The Surrealusts:
Buster Keaton, Ernie Kovacs, Charlie Chaplin, Bill Hicks
Jenny your humble TubaDivaIf I limit myself to the modern era, I’ll go for Ronnie Barker, John Cleese, David Jason, and Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Atkinson and Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx.
When he first started becoming popular, his humor was a new look at things. A lot of it was about his childhood, and it was refreshing and hilarious. He was also one of the first black comedians to break through to white audiences, even though he was preceded by people like Redd Foxx, who gained notoriety with his raunchy nightclub act. Cosby worked clean, and his recordings gained a wide audience in the 60s. Today, of course, observational comedy and talking about family and childhood is common, but then it was new.
My sense of humor was honed in the 1950s and 60s. I always tell people that there are five people who contributed to it: Jack Benny, Stan Freberg (because of his records), Ernie Kovacs and Soupy Sales (because of their amazing TV work), and representing the “usual gang of idiots at MAD magazine,” Alfred E. Neuman. They are my comedic Mount Rushmore. Honorable mention would go to George Carlin, Rodney Dangerfield, Woody Allen (when he did stand-up), Richard Pryor, and the Marx Brothers as a group.
After using many of your lists for inspiration, I’m pretty satisfied with my list of:
Charlie Chaplin
Bob Newhart
Mel Brooks
John Cleese
That was pretty tough actually; I won’t do a long list of honorable mentions but my last name dropped was Jerry Seinfeld.
That question will ultimately be answered by people who are now below the age of 20. The rest of us, for the most part, can remember a time when we were able to evaluate Cosby’s work without the knowledge he’s a convicted serial rapist looming in the back of our minds. The same thing can be said about Woody Allen’s work even though he hasn’t been accused of anything on the scale of Cosby’s crimes.
If we are talking strictly stand up comedy, leaving all other forms of comedy out, yes he is still there. I mean we are not making an actual monument. I think we can all agree he is beyond being honored by anyone. For stand ups the top three are indisputable. If you look at who other comics cite as their influences it’s the same three over and over. Cosby, Pryor, Carlin. The comedy albums of those three shaped stand up as it is today. After that the Teddy Roosevelt of this Mount can be disputed. Earlier in the thread I said Dangerfield but it could be Bruce for pushing the envelope or Rivers for blazing the trail.
I see a lot of Carlin fans… Have you all seen his first album? With Jack Burns at the Playboy Club?
Groucho, Chico, Exapno ;), and for a fourth, I’d have to go with a Python, so John Cleese.
Milton Berle
Lorne Michaels
Richard Pryor
Jerry Seinfeld
… I don’t see how SNL can not be on my Rushmore, and to be honest, there is really only one face that can be on the mountain. I get that Lorne isn’t a comedian, but the man launched, or boosted, the careers of so many… from Chevy Chase to Tina Fey. The only person with arguably as much impact on American comedy was Johnny Carson… but I think even there Lorne has the crown.
My main route to humor/laughter is stand-up, but outside of that, I found Garry Shandling a creative force with TV shows (The Larry Sanders Show, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show), but the funny guy on the first show is Rip Torn. He’s hilarious, and in the movies he made during the 60s/70s. “Payday”
[quote=“MortSahlFan, post:89, topic:681185”]
I see a lot of Carlin fans… Have you all seen his first album? With Jack Burns at the Playboy Club?
[/QUOTE]A few months ago I finished listening to all 22 of Carlin’s albums in order and created a thread about it.
Quoting myself from that thread:
mmm
I just posted a comment on there, so I’ll refrain from repeating it here. I did forget to mention how much I love interviews as a whole, especially from interesting people. I didn’t care for many of the Carson ones, since they never seemed to be serious, and usually old jokes.