Comedians and comic actors who primarily got their yucks from facial expressions

Cafe Society
1

I’ll start: Steve Martin

2

Buster Keaton.

OK, OK, that’s kind of a joke in itself, cause he didn’t have any.

Jack Benny.

3

Steve Martin’s comedy albums wentgold, platinum, and double platinum. Seems unlikely that those record sales were primarily driven by making funny faces.

4

Jim Carrey. Without the faces he’s got nuthin’.

5

Gale Gordon.

6

Yeah, he had some help from funny headgear.

7

Harpo Marx
Lucille Ball
Richard Mulligan
Soupy Sales
Rowan Atkinson

8

I an’t think of anyone who got laughs PRIMARILY from facial expressions, but there are loads for whom facial expressions were extremely important.

  1. Groucho Marx would be funny for wordplay alone, without using his eyebrows… but the eyebrows were an enormous bonus.

  2. Jack Benny was hilarlious on radio, where no one could see his face. But on film or TV, he was at his funniest when trying to keep a calm, dignified expression in a preposterously embrarrassing situation.

  3. Stan Laurel’s wordless, clueless, satisfied grin was funny all by itself… as was Oliver Hardy’s worldless, exasperated face while doing a slow burn at Stan’s cluelessness.

  4. Lou Costello’s whipped puppy “I’m a bad boy” face was priceless.

9

Good point. But I think he was far more successful as a movie star, where the goofy faces often drove the laughs.

Marty Feldman

10

Bob Newhart. Dead pan facial expression.

11

Following astorian’s “I can’t think of anyone who got laughs PRIMARILY from facial expressions, but there are loads for whom facial expressions were extremely important.”

Carol Burnett
Mel Brooks
Johnny Carson

12

It’s not quite what you’re thinking of, but I’ve heard a few friends say that they’d find Chris Rock a lot less funny if it wasn’t for his shit-eating grin.

Half the reason I like The Amazing Johnathan is because he perfected his timing for this look.

13

Red Skelton

14

Phil Leeds
Moms Mabley

15

Red Skelton did the facey thing quite a bit, didn’t he?

Edit: ninja’d by campp

16

Jonathan Winters

17

Joe E. Brown is the first one that came to my mind.

18

Martin Short. The last time I watched Clifford, I realized that the entire movie runs on the steam from Short’s ridiculous faces.

19

Wow - I’m the first to mention Charlie Callas?

In the late '60’s and early '70’s he was the man for rubber-faced expressions. A quick check on Youtube showed a ton of clips, but I couldn’t easily pick one out that showcased all of his whacky expressions. So fun and silly.

20

I mentioned Steve Martin.

I guess this is the part where we mention Chevy Chase.