Buddy Hackett ranks up there for me.
Oh. I blissfully forgot about Larry the Cable Guy. He’s funny as a Klan rally.
One of the worst for me. Other worsts: Rip Taylor, Gallagher, Dunham, Jeff Garlin, Sandra Bernhard. The list is quite long.
For stand up, it’s Billy Connolly
for shows its Tim Conway - timing, off script and live
A British comic that attracts a lot of criticism is Jim Davidson
I hear people raving about Amy Schumer, but she does nothing for me at all. And I absolutely don’t understand the appeal of Lisa Lampanelli.
However, John Pinette always cracks me up. so sad that he died far too soon.
“No matter who it is?”
I can think of one person who is much, much worse (IMHO) than Sandra - and that is Kathy Griffin. No matter what mistakes she may have made … Funny? … No. No. No. No. No.
Niel Hamburger would have to go down as classiest all-time comedian, and Rupert Pupkin could sometimes push the envelope, but damn that hunk Marty Allen could really hit it out of the park.
Wow, I’d never heard of Bernard Manning before. Fascinatingly horrid. Thank-you.
The greatest, though, will always be Bob and Ray.
I haven’t listened to a Smothers Brothers album in forever, but I remember them being pretty entertaining.
I love that elephant story with Tim Conway. I still laugh when I watch it.
I’m fascinated by the lack of Louis CK on anyone’s best or worst list. He’s the comic I’m most petulant about being awful, because so much of his material about parenting resonates with me on a daily basis.
Carlin’s never done much for me, which makes me feel flawed. His schtick of being a smirking curmudgeon calling out hypocrisy probably wasn’t played out when he was doing it, I guess?
Trevor Noah’s standup is outstanding, and he and John Mulvaney are the folks I’m most excited about these days.
I love Gilbert Gottfried. Every time I am in the pit of despair, I watch his youtube reading of a bit of ‘50 Shades of Gray’ and am called in from off the ledge.
John Mulaney is hysterical, but my personal all time favourite is Norm MacDonald. He’s written as many brilliant jokes as anyone who ever lived and his delivery is like no one else. Michaerl McIntyre is great.
The worst, of course, is someone you guys have never heard of, because it’s someone who thinks they’re funny but isn’t absolutely sucking donkey cock at your local amateur night.
In my honest opinion no comic named so far is BAD. I don’t necessarily like them; Andrew Dice Clay has never made me crack a smile, nor has Iliza Shlesinger. My sister insisted I watch a special by Sebastian Maniscalco and fifteen minutes in I had not heard anything I found funny. But a comic’s job is to fill the seats with happy customers, and if it’s in a club to ensure they buy booze. All three named comics could do just that. A comic who can fill an arena is by definition good at his or her job; might not be my cup of tea, but different strokes.
I studied under a pro comic once who told a story about how he performed at a club in New York, and as he was throwing on his coat the owner came by and said “Nice set.”
“Thanks,” the comic said, “what was your favourite part?”
“I was in my office, I couldn’t really hear what you were saying.”
“Uh… then how do you know it was a nice set?”
The owner replied, “I could hear the audience laughing like hell. They’re happy. So nice set.”
For me, best by a mile is Eddie Izzaard. There were lot’s of very unfully people on those 80’s stand up shows, who were simply unmemorable, and disappeared without a trace. So in the category of known comedian who was the worst, Dane Cook. It blows my mind the guy filled places.
Worst: Richard Lewis. Hated his brand of “poor me” comedy. Yes. I get he was depressed. Didn’t make him funny, though.
Best: Gonna shout out to Redd Foxx because I don’t think he’s been mentioned. But I did just love Steve Wright’s stuff for a while there.
For the last few decades of his career he was about 33% funny. His 1 hour specials seemed to be broken up into 3 parts. 1/3 absurd observations about the human condition. Always funny and were usually the parts people remember. 1/3 clever word play. More like slam poetry than comedy. Cleverly written an impressively delivered (he famously rehearsed a lot) but rarely funny. 1/3 ranting at the world. Passionate with some funny lines but mostly going for clapter rather than laughs.
I had some time in Vegas and was curious and went to see Carrot Top. He was actually pretty funny. The props only took up a small portion of the show. It was mostly straight stand up and he obviously knows what he is doing. I won’t rank him near the best but I’ve seen a lot worse big name comics.
I have greatly soured on Robin Williams. When he first came out I thought he was the greatest thing ever. As I got older I realized his jokes missed about 80% of the time and didn’t even make sense. The audience was laughing at delivery without understanding the joke. It began to really bother me to the point that I couldn’t watch him anymore. I now think of him as a better actor than comic.
The first comic I saw live was Bill Cosby. I was quite young. This was pre-Cosby Show. Much of the material was in Himself. It was the hardest I have ever laughed before or since. He was truly a master and one of the best of all time. If only we could forget that other thing.
Tom Green could be best and worst in the same episode.
I saw a Mike Warnke show shortly before his career went down in flames; the comedy portion was great but the preaching was total nonsense to me.
I once sent a fan email to Shelley Berman. This was in the Dark Ages of the internet and I was surprised to find an old Catskills comic like him had a website and a working email address. I amused him without trying to, just being my deadpan self, so he replied that he was putting together a tour and I should send him fifteen minutes. I was flattered, but told him I was a writer, not a performer. It was the last I heard from him.
I don’t know how I can respect someone who finds me funny, but in retrospect I can see how I got to be deadpan.
Interesting that nobody has yet mentioned, I don’t think, Jerry Seinfeld.
His very early standup was original and pretty funny but I don’t think it has aged very well.
Second-hand anecdote w/o pedigreed attribution: Someone my Dad’s age told me about being in a tv studio where a host (Rickles, I think?) had Hope on as a guest and for some reason decided to dig into him, mock him, make him the butt of joke after joke and many of them rather hostile. He (the person of my Dad’s generation) said Hope finally had enough and began responding in kind and cut loose on the host, all ad hoc spontaneous stuff, hilariously funny and cutting at the same time.
In short, he was saying that Bob Hope actually had the raw talent, although we mostly see very scripted sequences when we see him in movies or on old TV footage.
Dunno (of course) if it’s true or if I’d agree with his assessment. Makes me wish I had video footage.
Best: Katt Williams
Worst… well that’s hard to quantify I go to several open mikes a year!
Never got Dane Cook
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