Best stand-up comedians

Discussion
1

Hey, I think I may have stumbled upon a topic Prongs has never tackled!

I tend to like stand up comedians whose material has a deeper social commentary then simply going for cheap explicit material to get the drunks in the crown going. My favorites:

George Carlin - got so mean and bitter towards the end but just about everything he said was TRUE!

Lenny Bruce - pushed the boundaries, not just for the sake of obscenity but as a way to dissect out culture through live performance.

Richard Pryor - Obscene at times but not gratuitously, had great insights into our culture from a black perspective, which sounds like nothing now but at the time he was a pioneer.

Bill Hicks - WAY ahead of his time, ripped off by Dennis Leary and others, Hicks was brilliant and his humor was irreverently and curmudgeonly as dead on as Carlin’s. He died way to young, who knows what the man would have thought up if he lived past 32.

Mitch Hedberg - hilariously witty observations on life.

Doug Stanhope - Mean alchoholic/chainsmoking comic who tells it like it is. I may not agree with him 100% of the time, but he makes me laugh 95% of the time.

Did I miss any greats? We could save cinematic and sketch comics for another thread… or not…

2

Hedberg is amazing!

3

Richard Pryor came to mind when I read the topic title, I still laugh at the man many many years later.

4

Pryor is still brilliant, despite being dead.

I don’t know much about American comedians Imostly know of Irish & British ones. Check out Tommy Tiernan, Dara O Briain and Dylan Moran (esp. Dylan) for some great stuff.

5

I saw Emo Phillips and surprise guest Bobcat Goldthwaite a few weeks ago.
It was awesome.

6

Rodney Dangerfield
Sam Kinison
Richard Pryor
Bill Hicks
George Carlin
Emo Phillips
Chris Rock
Steve Martin
Bob Newhart
Mitch Hedberg
Steven Wright
Gilbert Gottfried

1002

7

Dov Davidoff. The motherfucker cracks me up like no one can.

I saw a Chelsea Handler stand-up special a while ago… and found her strangely hot.

8

you missed patton oswald, jim jeffries, charlie murphy (but he’s still a little green) eddie murphy, the whole kings of comedy crew (cedric, bernie, etc) bill burr, loius cd, jim norton and the opie and anthony crew,
i’ll tell you who i despise, hacks like dane cook and carlos mencia. Both have been proven joke thieves and have stolen people bits verbatum

9

All the true greats have been mentioned here already. Hicks is way up at the top of my list. But one guy that really makes me laugh these days is Brian Regan. He doesn’t work blue and isn’t very cutting edge…he’s just funny.

10

I’ve seen Brian Regan perform twice. He’s really good.
I saw Mitch Hedburg twice as well.
I don’t think anybody’s mentioned Dave Attell yet - he’s sort of the reverse of Brian Regan, in that he’s just as funny but his jokes are 100% filthy.

11

Louis CK

12

Saw these guys recently:

Lewis Black
Jim Breuer

13

Rudy Ray Moore

14

Neil Hamburger!!!

15

My favorite comic now is definitely NICK SWARDSON.

The rest in my list are all based on what they did 20 or more years back as I don’t really keep current with anyone.

BOBCAT GOLDTHWAITE
RICHARD PRYOR
EDDIE MURPHY
EMO PHILIPS
BILL COSBY
RODNEY DANGERFIELD

I used to like GALLAGHER a lot but I saw him live about 5 years ago and he was bitter, old, and completely unfunny (doing the same jokes as before but without any energy).

I’ll tell the story about meeting the crusty old geezer later if anyone wants to hear it.

17

Louis CK

found out Louis CK is mexican! He was born in america but raised in mexico or something like that… never heard him speak a lick of spanish

18

Can’t believe no one has mentioned best "New"comic Daniel Tosh. Man that guy is hysterical!
Saw a taping of Tosh.0 about 2 weeks back. the one where the hood rat gets a redemption. Damn that guy is funny!
Late,
grmpysmrf