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Favorite / Influential Comedians

Jim Gaffigan and Jake Johannson are sweet and funny.
I can't endure the mean-spirited comics like Lisa Lampanelli.
 
Re Iannucci - Don't forget about his film "In The Loop" is out next year - it has many of the characters from The Thick Of It. I can't wait.
 
I haven't heard of most of these comedians. I think Sarah Silverman is very funny because she's reverse of what one expects, and she doesn't whine.
 
Gene L said:
I haven't heard of most of these comedians. I think Sarah Silverman is very funny because she's reverse of what one expects, and she doesn't whine.
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I think Sarah Silverman could be very funny if she'd write more than just the one joke.
 
Loss Leader said:
The thing that makes Regan great, I think, is that he doesn't mind looking like an idiot. Comedy is very ego driven and most comics want to be seen as supermen. Dane Cook is your current example of rock star comic. Steve Martin was, too. He was silly but not stupid. Regan, however, doesn't mind saying, "I'm a fool."
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Yeah, Regan does come off as a "goofball" and he puts together good form.

Comedy may be slightly ego-driven; but, a person can make that argument about authors, conductors, and other kinds of artists; and it can also be made about certain kinds of scientists (publish, publish, publish).

So, in my opinion, comedy is not more ego driven than other similar endeavors. And in individualistic (western and most modern) cultures, all pursuits can be motivated by a person's sense of self; but to be aware of that and to know when it is appropriate to allow the ego to do its work and to know when it is appropriate to go above the ego is critical.

Entire dissolution of the ego usually is a life-long quest; but, certain practices such as meditation and yoga can speed up the process.

EeneyMinnieMoe said:
Chris Rock.
Funniest man in America.
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I agree that African American comedians have the upperhand, compared to white comedians; i.e. black people can joke about just everything the white people can, but then black comedians can get away topics that involve ethnicity (race). Black people have so much more to satirize, parody, or mock than white people do. I mean, Chappelle can get away with a "Black White Supremacist" skit; and most people (with an intelligent sense of humor) find that kind of comedy hilarious. A white person could never pull that off; and no, I do not think that is a double standard.

But to say Chris Rock is the funnies man in the US may be a stretch. I do not think any one person can be called the funniest comedian; I do think that a stand up can be called the greatest; I do believe the greatest stand up was Pryor. All the greats were influenced by Pryor because he was a dang-on top notch story teller.
 
beeksc1 said:
Comedy may be slightly ego-driven; but, a person can make that argument about authors, conductors, and other kinds of artists; and it can also be made about certain kinds of scientists (publish, publish, publish).
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The thing about authors is that they can create as many characters as they want. They can create someone that is nothing but a superhero version of themselves and they can create morons and idiots who always do the wrong thing. There is also a significant distance in time and space between the author and the reader. The author is not confronting the reader in person.

The same is true of conductors. They have a whole orchestra that stands between them and their audience. Heck, conductors usually have their backs to the audience.

Stand-up, however, is one of the rare arts where the artist speaks his own words directly to the audience. Everything about the experience is created by the artist and there is no distance between him and the audience at all.

This makes the artist's ego a much bigger factor in stand-up than in other arts; and, thus, a much bigger stumbling block.
 
Loss Leader said:
The thing about authors is that they can create as many characters as they want. They can create someone that is nothing but a superhero version of themselves...

...This makes the artist's ego a much bigger factor in stand-up than in other arts; and, thus, a much bigger stumbling block.
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Having read the second chapter of "Bridges of Madison County" and way too much fan-fiction, I have to say that it can be a pretty damn big stumbling block in print, too.

You've heard of Mary Sue, right?
 
As I just received the text titled “Comedy Writing Step by Step” authored by Gene Perret, I thought I would post on this tread again.

I do not care for Jim Carrey’s commercial films much. Some of them are all right or cute; but, for the most part, I really only care for Carrey’s stand-up material and his work with ‘In Living Color’ and ‘SNL.’

