favorite comedian?

ed6hellsfresh

as the title suggests who is your favorite comedian?
mine is defo george carlin. what a legend

astec123

Jasper Carrott, he is a very entertaining person to listen to or watch.

CrimE

Ah man I like a good few;

Des Bishop
Eddie Murphy
Robin Williams

I could go on but wont.

Sam Vimes

i cant believe three ppl posted without billy connolly being mentioned. a close second is bill hicks.

Oriel

Have to get a mention in for Bill Bailey too...

SolarNexus

in no particular order:

1). Richard Prior (Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock are basically bastard sons of Richard, kind of goes Richard -> Eddie -> Chris, each getting ruder but with less imagination... Richard is the Granddaddy of them all)

2). Tommy Teirnan (some of his stuff is just damned depressing, makes you feel sorry for him, but some of his stuff is just class - gotta be Irish to appreciate alot of it

3). Lenny Henry (tbh his earlier work was better, his later stuff is a bit... disturbing to say the least)

I'm sure there are more. I know you didnt ask for a selection, but there is never one best comedian, they have their strengths and weaknesses. If I had to choose, it would be Richard Prior.

Töpher

Bill Hicks!

Citizen_Erased

Billy Connely and Bill Bailey but not necessarily in that order

qz

Billy Connelly and Robin Williams.

snakeater

Omid Djalili, saw him on tv at the London Apollo, was the funniest act I ever saw.

Genghis

Alongside those already mentioend (Bill Hicks, Tommy Tiernan, Des Bishop and Billy Connelly), I'd like to add Jack Dee and Peter Kay.

Basq

Tommy Tiernan
Peter Kay
Bill Hicks
Jack Dee
Ricky Gervais
Jimmy Carr

.. that is all!

Goodshape

Einst&#252 wrote: »

Bill Hicks!

This is true.

meditraitor

Einst&#252 wrote: »

Bill Hicks!

http://www.billhicks.com/funnyfirm/

Good show

RedRules5

Dara O'Brian

djmarkus

Billy Conolly, Bill Bailey and Tommy Tiernan

xzanti

I think Peter Kay's standup shows are hillarious but I dont think much of his tv programs.. Pheonix nights etc... Not very funny at all imo :rolleyes:

Zoot

There's a whole world of other great comedians out there with Spike Milligan being the best.

But if I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be Tommy Cooper.

Spike's in a world of his own but Tommy's in a class of his own.

Inspector Gadget

Personally, I have to agree with the above posters that Bill Hicks is probably the granddaddy of them all, but he was prone to getting into political ranting that (I think) alienated him from a lot of his potential audience (to use one of his own lines: "Where's Bill gone? He's going to Comedy Death", and so on). Another thing that Bill Hicks has going for him is that he's, well, there's no nice way of putting this - dead. I suspect that cancer (pancreatic, wasn't it?) took him before he either went completely anti-society-in-general (he did describe humanity as a "virus with shoes" a nice few years before the Matrix movies came out) or his idea engine sputtered out - I think there was evidence towards the end of his life that this was happening, though it could simply have been the illness.

Richard Pryor was also undeniably brilliant, but in a very different way - a lot of his humour (or at least the few albums of his I've heard) revolved around excellent characterisation, and taking "black" humour (percieved or otherwise) and making it popuplar in a multi-ethnic audience. Every Black American comedian (with the exception, perhaps, of Bill Cosby, though he's grown into an angry old pensioner these days) owes him a debt, methinks.

Robin Williams (in his pre- (and possibly early mid-) Bolivian marching powder days) was probably the pinnacle of high-energy comedy - he's also one of the best people I've ever seen for impromptu/unscripted comedy, especially interacting with an audience. Billy Connolly was also extremely good at this, but unfortunately he's crawled up his own rear end in recent years, whereas Mr. Williams seems to have slipped quietly off stage for now.

