He was famous for taking the p!ss out of the church, especially the Catholics. And Allen was a Catholic.
For breadth, quality and durability, I’d pick Art Carney and Andy Kaufman.
Worst - Seinfeld - always a one liner. always the same cadence.
Hard to single any of them out as “worst”, but there are quite a few classic comedians with heavy-duty reputations that I never found especially funny or even entertaining - including Jerry Lewis, Rodney Dangerfield, Joan Rivers and Milton Berle. And urggh, Tim Conway.
Among the best in my view have been Bob Newhart, Cosby and Robin Williams.
While Robin Williams was very quick, I would consider him great at stream of consciousness riffing more than I would for improvisation. I recall seeing him on Whose Line Is It Anyway? once, and while it was fun, I felt Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles ran circles around him. Could just be me though.
Best - Me - my jokes are always funny and my wife always laughs. This can’t be said for any comedian we;'ve watched together. SHe also always tells me I should be one.
Worst - My dad - his jokes are just so old.
(somehow, i think my kids think the same thing - so it must be right)
We could divide this up into several categories:
Who was the best/worst at stand-up?
…at improv?
…at sketch comedy?
…at physical comedy?
etc.
The best? Frankie Boyle, Jimmy Carr, Eddie Izzard and locally, Trevor Noah.
The worst? I don’t know, I’ve seen many dismal people at improv nights. But of the big names, I can’t stand Jerry Seinfeld or Jeff Foxworthy or Larry The Cable Guy. And that shouty guy - Lewis Black?
No, it’s not just you. Stiles and Mochrie are masters of the craft; there haven’t been ten greater improv artists in the history of the world. Robin Williams was a very funny man but improv (as distinct from using improvization in standup) was not his forte.
Improv is a different art from standup, and it’s very hard, which is why most improv is terrible.
This comes with extensive practice, which I know sounds contradictory but it’s true. A comic who appears to be riffing off the top of her head has a lot of response material memorized - in all honesty, audiences are generally quite predictable and they’re going to say and react in the same ways. When the MC at your local club chooses a schlemiel in the front row and asks him where he’s from and what he does for a living, the MC will almost certainly be able to use responses, jokes, tags and callbacks she’s used, or that are similar to ones she’s used, before. There’s a process to it you have to learn if you want to do crowd work (and if you want to MC, you really should.)
There are many good ones many have been mentioned, others I still not see. I did want to comment a bit more about George Carlin. He was a pioneer in comedy. Carlin had some great rants on conservatives, so I will always cherish him for his guts to say stuff about that, other taboo subjects and about God, and being an atheist, which normally nobody else then (in their right mind) would have thought possible to get away with saying, let alone get the laughs for it and to make mega-bucks for doing so. I think it was a old Larry King show, he was critical of Andrew Dice Clay, and said why he didn’t pick on immigrants, women, or gays, he rooted for the underdog, enough of beating them down. There’s a lot I admired about Carlin.
I’m surprised no mention of Jim Jefferies or if one has, I missed it. His true story of taking his childhood friend who suffered from MD to a whore house, is one of the funniest stories I’ve ever heard, but he has a lot of good stuff.
Really have been catching up to Bill Burr on You Tube these last few months, and he’s definitely ranks high with me now. One recent one that is fresh on my mind, is the story he tells about his black gf that lived in Harlem and what he had to do to get there at the 3 AM hour.
Recently caught Dave Chapelle’s bit about getting Oprah pregnant, which was great.
I thought Carol Burnett was funny and quick on her feet, loved how she interacted with the crowd on the Q&A’s.
My ex-gf got us tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld in OKC about 13 years ago, might not be one of the greatest stand-up comedians, but it was still pretty good, and was equally impressed with his Q&A with audience members. His comedy series is still probably my favorite, followed closely by King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond.
Among worse, I agree with Andrew Dice Clay being on that list, although I still remember one of his nursery rhymes that still makes me smile (Jack and Jill). Although he seems like a nice enough guy, Jimmy Fallon just isn’t that funny to me, don’t understand how he ever got a talk show. Jerry Lewis another, gosh, I don’t understand how I could even thought him funny as a kid. Not much for Git r Done, Larry the Cable guy either, enough of that shtick, same for Roseanne Barr, her stand-up or comedy series.
Best: Mort Sahl, Bill Hicks, George Carlin
Worst: Clay