Because he was fucking hilarious. It is a wit so dry it makes your mouth pucker, and certainly not for every taste. God, I miss him.
Amen! When were in high school, my friends and I watched for Weekend Update with Dennis Miller, but “The Big Picture” was the Update showcase for us. The rest of the show was hit or miss, but we’d at least watch until Update was over.
-DocJon
I’ve got to defend Gilbert. I realize a lot of people hate him, but I have to think that he just gets badly written parts or something, because when left to his own devices the man is a comedic genius.
Re: Jim Breuer:
I remember Jim Breuer doing a pretty funny stand-up in the mid/late 90s, but other than that and Half-Baked I never really noticed him one way or another. I vaguely remember goat-boy but don’t remember if I liked it or not. I thought he was kind of one of those background guys, not much substance to hate.
Thing is, that’s the extent of his act. I saw him a couple of years ago and he did the same routine he’d done on Comedy Central years before. I suppose a little of it had to be different, but you wouldn’t know. I guess he hadn’t gone out on tour in a while. Anyway it was not a memorable event. Dave Chappelle went on first and, heh, smoked him.
I absolutely despised GG on SNL. The only time his persona worked for me was in Beverly Hills Cop II, for reasons inexplicable to me. Any mention of his presence in a project was a signal for me to stay far away.
I started to change my mind about him when a friend told me about a job he had hosting USA Up All Night. Once, at a return from commercial, he said “we now return to tonight’s movie, a film about as wild and unpredictable as tomorrow’s sunrise!” That made me laugh.
Then there was the time when, as Iago the Parrot in “Aladdin”, he shrieks, just as Aladdin bursts in to spoil Jafar’s plot, “Why am I not a BIT surprised?!?” which cracked me up as well. (And yes, I also laughed at the most recent Disney ad, where he returns, yelling at the toll attendant: “No, I don’t have any quahtiz!”
I have also enjoyed a few of his bits on Leno. And IMDB just told me he’s the AFLAC duck, which I should have realized ages ago, and, shoot me, but I like those ads.
So I guess I’ve warmed up to him, or he ages well, or has better writers now, or something.
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned Tim Meadows. What was it…nine seasons of mediocrity?
I don’t hate Gottfried at all, just thought he was awful on SNL. I remember a routine from years ago, from Letterman I think, where GG was talking about Moby Dick. There were a half-dozen or so of us watching and the entire room was in hysterics. Sketch comedy is just the wrong format for his talent.
Lewis was mildly funny 40 years ago.
I challenge you to name ten people who have been as famous and successful as Will Ferrell without being funny. (This is harder than you think; Tom Green was never funny, but he wasn’t as successful as Will Ferrell.) I will spot you Pauly Shore.
Go.
Bob Hope
Lucille Ball
Jim Carrey
Carol Burnette
Ray Romano
Peggy Marshall
Adam Sandler
Tom Arnold
Whoopi Goldberg
Drew Carey
I’ll take issue with these. I’m not a fan of Hope’s but I have seen routines of his that killed me. Most of his reputation comes from his entertaining the troops so he’s cut a lot of slack but he was funny on occasion. Ball was a genius physical comedian. Burnette is also a good physical comedian and can deliver a punchline. Tom Arnold was funny on Roseanne and on various guest appearances (he has a sports show on Fox Sports that I don’t watch but am told is a stitch). Track down Whoopi’s first Broadway show and after watching it say again that she’s not funny.
I guess I don’t go for that kind of broad physical comedy (no pun intended). YMMV. That reminds me, I should have put Gallagher on my list.
I think that’s more a testament to the writers than to him. As an actor he’s not that great - kind of stiff. I haven’t seen much of the sports show.
I’ll have to take your word on that. I’ve seen some of her stand-up stuff and it did nothing for me.
…ahem…
And Drew Carey conceived of and brought “Whose Line is it Anyway” to television.
The Brits had it on the air a decade before Drew Carey.
I love Drew Carey as much as the next gal, but I don’t think he conceived “Whose Line is it Anyway”. I saw the original show hosted by Clive Anderson in the UK (on American Comedy Central) years before Drew made it in America.
Jinx, Otto! 
I think it’s a little bit more than a stretch to call him a comedic genius, but he can be pretty funny doing stand-up. There was a bit he did on “Late Night” talking about getting trapped in the land of One-Named People and then escaping to the land of Three-Named People, where he was attacked by Olivia Newton-John and Phillip Michael Thomas and… pretty much the entire cast of “The Cosby Show.”
He’s pretty much an adequately clever guy with a very narrow schtick, and he got way too popular way too fast, which is why he was cast on a sketch comedy show for which he was inappropriate.
Doesn’t make him funny, though. It’s like a street football game: You have your good players, and then you have “the guy who brought the football”.