Greatest American Comedians
 

It seems that there's always some sort of division of faith between British and American humor. People enumerate upon British humor's finer aspects again and again, but rarely is such advocacy leveled upon comedians over the pond.

Ordinarily I would stay the fuck away from this subject, but I've actually been perusing some of America's more talented comedians and surprisingly, there's a fair few who actually have some relevance to this day. And no, I'm not talking about George Carlin or Bill Hicks here and their pedantic social commentary.

Obviously I've got some compassion towards Mitch Hedberg, but there's plenty of others that revolutionized the field of stand-up (or otherwise) comedy, I want to hear what you guys think are some of the more tasteful ones.

I don't spend my time watching as much stand-up comedy as I did, say, a year ago. I'm partial to a bit of Bill Hicks and Carlin every so often though (even if I don't exactly agree with some things the latter says), but I don't watch a lot of either these days, mainly because I've heard just about everything worthwhile they've had done. I will say though that for the best Carlin and Hicks you've gotta look out for bootlegs (a lot of them are on youtube, you've just gotta know where to look for them), as often some of the best stuff they did never made it to the officially-released gigs.

Mitch Hedberg's great stuff and, a lot of you probably don't need telling, but a very unusual style - kinda throws a load of unconnected punchlines at you (at least from what I've seen), which actually works surprisingly well. I like Robin Williams as well - very friendly, non-confrontational style, kinda like a funnier Lee Evans.

This here's reason enough to like Eddie Murphy (even if he hasn't done anything worthwhile since Bowfinger);



When it comes to my favourite American comedian though, it's a tie a between Richard Pryor, Chris Rock and Denis Leary for me. Despite what the Hicks fanboys'll tell you, one joke about smoking and jogging aside, Leary's virtually nothing like him.

Those are my personal picks anyway. There are probably more I like, but I've only been awake 10 minutes so I can't really think straight at the moment!

This thread is incomplete without a mention of Dave Chapelle.

In terms of tastefulness? I like Jerry Seinfeld.

Some of my favorites: Steve Martin, Tim Allen, Mike Birbiglia, Dave Chappelle, Mitch Hedberg, Richard Pryor, D.C. Benny, Louis Black, Tim Meadows.

Stewart Francis, technically he's canadian but it's still in the american continent lol. I also like chris rock and dave chapelle.

W.C. Fields often gets overlooked simply due to the era in which he existed, but his humor would NOT be out of place in the world today.

When asked why he never drank water (he was a notorious alcoholic) he responded, "Because fish fuck in it."

Not a bad excuse! :rofl:

Zach Galifinakis has gotta be my favorite as of right now.
http://www.mamapop.com/photos/uncate...07/26/zach.jpg

Maybe I just love food too much:

dave chapelle, mitch hedberg and zach galifianakis. I actually don't like bill hicks or george carlin; "religion is bull****", blah blah blah. wasn't funny or challenging.

I also like John Pinette:

Not sure who I like the most, but Gilbert Gottfried's Olsen Twins joke from Bob Saget's roast was awesome. :p:

I think that's a very shallow description of their work.

I do think Carlin did more philosophical and political ranting than comedy, though I'm still a fan of him.

Hicks though, I enjoy him just for the comedy aspect of it, though unlike Carlin I agree with him on most things, definitely in my top 10 stand ups. Which is something like.

Bill Hicks, Chris Rock, Robin Williams, Jim Gaffigan, Demetri Martin, Bill Maher, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Lewis Black, Ron White.

To say Hicks and Carlin weren't challenging is just plain wrong, Carlin along with Bruce and Pryor pretty much pioneered a new form of stand up, but Hicks mastered it IMO.

Personally I'm not a fan of Chapelle at all, he seems like a smart and cultured guy, I just don't think he's that funny.

Hi, Bill Hicks here, back from the grave to say fuck you.
You obviously haven't listened to what I (or my friend George) said before judging it. Congratulations, you're officially an American.

http://rjdent.files.wordpress.com/20...ll-hicks-1.jpg

I could have seen Bill Hicks live too.

During my first ever visit to London he was doing a series of shows at the Dominion Theater. They had some tickets left for that night but at the time I was under 18 & couldn't get in.

I was gutted.

it is; it's not really necessary to elaborate

I'm a pretty big fan of Hicks too. His bit on crime in the UK always gets me. I don't always agree with him but I don't really think I have to to laugh.

I love Robin Williams. He was absolutely hillarious. Kind of sold his soul to Disney, along the same lines as Eddy Murphey, maybe to make up for all the adult-oriented humour they've done, I don't know. All I do know is they have me in tears just about everytime.

Another big name I like is Jim Carrey. He doesn't really do stand up anymore but his old stuff is hillarious.

Zach Galifinakis, I was in the mood for some stand up, this was all I found on the instant q in netflix, very funny. Chris Rock and Dave Chappele also good mentions on here.

I recently got into Bill Hicks, and as far as over-opinionated and politically charged stand-up, he was the absolute best.

I saw Kurt Metzger's stand up special on TV a few weeks ago, and I thought he was funny as hell. He's pretty obscure. I could only find a few videos of him on Youtube. My favorite being his line on a black Jesus: "You know, some people think Jesus was white, some people think he was black. I just think he was ****ING IMAGINARY!"

