Your Top 10 Comedians At This Moment?

[MortSahlFan]

1. Mort Sahl
2. Bill Hicks
3. George Carlin
4. Bill Burr
5. Dick Gregory
6. Louis CK
7. Doug Stanhope
8. Mitch Hedberg
9. Dave Chappelle
10. Dov Davidoff



RIP Jackie Mason

[Replies From View]

Richard Pryor aka William Blake

[Pink Gregory]

Wil Hodgson
Laura Lexx
Fern Brady
Rachel Fairburn
Kiri Pritchard-Mclean
John Robins
Seymour Mace
Brendon Burns
Maeve Higgins

Largely based on shows/routines that I have seen
Not up to date, but those are my guys

[basterfeldt]

Stewart Lee
Gregg Turkington
Joe Pera
Connor O'Malley
Jo Firestone
Dan Licata
Limmy
Anyone that hasn't forced a female comedian to watch him wank
Jim Davidson

[Small Man Big Horse]

Maria Bamford (Loved her most recent special, and everything else she's done)
Norm MacDonald (Just read Based On A True Story and don't think I've read a funnier book)
Stewart Lee (Long time fan, caught Tornado/Snowflake in 2018 and thought it was one of his best)
Joseph Morpurgo (Soothing Sounds For Baby and Hammerhead were stunning, and what I saw of his most recent Work In Progress was excellent)
Bridget Christie (On a roll with the last four shows she's done being some of the best stand up I've ever witnessed)
Natalie Palamides (Just on the strength of Nate which I adored, but I can't wait to see what she does next)
Bob Mortimer (Fantastic in everything he does)
Kim Noble  (Love the two shows he's done this century, and thought the recent podcast was fantastic)
Neil Hamburger (For everything in his long career, but especially the last show he did at the Soho Theatre)
Elf Lyons (Love her take on everything, and has produced some nicely weird horror like Gorgon too)

That was really hard to choose as I had to miss so many people that I love, and I'm sure I'll realise I've missed out someone I adore.

[Brundle-Fly]

Stand ups only? Off the top of my head.

The dead, the old and the disgraced.

Les Dawson
Stewart Lee 
Dave Allen
Steven Wright
Kelly Monteith
The Amazing Jonathan 
Bill Hicks
Tommy Cooper
Sean Hughes
Louie CK

[Captain Z]

Tim Key
Alan Sutherland
Daniel Graff
Olga Byzantine
Stewart Lee
Richmond DeCourcey
Culper Precision
Michael McMichaels
Perry Niamh
Bea Agar-King

[Jock Macabre]

Elf Lyons (Love her take on everything, and has produced some nicely weird horror like Gorgon too)

I came across this lass on Twitch. Must've only been doing it to try and make some lockdown pennies and wasn't doing it very long(toxic cunts probably being the reason) and her character stuff is great. Sadly, I don't have any frame other frame of reference for her yet, but hopefully I get the chance to catch her live at some point soon.

[Jock Macabre]

Stewart Lee
Frankie Boyle
Doug Stanhope
Victoria Wood
James Acaster
Diane Morgan(I know she's more of an actress/TV type but she makes me piss)
Bo Burnham
Bill Hicks
Josie Long

[Pink Gregory]

Most Diane Morgan had ever made me laugh is on the Adam Buxton podcast when there's a slight lull in the conversation and she just goes, "What's your favourite smell?"

[thecuriousorange]

The thread title made me think they'd all have to be alive or have an active/un-cancelled career. OP put paid to that.

[Mr Banlon]

Al Madrigal
Brent Weinbach
Dave Hill
Cristela Alonso
Benjamin Partridge
Stewart Lee
Kath Barbadoro
Eli Yudin
Pattymo
Dan Thomas

[Rizla]

Mine are all made up.

1. The Cousin Brothers ("there's three of us but one of us stays at 'ome")
2. "Hats Off" Harry Hogarthson
3. Derek "King of the two-liner" Domino
4. Jean-Jaques Gentrification ("je suis en vacance!!!")
5. Johnny Vomit (not for mum n dad!)
6. Alan Column (deadpan delivery)
7. Vince Volume & Tony Tone (saturday night family fun)
8. Jokebot 4000 (android humour)
9. Billy "Bang Bang" Hemingway
10. Not Soup Again! (improv troupe)

[Noodle Lizard]

I haven't seen stand-up I've liked in a long time so most of these will seem outdated. Even so:

- George Carlin
- Stewart Lee
- Jerry Sadowitz
- Gregg Turkington (or Neil Hamburger if we're only counting stand-up)
- Patrice O'Neal
- Brody Stevens
- Doug Stanhope (his 2000s material anyway)
- Bill Burr
- Robin Williams (unpopular choice perhaps, but Live On Broadway was the first thing that got me into stand-up)
- Mitch Hedberg

2000s Louis CK is absolutely up there, but I think his poorer but most popular output from 2010 onwards exceeds the good overall (wankbeast revelations do not help). He was very funny back then, though, and I tend to agree with folk who said he was the worthy successor to Carlin. Completely arsed it up.