My personal tastes also extend to Jack Dee - saw him in the concert hall in UL one rag week down there, and Jasper Carrott - very different, very funny. Obviously, Jack Dee's talent lies in the deadpan recanting of humourous stories and scathing analyses of the human condition, while Jasper (not his real name, thank [insert expletive here]) is an old-school comedian, a wonderful scene painter and like Jack Dee analyses the human condition, but without the latent anger that Mr. Dee brings to the party.

Looking over the other suggestions in the list so far, well, I'd be inclined to agree with xzanti's thoughts on Peter Kay, I can't stand Ricky Gervais (or "The Office"), Tommy Tiernan is 10% hit and 90% miss IMHO, Bill Bailey is great in short spurts (he was/is very good on "Never Mind The Buzzcocks", for example), Dara O'Briain is rapidly rising in my estimations (there was a time I couldn't stand him, but he's definitely getting the whole standup thing nailed down at last in my book), Jimmy Carr probably has the sharpest tongue and quickest wit in the English comedy scene (i.e. he's a turbocharged insult cannon), but I'm not convinced (yet) by his stand-up. Let's see, who else? Omid Djalili has good delivery, but I'm not sure if he can survive indefinitely on the "I'm the world's only Iranian comedian" shtick, and as for Lenny Henry? Has that guy cracked a viable joke since he married Dawn French?

Just my 2c...
Gadget

jaggeh

groucho marx

film_gonzo

I can't believe someone said Des Bishop was a good comedian.

In my opinion you can't beat Billy Connelly. Saw Ross Noble once and laughed my ass off. Very funny at that whole unscripted, working off the crowd thing.

Phil Kay is also very funny. Goes into his own wacky world. Peter Kay is funny doing stand up but not side splittingly so. You can see the punchline of his jokes coming a mile off. Far too tame for a modern audience (probably why his Mammy can actually sit in the audience and not be ashamed!)

Of what I've seen lately Dylan Moran's 'Monster' show is freakin hilarious.

I also like Bill Bailey, Colin Murphy( just from his tv stuff, I haven't seen his stand up), some of Jack Dee's stuff, Bill Hicks, Conan O'Brien can be quite funny (on his show obviously)

Roddy23

Richard Pryor- Legend.
Also have been watchin some Mitch Hedberg - quality ye'd wanna check this chap out. He has a real shy style, but is class.
Also give Dara O'Brian a mention, he's a smart chap.

Rantorama

Inspector Gadget wrote:

Another thing that Bill Hicks has going for him is that he's, well, there's no nice way of putting this - dead. I suspect that cancer (pancreatic, wasn't it?) took him before he either went completely anti-society-in-general (he did describe humanity as a "virus with shoes" a nice few years before the Matrix movies came out) or his idea engine sputtered out - I think there was evidence towards the end of his life that this was happening, though it could simply have been the illness.

Gadget

It’s interesting that you should say that he was anti-society-in-general. A thread that ran through his comedy was dislike of the child worship syndrome ‘Somebody pleasssse think of the children’. He contended if you love humanity you love all the people all the time no matter what age. In the book Love All The People, a collection of his routines and lyrics, there is a letter written by him just before he died to his friend John Lahr it’s amazing the lack of bitterness or anger there is (knowing that he was going to die so young and just at a time when the breaks were starting to happen for him.)

Anyhoo enough ranting, other people who make me laugh:
Chris Rock
Phil Kay
Jack Dee (in the earlier days)
Peter Kay (as others have said better stand up shows than T.V. shows)
Bill Murray(even his face makes me laugh)
Conan O’Brien
Jason Byrne (his T.V. shows haven’t been the best but his live shows are hilarious)
Steve Martin

Houston Griffin

Yeah, Mitch Hedberg is great if you're a fan of the dead pan style (Bob Newhart, Stephen Wright). Unfortunately, he died last March.

