[quote="Casual Observer" post_id=121712 time=1622851446 user_id=77]
Ok, Stanhope's good I'll have to dig into what I can find online. He's brilliantly cynical, seems to have more material than Bill Hicks, much smarter than Bill Burr but I can't seem to watch him too long at a time though as some of his bits ramble.
[/quote]

I love him because hes cynical, nihilistic, disrespectful, completely not PC, and tells the truth that everyone knows but doesn't want to say. I saw a performance of his in some foreign country, one of the nordic/scandinavian ones I think and it was brilliant.

Ok, Stanhope's good I'll have to dig into what I can find online. He's brilliantly cynical, seems to have more material than Bill Hicks, much smarter than Bill Burr but I can't seem to watch him too long at a time though as some of his bits ramble. Watched the show online with Alex Jones coming onstage and thought Doug did a pretty mediocre job handling hecklers. I like him better young certainly, saw one bit where he was wearing some kind of disco pimp outfit reading out of his new book. I'm starting to hate most comedians when they get rich and famous because they can't help but talk about it. Chappelle and Kevin Hart do the same thing, complainbragging becoming a regular part of their jokes. I'll watch more Stanhope though, Odyssa what's his best era?

Watched some Steve Martin stand up from the 70's, was that the era you're speaking about? I can't tell any difference between his stand up routine back then and his latest comedy special with Martin Short, he literally hasn't grown or changed in 40 years. Apparently his album Lets Get Small went platinum so tried that first. He's weird and somewhat funny but still exactly the same.

[quote="Casual Observer" post_id=121629 time=1622657470 user_id=77]
Stanhope looks promising, I'll have to check him out. I never thought of Steve Martin as a standup comedian, great skit guy and funny in movies but stage performance all I can think of is that banjo thing he does with Martin Short nowadays. Can you point me to some good standup he's done?
[/quote]

Dude.... he made his start in standup and was one of the top comedians, with a bunch of bestselling albums. I guess back before the internet they sold record albums of comedian performances! It was only later he got into acting etc. He was a real trailblazer. My dad used to play me his stuff. His albums from the 70's are fucking hysterical. And there's tons of stuff on youtube also.

If you have never heard these albums you are not a comedy fan!

Comedy Is Not Pretty
A Wild And Crazy Guy
Let's Get Small

[quote="Casual Observer" post_id=121629 time=1622657470 user_id=77]
Also, what's up with the two british guys on the list of the top 5 of all time? Eddie Izzard was good in Hannibal tv series but I never got his comedy that much.
[/quote]
I placed Izzard as nr 1 in my list. His shows are the most enjoyable to watch.

Stanhope looks promising, I'll have to check him out. I never thought of Steve Martin as a standup comedian, great skit guy and funny in movies but stage performance all I can think of is that banjo thing he does with Martin Short nowadays. Can you point me to some good standup he's done?

Also, what's up with the two british guys on the list of the top 5 of all time? Eddie Izzard was good in Hannibal tv series but I never got his comedy that much. I guess Ricky is good but haven't really given him much of a chance either. Pls to be telling us what's great about those guys.

1) George Carlin
2) Steve Martin (can't believe no one mentioned him!)
3) Doug Stanhope
4) Eddie Izzard
5) Ricky Gervais

Think Pinback's approach of naming why the picks is the best approach.

Top 5:
- Pryor because obviously
- Eddie Murphy before he had kids (I still laugh at Raw and am amazed they haven't yet cancelled him for that though I guess Beverly Hills Cop 3 was his penance, SNL he was genius, Beverly Hills Cop one and 2 are still the best)
- Dave Chappele before he got famous though now he's still funny if you can get past his brag-complaining
- Bill Burr because his cynical screaming is exactly how I feel about so many things
- Bill Cosby and I don't give a goddamn that he drugged those women, most of whom still hung out with him because they were nothing but:
[quote="Bill Burr"]Gold Digging Whores[/quote]

I think truly great comedians should be good as comedy actors too, which all these guys are. Norm's great but he's always Norm. Bill Hicks was funny and cynical the way I like but only did that one thing. Unfortunately, Carlin too, though I give him more credit than Pinback does. Carlin wasn't just clever, he was funny and pushed boundaries, and was great live. When I saw him at RIT he intentionally made a joke with the punchline, "What are you, fucking deaf?" and then stood there grinning at the half deaf crowd waiting for the laugh which he got. No, Pinback, Carlin was better than just clever.