[Smeraldina Rima]

I reckon my three favourite stand ups will stay as:

Jerry Sadowitz
Phil Kay
Stewart Lee

since I've stopped developing and I've seen them live and that gives them the edge over some other favourites.

Part of me wants to go for the stand-ups who opened things up in America and who I've enjoyed without pissing myself, like Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Richard Pryor, Andy Kaufman and Joan Rivers, but here's a more personal last seven at the moment:

Felix Dexter (although I wish I could find more of his character stand up on film - would recommend the half hour BBC tribute documentary)
Chic Murray (wish I could find more of his stand up on film; he was one of my dad's favourites too)
Tom Green (I liked his stand up show from about ten years ago that he was touring around the world for ages - the facebook/house phone and standing in the bushes bits especially)
Todd Barry (The crowd work in particular)
Ted Chippington (I love the Walking down the Road box set and most of all the long joining a monastery joke)
Harry Hill (some of his stand up is great, sometimes I don't like it that much though if you really must know)
Louis CK (may as well go for the great Wankbeast in his pomp - like the double edged sword improvised set)

And that's ten, that's all from me, seeya.

[sevendaughters]

alive or dead, in any medium where humour appears

- Bob Mortimer is a natural and is in full national treasure status.
- Gregg Turkington is getting his deserved day in the sun for being as funny and weird as Mortimer has been. His early music, his comedy records as The Golding Institute and Neil Hamburger, his elongated tragic 'victory lap' as Hamburger doing well-received jokes, and then being the funniest incarnation of all: himself.
- Sue Townsend. Gave me a window to myself as a kid, and then in later years a window to Middle England that turned out to be more accurate than I'd bargained for. Also very funny.
- Stewart Lee. Am less enamoured with him these days, but that's as much my fault. I honestly think he made other people doing stand up look completely trivial. Maybe it is meant to be?
- Simon Munnery. Perhaps never to have that one unifying project or golden moment but doomed to be constantly barking mad aphorisms until his brain folds in on itself.
- Les Dawson. As I get older I realise the gentle subversions and the weirdness of certain television personalities that were fixtures of my youth. One of the great 'reactors'.
- Steve Coogan. Dunno if you know this lad, fairly obscure.
- Andy Kaufman. Often the concept of a joke or just a weird idea is enough, maybe I might have hated Kaufman at the time, but also probably the point!
- Frank Sidebottom. It was either him, John Shuttleworth, or Ivor Cutler, and I went with the local one.
- Rik Mayall. Pure joy in a man.

Love Bob Newhart and Steve Martin. I would also say that Chris Morris has an amazing comic brain, but has spent enough time in seriousland that I couldn't fit him in. Would expect to be thinking about Tim Key in this realm in a decade or so. Maybe not Limmy as I can't see a road back to telly. I'd love to see Julia Davis, Maria Bamford, and Jemaine Clement have a major comic success (that I like) to cement my perspective of them.

[MortSahlFan]

Louis CK's last couple of specials haven't been good... Bill Burr's last couple specials are good, not as great as the ones before. Same with Stanhope, who I saw a third time a year before COVID, and he recycled 90% of his material.

[Dr Rock]

A mix of old and new, but mostly the ones I'm still watching regularly/now and then. No particular order.

Mitch Hedburg
Stewart Lee
Steve Coogan (he's done some character stand-up, so I'm sticking him in, but really it's for his entire ouevre)
Tom Segura
Patti Harrison (hard to find much of her stand-up though, if anyone can point me to it, much obliged)
Norm MacDonald
Silver Sarahman
Maria Bamford
Louis CK
Patrice O'Neal


Bill Burr's not made the list cos I've lost interest until he puts out a good special again.

hon. mentions - Victoria Wood, Johnny Vegas, Steve Martin, and whoever I forgot

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Bob Mortimer - the world's most effortlessly funny human; his very presence makes me feel glad to be here.