Inspector Gadget

(Rantorama? Nice nick )

I wasn't implying that he was _already_ that bitter, but I got the impression he was starting to veer that way. (On one hand, his idea of locking arms around cemeteries was novel, but he also had a fairly serious line in how life wasn't sacred, and an apparent dislike for kids ("you're not human until you're in my phone book", the grey gym sock joke/universes jokes). Even though he was a comedian by trade, it's hard to say whether he was actually joking all the way or not (which is one of things that made him interesting to me). Now, I haven't read that book/letter, and what I've listened to suggests that maybe (at least for a time) he was getting very tired of the way that he seemed to be (in his own words) "going nowhere, and nowhere quick". As you point out, things did seem to be just starting to go his way before he died, so if my perceived timeline is even a little off that could throw me off line here. Add to that the fact that, on reflection, it's possible to interpret any document or body of work in a large variety of ways (pick any religious text - not that I'm trying to draw some sort of comparison of that type here - and the effects are pretty clear) so it's possible that I've got the wrong end of the stick here.

Drifting back towards the names you've added to the "master list" (so to speak), I'm not sure what to make of Steve Martin; I've only heard some of his stuff ("Let's Get Small" springs to mind, I can't remember what else), I couldn't really warm to it. Make me wonder whether it was him or Billy Connolly who started with the banjo "thing" first, though.

I don't actually find Chris Rock funny, though I think it's mostly that his voice grates on me something awful. I think Bill Murray, when he's on form, is one of the best comic actors there ever was, but his movie form is changeable (I'm not aware of any stand-up he's done, TBH) - is there any? Likewise, I'm not aware of any Conan O'Brien stand-up, but I'm open to correction here (anything's better than Jay Leno - who, (apparently) grew up with Hicks... small world, eh?).

Jason Byrne has his moments, no doubt, but he's a bit hit-or-miss (I think I'm starting to sound very demanding here in terms of my QC here...). Anyway, I'm going to shut up before I need to borrow your nick

Gadget

Rantorama

Inspector Gadget wrote:

(Rantorama? Nice nick )

I wasn't implying that he was _already_ that bitter, but I got the impression he was starting to veer that way.

Gadget

Sorry I misread your post.

Like you said his routines were open to interpretation different strokes for different folks. I do think there was a time where he felt censorship was stifling his career, particularly with David Letterman. He had done a routine on his show which went down well with the audience, and sat down next to Letterman at the end of the show who congrulated him on how well it went. Later on he got a call from Letterman’s people telling him his slot was axed it was now too controversial even though it had been approved by the producers earlier Hicks put this down to pressure from the advertisers. He had maintained throughout his career that he wanted to do things his own way and not sell-out which is why he to use take the piss out of Leno (who he used to open for) in his routines. However he was making an impact in Britain where his pilot of a new Channel Four show had just been made and there were talks of more projects in the pipeline when he discovered he had cancer. This is what I was referring to about things starting to happening for him. His onstage child-hating people suck persona might have been at bit OTT for some, but the letters throughout the book particularly the last one show someone who had not become bitter with society or how thing’s had eventually turned out for him.
Bill Murray did stand-up in the Cat laughs in Kilkenny v.funny (with a real Irish slant)
Oh and Conan O’Brien just makes me laugh.

Capt'n Midnight

Ken Dodd's live performance on comic relief a good few years ago.

drdre

yeah billy connollyor eddie murphy ,for me:D

MooShop

Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy and Bill Hicks for me - all legends

Earthhorse

Mitch Hedberg doesn't really have a deadpan style, his delivery is very sincere, but he is comparable to Wright in that it's one liners pretty much all the way. The greatest comedy find in recent years if you ask me and such a pity that he threw it all away.

We might be a bit sick of them now but both Jerry Seinfeld and Eddie Izzard are the best comics of recent years. So comprehensively funny.

Saw a Channel 4 show recently of one of Dylan Moran's gigs. Very impressive. Never really liked him till I saw this.

Whatever_fools

Billy Connolly yes bloody hilarious but Ricky Jervais tops them all.