once in London, and he was as down-to-earth as they come.
One thing I notice is that few of these people were funny for decades. It seems that a lot of these people got fried on coke or couldn’t think of much new material once they hit 40.
Often, they have 30 minutes of good material, but after they’ve made it onto the talk show circuit or done a Comedy Central special, they’ve got to find all new material. That’s pressure.
And that makes me appreciate comic strips (like Dilbert or Calvin and Hobbes) or shows (like the Simpsons or Seinfeld) that were consistantly funny for years.
Peter Sellers
Rowan Atkinson (before Mr. Bean)
Ronnie Baker
Ronnie Corbet
Mel Brooks
Benny Hill (from his BBC Series 54 to 67, his 1967 ITV Special, and Thames TV programs from 69 to 78, after 1978 they suck)
Eric Sykes
Kenneth Williams
Sid James
Jim Carey
Robin Williams
John Byner
Frank Gorshin
Bob Newhart
Harvey Corman
Rolf Harris
Charlie Drake
Ben Elton
Johnny Wayne & Frank Shuster (Canadian)
Kids In The Hall (Canadian)
Four On The Floor (Canadian)
Graham Chapman
Eric Idol
Michael Palin
John Cleese
Johnny Carson
The Monty Python gang (but of fuckin’ course)
Steve Coogan (Saxondale, interview)
Rowan Atkinson (including Mr. Bean, but of fuckin’ course)
John Sessions
Chris Morris
Jimmy Carr
Eugene Levy
Stephen Wright
Emo Phillips
I saw Rosie’s ex, Tom Arnold, live once in Tempe, Arizona. He wasn’t prepared at all, and he was horribly unfunny. In the end, he fell back on telling jokes about life with Rosie. Very frustrating, getting ripped off like that.
I can find nothing funny at all in Dane Cook and Alex Reymundo, both of whom are quite hot right now. Denis Leary is an appealing actor, but his stand up is flat and not nearly as intelligent as he’s given credit for.
I love Larry the Cable Guy and his buds on the Blue Collar Tour. Steve Martin is probably my all time favorite, and of course Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks come immediately to mind when I think of my favorite comedians of yesteryear. Eddie Murphy had some great routines way back when.
I’ll just say my favorites: W. C. Fields, Groucho Marx, Abbott and Costello, Lenny Bruce, Jackie Gleason and Art Carney, Jerry Lewis (for some of his movies with Dean Martin, and in Visit to a Small Planet, even though I barely remember those movies), Bill Cosby (for his records in the '60s), Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, Don Rickles, Jonathan Winters, Flip Wilson, George Carlin, Mel Brooks, Lily Tomlin (“got a problem? we don’t care; we don’t have to; we’re the phone company”), Richard Pryor, Cheech and Chong, John Cleese, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Billy Crystal, Bob Newhart, Steve Wright, Mike Myers, Eddie Izzard, and Mitch Hedberg.
Mine would have to be Russell Peters. Canadian dude of Indian descent. Takes the piss out of every colour and creed on earth, and the people lap it up. Just watched his Green Card show at the O2 Arena in London.
Who’s your favourite (contemporary) stand-up joker?
Russell Peters is pretty funny when he is on, but I’ve heard some of his stuff that is just berating people in the audience and laced with profanity that I thought was a bit lame. This is the second time this week that I hear of Louis CK; I shall investigate. Steven Wright still makes me laugh.
George Carlin by a head and shoulders. The man was a man after my own heart. “The public sucks. There’s a nice campaign slogan for somebody: the public sucks, fuck hope. Fuck hope.” :roflmao:
CK is my current fav. He is so unabashed and just damn funny.
Don’t like Russell Peters one bit. It’s all stereotypical and borderline racist. A white guy doing his bit would suffer like Kramer.
Greg Giraldo was extremely funny and died way too soon.
Marc Maron is on the rise, and can hit but he mostly misses. And he tweets waaaaaay too much.
But the true king is and always will be Bill Maher.
And Steven Wright, like Condor says, is always funny.
Anyone ever meet that dude that called himself a comedian here in Taipei? He did a show with a lame power point and was always handed out DMs in ShiDa? What a screwball. Funniest thing he ever did was getting deported during his APRC interview.
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