Victoria Wood - I will never, for as long as I try, turn a phrase quite as immaculately as she did. Ditto Alan Bennett.

Billy Connolly - the only comedian who has ever made me cry with laughter. He's up there with Pryor as a master of his craft.

Richard Pryor - See above. Pryor and Connolly are the greatest stand-up storytellers. An innately funny man. A genius.

Reece Shearsmith - Hi Reece! An incredible comic actor. No one does hilarious pent-up fury quite like Reece.

Limmy - Another naturally funny person. Makes me laugh in a way that 'proper' comics rarely do. His view of the world chimes with my own.

Stewart Lee - Watching Stew perform his pear cider routine live was difficult for me; I'm not a big laugher, but I couldn't control myself. He is without doubt one of the funniest stand-up comedians I have ever seen.

Seymour Mace - I was in a deep trough of depression when I first saw him perform at the Fringe. Mace, who also struggles with his mental health, brings a bit of fucking joy to the world. Silliness, profanity, everything I want from a comedian.

Laurel & Hardy - The greatest, the funniest, the apex of comedy. A pair of comic geniuses in tandem. Utter bliss. They make me feel like this whole 'living' business isn't a waste of time after all. Whenever I watch them, I feel like...

Woody Allen - when he watches a screening of Duck Soup in Hannah & Her Sisters. How could you not want to exist in a world capable of something so beautiful? Which sounds simplistic written down, but anyone who's seen that film will understand what I mean. Anyway. Woody Allen. His stand-up and 'early funny' films are works of genius. The man is possibly a nonce. Talk about separating the art from the artist...

[tribalfusion]

From the title it seemed like this was about comedians working at the moment but the posts don't seem to follow that line. I broke the list up into US and UK

UK:

Rob Newman
Stewart Lee
Mark Thomas
Mark Steel
Alexei Sayle
Bridget Christie
Frankie Boyle
Simon Munnery
Matthew Alford
Josie Long

US:

Ted Alexandro
Dave Anthony
David Cross
Nato Green
Judah Friedlander
Maria Bamford
Lee Camp
David Feldman

[MortSahlFan]

A mix of old and new, but mostly the ones I'm still watching regularly/now and then. No particular order.

Mitch Hedburg
Stewart Lee
Steve Coogan (he's done some character stand-up, so I'm sticking him in, but really it's for his entire ouevre)
Tom Segura
Patti Harrison (hard to find much of her stand-up though, if anyone can point me to it, much obliged)
Norm MacDonald
Silver Sarahman
Maria Bamford
Louis CK
Patrice O'Neal


Bill Burr's not made the list cos I've lost interest until he puts out a good special again.

hon. mentions - Victoria Wood, Johnny Vegas, Steve Martin, and whoever I forgot

I think Burr's last two specials haven't been up to his par, but his specials before were top-notch.. I actually prefer his podcast to his last two specials. Maybe it's being married and having kids, in conjunction to this sensitive and easily offended societal climate, even in comedy. It's too bad artistic license is limited to corporate sponsorship.

[the science eel]

Chic Murray (wish I could find more of his stand up on film; he was one of my dad's favourites too)

oh GOD he was so fucking great

[poo]

Jethro

[Jittlebags]

In no particular order...

Tokers Green
Bovington Tracy
Mudford Sock
Curry Mallet
Fanny Barks
Hopton Wafers
Nempnett Thrubwell
Porno Abbey
Fuck Mills
Sexmoan Phillips

[Dusty Substance]

alive or dead, in any medium where humour appears

Gonna borrow sevendaughters' definition of a what a comedian is - Be it stand up, sketch actor, film actor, podcaster, people who have made me laugh in way or another..... My Top 10 Comedians At This Moment are.....

1. Peter Cook
2. Norm MacDonald

3. Peter Sellers
4. Groucho Marx
5. Rik Mayall
6. Steve Coogan
7. Vic Reeves
8. Bob Mortimer
9. Bill Hicks
10. Woody Allen

Top two are pretty solid -  they've been my two biggest go-to comedians for the last 20 years.

Three to ten are pretty interchangeable.

Didn't give too much thought to who makes the top ten - It's a mixture of who I respect the most, who's made me laugh the most and a big dollop of nostalgia.

[Ornlu]

Tim Heidecker
Harry Hill
Nick Mullen
Louis CK
Stewart Lee
Bob Odenkirk
Norm Macdonald
Nathan Fielder
Tim Dillon
DJ Douggpound