I got to watching some Youtube clips of Don Rickles yesterday and I’ve never LOL’d so hard or so long. I would guess most people might think that Robin Williams was the funniest person ever. But he is almost entirely cerebral. I think the funniest person of all time has to have a mix of both physical and cerebral comedy. So my vote goes to Don Rickles.
I was watching Rickles doing a roast and Phyllis Diller did a short bit. But that was enough. IMO, there is no doubt. She is just the very worst of the worst. That insane cackle she does - the one that sounds like a mix between a crow’s caw and a hyena’s cackle … well she seems to think she can use that as a substitute for humor and I find it worse than ten people clawing their finger nails across a blackboard.
IMO, Phyllis Diller wins hands down - the very worst comedian ever.
Extremely difficult to make that call. Those that I would put on Mount Rushmore would be there not only for their ability to make people laugh but due to their importance to the craft and to culture. Someone like Pryor or Carlin. They were hilarious when they went for laughs. But their routines were not always about telling jokes. Chappelle is like that now.
If you want to base it strictly on being funny over a long period of time you can’t beat Brian Regan.
For worst and most annoying it can’t get worse than Bill Saluga.
Jonathan Winters springs to mind first! Worst? Can’t go that direction on purpose but it wouldn’t take long to get to THE WORST if I had to! Besides Jonathan there’s Jeff Foxworthy.
The first that came mind are George Carlin for best, and Andrew Dice Clay for worst. As Dennis Miller said about Clay, “He’s Fonzie with Tourette’s Syndrome.”
For worst, it’s hard to beat Kenny Moore, who once pissed off a heckler so much that Moore had to hit the guy over the head with his guitar once the heckler approached the stage (- YouTube).
If we’re talking about world-famous comics, though, I can’t pick a greatest. My heroes are George Carlin, Lewis Black, the Amazing Jonathan, and Greg Giraldo. Kathleen Madigan may be the funniest female comic I’ve ever seen. I considered Tim Wilson a friend. Don Rickles was a god.
On the other end of the spectrum, I tend to dislike prop comics like Carrot Top, and a comic whose whole gig consists of impressions will make me lose interest very quickly.
Stand-up comedians who use celebrity impressions as their sole focus are the absolute worst. People like Rich Little and Fred Travalena who were all over talk shows and events in the 70s and 80s with the most basic obvious impressions everyone was doing.
Back in the 80’s / early 90’s I lived in an area with multiple comedy clubs. Pretty much every comedian working came through at some point, many of them regularly and I was there a lot. Apart from the greats like Carlin who we all know, I’ll say one of the best I saw was Richard Jeni.
Saw him several times, always incredible. Once when he was headlining I was there for the late show and since he didn’t have to finish by a certain time, he just kept going. Did about 90 minutes as I remember, and all of his material was amazing. Very sad that he came to a bad end.
As for the worst, I once had to sit through Lenny Schultz’ act. He had been on Laugh-In and was well known at the time. Found him absolutely not funny. Kept wondering why he was up there.
The two that had me laughing the most were Dennis Wolfberg and Chris Rush. Wolfberg died too soon and Rush never did much after his album First Rush.
For a long, consistent career, it’s Carlin, though.
Hard to think of a worst. I don’t submit myself to bad standup. Based solely on standup, it’s Steve Martin, but Martin’s act was an writer/actor only pretending to do standup. His jokes were never that funny. – just catchphrases --, but his acting fooled people into thinking it was. One he stopped pretending to do standup, he showed himself a top-notch comic actor.
I performed stand-up for about 6 years as my main occupation (I think there are stories about this on this very board). Prior to that, I was kind of a club rat, hanging around the local clubs to the point where they knew me on a first-name basis, and would let me in even though I was underage.
I saw Lenny Schultz snap on stage one night, and start throwing beer bottles and punches at someone in the audience.
The one comic who could reduce me to helpless tears of laughter more often than anyone else was Bill Cosby. So he gets to be both the best and the worst IMHO.
All is pretty much spot on. But I would include Mitch Hedberg in the best list. Though he passed away at only 37.
Steven Wright too. I love the absurd one liners. But he also made a quirky sense. “I walk my dog around the ledge of my building. I’m not afraid of heights, I’m afraid of widths”
Carlin was great when he was great. But some of his stuff that I hear on XM just seems to want to shock with no real comedy. I find ‘shock’ comedy boring.
I loves me some Brian Regan and Kathleen Madigan! Paula Poundstone usually tickles me, too.
No way I can pick a worst, but when I’m listening to the comedy channels on SiriusXM, I’ll automatically turn off Seinfeld, Ralphie May, Larry the Cable Guy, and Jeff Dunham. I think it’s mostly that I don’t find their material funny, but not that it’s necessarily bad.
When I was younger, I thought Rickles was a hoot, but more recently, I don’t find his stuff funny at all. Same with Johnathan Winters - his improv bits don’t do anything for me, but eons ago, I thought he was hilarious. Tastes change, I guess…