Jim Carrey’s

Juice Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lVH9vzffgw

Lifeguard on Duty
http://video.google.com/videosearch...=jim+carrey+lifeguard&vid=2225531112728174764

Environmental Guy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8tfuBIutLI

skits are both absolutely hilarious and classic. His stand up is worth mentioning also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb4t3wzL058

The old school Jim Carrey, I like.
 
The crew that put together the National Lampoon Radio Hour's "That's Not Funny, That's Sick." This, to me, is the funniest comedy album ever made. Earlier and later NLRH works were not as good. Many of the people involved - Bill Murray, Laraine Newman, Harold Ramis, Richard Belzer, Brian Doyle-Murray, Christopher Guest, (and others I'm not remembering) - went on to careers of acclaim, but, IMO, they all peaked on this album.
 
jmcvann said:
The crew that put together the National Lampoon Radio Hour's "That's Not Funny, That's Sick." This, to me, is the funniest comedy album ever made.
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Awsome stuff. I haven't listened to it since 1982, but I still quote from it.

Mr. Roberts: Well, we're going to go to the magic kingdom.
Bass player: Ah no, man. It's too early for me. I gotta drive.
 
Eddie Izzard, Bill Cosby, Tim Conway on the "Carol Burnett Show" (his guffaws had me rotfl as a kid), Monty Python, George Carlin, Jim Carrey on ILC/SNL (esp. as 'Fire Marshall Bill'). Russell Brand isn't too bad. Too many to list.

With respect to Kathy Griffin, I think she isn't as much funny as painting a funny picture of these celebrity situations she gets into (forces her way into on purpose). Maybe the appeal to 'the gays' is that she looks like a drag queen (?). :)
 
Steven Wright is my favourite stand-up comedian. I also saw Frank Gorshin do stand-up, and he was pretty good.
 
This is a great thread. I've seen most of my favorites mentioned already and have met some new ones too. No one's mentioned Charlie Chaplin, Steve Martin, Victor Borge or Rowan Atkinson yet. All of them have had me laughing so hard, I could not catch my breath.
 
Definitely Eddie Izzard. He just makes me laugh. My kids all have him memorized. We can watch it 20 times and still laugh. But only when he's in drag.
 
Slimething said:
This is a great thread. I've seen most of my favorites mentioned already and have met some new ones too. No one's mentioned Charlie Chaplin, Steve Martin, Victor Borge or Rowan Atkinson yet. All of them have had me laughing so hard, I could not catch my breath.
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Add Rowan Atkinson to my list as well. Blackadder is great. Mr. Bean is great but can require a bit of prior 'understanding'. There is only one xmas tradition for me: watch "Blackadder's Christmas Carol".

If we're going all the way back to Chaplin, we could include The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, W.C. Fields, Jimmy Durante, Bob Hope, the Marx Brothers, Jerry Lewis, and on and on. As I said, too many to list.
 
Chic Murray - who first made me see the difference between a comedian and a guy who told jokes. He's getting on a bit here but you can catch some of his flavour

and a nephew gave me Frankie Boyle's live DVD for xmas and I think I broke something in my gut laughing. Very NSFW.
 
My personal favorite stand-ups would have to include early Robin Williams; not only for his style and humour, but his sheer energy. Lenny Bruce, at least from a historical perspective. Steve Martin I either makes me convulse with laughter, or just annoys me, depending on the particular period and routine. George Burns and Milton Berle are also great.

Performing comedians would include the Monty Python crew, both during and post. Rowan Atkinson (I've only seen him act, never doing standup). The Marx Brothers. Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi as a team, less so individually. Peter Sellers. I also have a fondness for Chevy Chase, though he can be rather hit-or-miss. Christopher Guest is an absolute genius; and his Second-City-derived ensemble are an amazingly funny group of comic actors. Good enough on their own; there's a sort of synergy that happens when they work together. I wasn't as impressed by the latest movie, though.

Andy Kaufman, though not a comedian by his own insistance, was one of the most interesting performers I've ever seen.
 
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