Who are your favorite comedians?

[Bamaman]

What's so unexpected that many of the great comedians are/were often in severe depression.

My friend's uncle was in the cotton business in the Mississippi Delta. One of his salesman was Jerry Clower. He carried on his banter in private life--before making a living as a comedian. And as an ag salesman, he was absolutely unbelievable. No depression for him. And the Ledbetter cousins of his were real people, and their antics as portrayed in Clower's comedy routines were sometimes accurate.

Some people are just genuinely funnier than anyone.

 

[pacergal]

Red Skelton
Stiller and Meara
Richard Pryor
Steve Martin
Ellen (before her show)
Dave Chappell
George Carlin
Robin Williams

 

[pacergal]

Oh, Forgot! Not stand up comedians, but funny

Lucille Ball
Carol Burnett

 

[Nemo2]

Red Skelton

Loved Red Skelton!

 

[Koogie]

Not sure if you mean standups or the broader "comedians" If so, "now for something completely different" and in no particular order:

{Monty Python} - Cleese and Palin being the standouts.
Rowan Atkinson
The Two Ronnies
Benny Hill
Jimmy Carr

I also like Chappelle but sometimes his stuff is forced to make political points. Still miles ahead of most other people though.

I've always had a fondness for "one liner" comedians as well. Hedburg, Stewart Francis, Tim Vine, Steven Wright, Gary Delaney, Anthony Jeselnik.

 

[Montecfo]

Steve Martin:

"Always take a litter bag in your car. They don't take up much room, and if it gets full you can throw it out the window. "

Rodney Dangerfield

"I only get the ugly girls. Like this one girl, ooooh was she ugly. I bent down to pet her cat, and it was the hair on her legs. I mean, she was not an attractive girl."

Larry the Cable Guy

" Yeah I'd been seeing this good-looking girl down in Miami for about three weeks until someone stole the field glasses out of my pickup truck"

Wendy Leibman:

" I'm a writer. I write checks. Mostly fiction."

Chris Rock:

[Content redacted]

And another vote for the Monte Python troupe.

 

[Koolau]

Can it be that no one has mentioned Jonathon Winters so far? Maybe I missed it. Fell in love with him when I saw It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World ca. 1963. Way before Robin Williams, JW was the KING of improv. YMMV

 

[SnowballCamper]

Steven Wright

 

[MuirWannabe]

Can it be that no one has mentioned Jonathon Winters so far? Maybe I missed it. Fell in love with him when I saw It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World ca. 1963. Way before Robin Williams, JW was the KING of improv. YMMV

Great one. Can’t believe forgot to mention him. And that movie is definitely in my top 10 all time. Thanks for correcting the omission!

 

[Music Lover]

Jerry Stiller comes to mind as one of those guys that made me laugh before a word came out of his mouth.

Tim Conway too. Not really a joke telling comedian but very funny. Even the cast of the Carole Burnett show had a hard time keeping a straight face.

 

[jcfradio]

In no particular order:

Robin Williams
George Carlin
Groucho Marx (heck, all of the Marx brothers, including Karl!)
Ron James (a Canadian Maritimer, probably not well known in the US)
Lewis Black

 

[Koolau]

Relatively obscure in most circles, Grady Nutt was a Baptist minister who eventually found some fame on Hee Haw. He was that rare individual who could poke fun at the ritualism, authoritarianism, and hypocrisy of "organized" religion without in any way denigrating the love, faith and personage at the center of his faith. Think of him as Brother Dave Gardner but with a committed faith. And no need to worry about profanity! More than most subjects, not for everyone and definitely YMMV.

 

[Agapostemon]

Comedians in very little order

The Classics:

Richard Pryor
Stephen Wright
Jonathan Winters
Steve Martin
Lily Tomlin


The Current crop:

Maria Bamford
Kristin Schall
Patton Oswald
Deon Cole
Tig Notaro
Marc Maron
Ron Funches
Eddie Izzard
Hannibal Burress

Not so much stand-up:

Thomas Lennon has started writing a hilarious series of books. Don't let the fact they are being marketed for children turn you away:

Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles
Ronan Boyle and the Swamp of Certain Death

 

[Montecfo]

Steven Wright

"I met my wife in the generic food aisle at tbe grocery store. Her name is woman."

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Do not really watch any since George Carlin passed. We have ALL his specials and all his early stuff digitized on our server.

 

[CoolRich59]

I wish there were more "clean" comedians. The best comedians find humor in every day life situations. Insults and vulgar language are not funny (IMHO).

Couldn't agree more. That's why Brian Regan is by far my favorite current comedian.

https://youtu.be/CafPNEWnDhk

 

[RunningBum]

John Mulaney is another funny guy who doesn't have to resort to vulgarity.

 

[Time2]

Steve Martin:

"Always take a litter bag in your car. They don't take up much room, and if it gets full you can throw it out the window. "

Rodney Dangerfield

"I only get the ugly girls. Like this one girl, ooooh was she ugly. I bent down to pet her cat, and it was the hair on her legs. I mean, she was not an attractive girl."

Rodney,
A women called me, she said, come on over, nobody's home.
I went over, and nobody was home.

 

[Montecfo]

Rodney,
A women called me, she said, come on over, nobody's home.
I went over, and nobody was home.

"I told my kid about the birds and the bees. He told ME about my wife and the butcher".

 

[Jerry1]

I never liked Robin Williams as a comedian. His humor was clearly connected to significant issues. It’s not that I didn’t “get it”, but it was more painful to watch than funny. Though I bet he was a beautiful human being and I loved him as an actor, but the comedy . . .

Had the pleasure of seeing Tim Allen live before he became famous. Took a coworker out for a going away party to a comedy club. Funniest day of my life. My stomach actually and sincerely hurt the next day.

Kinda like Ron White. Also always liked the deep thinking comedy of Carlin and Steven Wright.

 

[mbooth]

Dave Allan
George Burns
Tommy Cooper [literally died on stage - heart attack]
Dawn French & Jennifer Saunders [with Joanna Lumley of course]
Plenty of others

Hey it's a Brit focused list, but I'm a native son

 

[Nemo2]

Dave Allan

Dave Allen was great...(Irish, not Brit though )

 

[statsman]

Do not really watch any since George Carlin passed. We have ALL his specials and all his early stuff digitized on our server.

I am truly envious. That would be a great collection to have. Carlin is definitely in my top-5 list, and I am hard pressed to think who the other four would be.

 

[mbooth]

Dave Allen was great...(Irish, not Brit though )

Ah, this might be a 'pistols at dawn' challenge Irish yes, born in Dublin, Northern Ireland (part of Britain, and spending his formative and majority of his adult time in England]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Allen_(comedian)

Cheers

 

[target2019]

I'll go with Marc Maron...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Maron

His bit about the end of times and wires is clever. Easy to find on youtube.