I don't understand the Bill Hicks and Carlin hate. Well, I guess I can understand why most people would. People who do what they did tend to be hated on.

My list of favorite American comedians would probably go something like this:
Doug Stanhope
Bill Hicks
Richard Pryor
Mitch Hedberg
Dave Chappelle
George Carlin
Zach Galifianakis
and I'll throw Kurt Metzger on here, too. He was the funniest comedian I've discovered lately.

I don't think anyone is hating on Hicks or Carlin.

.

Yeah but the rest of the posts about him are positive.

Sam hates everything anyway.

Obviously not. I just don't find either Carlin or Hicks funny. Which is sad, because a lot of what Hicks said made sense to me.

How about:
Richard Pryor
W. C. Fields
George Burns
Mitch Hedberg
Zach Galifanakis
Dave Chappelle
Robin Williams
Norm McDonald
Phil Hartmann
Darrell Hammond
John Belushi
Jim Gaffigan

And then theres always:
Bill Watterson
Gary Larson
Larry David
Judd Apatow

Good list. I'm glad Jim Gaffigan is getting some love, usually anything that popular with the hipsters is trashed.

Incidentally, my mom went to college at Georgetown with Jim Gaffigan. Her roommate and he worked at the same place and were great friends.

That's too bad. I would have loved to see him - and apparently he was at his peak in Europe where audiences loved him. In the US he mostly played to a redneck audience that half hated him.

That is sad but I'm glad that you at least find Hicks' material worthwhile.

Maybe it's pedantic, but I think this bit is hilarious and timeless..

This guy is widely appreciated for his comic routines?



Granted, this is the only bit of stand-up I've seen about this guy. I love inappropriate humour, but this comes across more as an idiot who's angry with the world, flaunting his ignorance. False facts, irrelevant arguments .. It's painful to watch.

I Have to agree the comdey that straddles just giving your opinion sucks. I used to love janeane garofalo before she did that crap. I don't think Hicks or Carlin are that funny either.

I think some of the best ones out there today are:

Bill Burr
Daniel Tosh
Eugene Mirman

Chapelle was amazing

Also, I don't know how good he is as a comic, but I laugh every GD time I hear this one...

I've always found Hicks much funnier than Carlin. Hick's opinions were easier to reject, me thinks. He always seemed like he was half kidding or self-deprecated his own beliefs.

That clip may not be terribly funny but I agree with a lot of what he says there, you don't have to agree with him and I do think people overrate him but he's by means an idiot and at his best he was one of the most provocative comedians out there.

He is an "angry" comic, that's part of his appeal. In his latter years he started doing more rants than jokes but I still find his rants funny, I don't always agree with him, but I like that he isn't totally partial to any one political side, it makes his opinions a lot more interesting than the usual ranting political commedian.

I also like his choice of words, the guy can be a really crafty wordsmith, especially with the weird poems he would sometimes open his shows with. I'd recommend you check out more of his material. His earlier stuff is less angry and less serious.

Are we actually asking about good American comics or is everyone going to talk about the same hipster pre-approved hacks?

I don't want to be an overt douche, but I also don't want to waste my time checking in on this thing if it is.

I agree it's not his best material, but it doesn't strike me as "flaunting his ignorance" either.

Oh not you too.

It can be argued that Hicks and Carlin are overrated but they're not hacks, and they must certainly influenced someone you're a fan of unless you hate all variations of angry cynical rant comedy.

Which is my favorite kind of comedy for the most part.

Maybe Bill Hicks is the Greatest American Comedian? I think he's one of the best certainly, and that is the namesake of the thread.
But I guess yeah... we don't have to keep talking about them.

Let's talk Demetri Martin. Like him? Don't like him?

I myself find him hillarious. His Comedy Central show kind of blows, but his stand-up material is always funny.

I dunno .. at the start of it, he seems to think it's a good point that 90% of the world's species are gone. Of course they are, you don't see many trilobites crawling around on our beaches today. Still, I've never met anyone who would use that as an argument why we shouldn't worry about extinctions caused by humans in a modern world we ourselves depend on. :rolleyes:

It seems ignorant to me because he's criticizing people being worried in a way that makes it seem like he doesn't at all understand what's worrying in the first place. He calls trying to save species arrogant meddling which of course seems so hypocritical seeing as his act is pretty arrogant. :p:

Right after that, he says 25 species disappear each day and would even if we were not on the planet. Way to pull stuff out of your ass, old man!

If I was in the audience, I would've facepalmed so much. It's just not what I want from comedy.

Here's the key word though. This is not a lecture on ecology by a noted scientist, it's a stand up comedy bit. Carlin's schtick was being a wiseass who is kind of anti-everything. He's certainly not who I would turn to for scientific data. And as I said before that clip is not one of the better things I've seen from him.

I know, I was trying to explain part why I think he seems ignorant. It looks to me like he's basing much of that routine on his own opinions which seem uneducated. The clip fails as stand-up comedy for me because despite all else, I don't think his jokes are funny. I'm open to the idea he might have funnier moments that may appeal, though.