Top 10 favourite comedians

[Maladict]

Inspired by the YouTube thread, name your 10 favourite comedians. Double acts or groups can count as one.


First draft, not necessarily in that order:
- Pythons
- Eddie Izzard
- Rowan Atkinson
- Fry & Laurie
- Rik Mayall
- Billy Connolly
- Reeves & Mortimer
- James Acaster
- Jeremy Hardy
- Sean Lock

[Sheilbh]

I'm not sure if these are favourites but these are the ones that spring to mind as sort of mattering most to me - still possibly shaping my humour I'm a very 90s child.

Billy Connolly's up there - constant presence in my childhood both on his TV shows (World Tours of Scotland and Australia) but also his stand-up.
Victoria Wood.
Rikki Fulton/Scotch and Wry - only a few episodes but again constant repeats in my childhood.
Reeves and Mortimer.
Rik Mayall* (and Ade Edmondson).
French and Saunders.
I don't know if these count - but the guys who did Monkey Dust and the team behind Brass Eye/The Day Today (especially Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge).
The Goon Show - I had loads of cassette tapes of Goon Show episodes and was pretty obsessed at one point
Again not sure if these count but, collectively, Harry Enfield and Chums and the Fast Show.

I've not listed the Pythons because I only really got into their films. In my head Morecambe and Wise are big but I think I only ever saw a few skits that I just love (Andre Previn, breakfast etc).

* On Rik Mayall - I subscribe to PopBitch and they recently had this cracking story from a reader:

>> Mayall delays <<
Wedding night re-runs

JB writes:

"When I got married in 2011, my other half and I thought it'd be funny to write to celebs for good wishes on our big day and have the best man read them out. Loads of people responded. Peter Andre even responded within two days of us posting. However, the best one came from someone who forgot to respond in time.

"In March 2012, we got a letter from Rik Mayall, who had written over the top of our original letter:

"'OH SHIT! Alan, I just found this letter on my desk and realized I forgot the bloody wedding. Hope you had a great day, and please give Julie a TITANIC shag from me.'"

[Barrister]

So I thought about starting a thread like this one, but I would have limited it to stand-up comedians just to try and limit it a tiny bit.  Because with stand-up you generally write and perform your own material, and you aren't just funny using someone else's lines.  For example take Leslie Nielson - he's absolutely hilarious in Airplane! and Naked Gun, but not all that funny by himself.

Other problem is recency bias.  There are some tremendously funny comedians from the past, but they've either been somewhat forgotten, or much of their material wasn't recorded or preserved at the time.

I also don't know about including comedy "groups" like Monty Python.  I mean I love Monty Python, but it just doesn't seem like a fair comparison because I wouldn't rank any of the individual members (though all funny) in a top 10 list.

So I'm not even going to pretend I can do a top 10, never mind ranked in order, but here are the first 10 comedians that come to mind as people I think are funny:

-Groucho Marx
-Rodney Dangerfield
-Robin Williams
-Stephen Wright
-George Carlin
-Bob Newhart
-David Letterman
-Jonathan Winters
-Don Rickles
-Jackie Gleason
-Jackie Mason (oh crap I just googled - he died in July and I didn't even realize it)

Well crap that's 11 but I don't want to take anyone off that list

[Maladict]

* On Rik Mayall - I subscribe to PopBitch and they recently had this cracking story from a reader:

>> Mayall delays <<
Wedding night re-runs

JB writes:

"When I got married in 2011, my other half and I thought it'd be funny to write to celebs for good wishes on our big day and have the best man read them out. Loads of people responded. Peter Andre even responded within two days of us posting. However, the best one came from someone who forgot to respond in time.

"In March 2012, we got a letter from Rik Mayall, who had written over the top of our original letter:

"'OH SHIT! Alan, I just found this letter on my desk and realized I forgot the bloody wedding. Hope you had a great day, and please give Julie a TITANIC shag from me.'"

I can hear his voice and everything 

[Caliga]

A lot of good names up there so far, but I'll add Sam Kinison to the list.  Sam and George Carlin are probably my two favorites.

[grumbler]

I'd ass David Mitchell and Bob Mortimer to any list, as well.

[Savonarola]

-Pythons
-Kids in the Hall
-Bill Cosby
-Robin Williams
-Burns and Allen
-Rodney Dangerfield
-Eddi Murphy
-Woody Allen
-John Belushi
-Gilda Radner

[Sheilbh]

I'd ass David Mitchell and Bob Mortimer to any list, as well.

I don't know if it's in the US, but there's a BBC show that's just Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse (another comedian - and Mikoyan in the Death of Stalin) going fishing. It's a very low-key delight.

[Maladict]

I'd ass David Mitchell and Bob Mortimer to any list, as well.

I don't know if it's in the US, but there's a BBC show that's just Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse (another comedian - and Mikoyan in the Death of Stalin) going fishing. It's a very low-key delight.

His podcast is a riot, too.

[Grey Fox]

That perform in English.

Norm Macdonald
Chris Rock
Robin Williams
Iliza Shlesinger
Bert Kreischer
Nish Kumar
Eddie Murphy
Jerry Seinfeld
Patton Oswalt

[Josquius]

Off the top of my head. No doubt wrong...

Monty Python
Mitchell and Webb
Dara O Briain
Armando Ianucci
Graham Linehan (though the man himself is a cunt)
Fry and Laurie
Rowan Atkinson
Jimmy Carr
Bill Bailey
Richard Ayoade

Edit - Dan Harmon. Fuck.

[ulmont]

Eddie Murphy

Was just about to note Murphy and also Richard Pryor...

[HVC]

A lot of good names up there so far, but I'll add Sam Kinison to the list.  Sam and George Carlin are probably my two favorites.

i used to like kinison, even though he was before my time, but i can't listen to him any more

[crazy canuck]

Robin Williams
John Cleese
Rowan Atkinson
Norm Macdonald
Chris Rock
Eddie Murphy
David Letterman
George Carlin
Mike Meyers
Trevor Noah

Honourable Mention  Stephen Wright

[Barrister]

Honourable Mention  Stephen Wright