My picks: Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Mitch Hedberg, Stephen Lynch, Dave Chappelle

The Brian Regan bit about being in the hospital saying his pain was at a ten is the funniest bit I've heard in 10 years. His last one where he went gray was fine. It's just he had very high highs.

I dunno.

Hedberg. Kinison. Jeselnik. Norm is hilarious but I don't consider him a standup. Hicks was brilliant but not funny. Bill Burr, I'm not as in love with as everyone else, except for the SNL Sam Adams ad.

George Carlin is the most overrated in history. Where Hicks was brilliant and not funny, Carlin was [i]clever[/i] and not funny, and that's infinitely worse.

Brian Regan I'd go for, but he got a lot worse. Do you just rate these guys based on how good they were at their best? I think you have to. Okay, Regan's in.

For my fifth, I would pick Bill Cosby. You can't say that anymore cuz he's a nasty filthy rapist hypocrite piece of garbage, but growing up, he was my favorite, and even re-watching stuff a few years ago, I still loved it.

I will separate the artist from the art. Dad is great, gave us the chocolate cake.

Pinback help me out here

Nobody goes to a Gallagher show for the comedy. They go to see him bash froot!

Carrot top doesn't belong in any discussion about top five HUNDRED comedians, nor does fucking this guy:

[img]https://www.mlive.com/resizer/2-xh3DHvz2Uf-4A_T_42e5VJDFo=/1280x0/smart/advancelocal-adapter-image-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/image.mlive.com/home/mlive-media/width2048/img/chronicle/entertainment_impact/photo/mlive-gallagher2jpg-27e247604b704c18.jpg[/img]

Norm is the greatest. And this thread had the opposite of everything. You and I can save it.

Ralphie May, Martin Lawrence and based on that I assume you said Carrot Top do not belong in this conversation, which begins and ends with Norm.

Norm, Patrice, Mitch, Bill Burr and let me sleep on #5.

Love Norm but he can't possibly be #1 one of the top 5 comedians of all time. Maybe in the top 5 somewhere though.

After you get past Pryor, Carlin, Chappelle, then you got great ones like Bill Hicks, Martin Lawrence, so many. Hell, that really fat guy who died Ralphie May made me laugh out loud more than Norm usually does. Then there's all the new guys, like Bill Burr is hilarous. Norm's genius and his understated sarcasm has only gotten better over time. Hell, I listen to the 12 minute joke at least once every few weeks on youtube but there are so many greats.

This is one of the worst threads in BBS history.

And the correct person at #1 is Norm Macdonald. I was a fool for not knowing otherwise.

He doesn't want commies on the list.

[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey"]OK, trying this again. In no order.

Louis CK
Dave Chappelle
Mitch Hedberg
Brian Regan
Patrice O'Neal[/quote]

Are you f*cking kidding? No George Carlin!?

Susan got us tickets to go see Amy Schumer last night. She's not in my top five, but some of her stuff is funny.

Schumer performed at the Chesapeake Arena. Capacity is 18k and I'd say the place was 1/3 full. Signs were posted all over the place that said no cell phones, no talking, no tweeting, no pictures, no heckling, no talking.

In the "luckiest man alive" category, the opening act was Jason Stein, an improvisational jazz bass-clarinetist who also happens to be Amy Schumer's brother. The Jason Stein trio performed for 30 minutes to a largely bewildered and disinterested group of people. Talk about a captive audience.

It wasn't like they played while people were being seated; our tickets said the show starts at 8, and he started playing at 8. At one point in between songs Stein said, "and [i]that[/i] is the sound of 10,000 people not giving a shit." I'm pretty sure he was right. It was actually kind of so bad that I wondered if it was actually a comedy act and some kind of Andy Kaufman-esque joke, but apparently no, he's serious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stPQF5Tfcds

Next up was Rachel Feinstein, who is a short, brunette version of Amy Schumer. Here's a clip of her stand up from 2013. She started off her show with the same bit ("I like to throw change on my boyfriend after sex") but the rest was different. She went on for about 5 minutes about how she likes to give Amish hand jobs, which is just smacking around someone's limp member. I can only assume she is on the tour to make Amy Schumer look good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV30u8JgCXM

At 9pm, after watching 5 minutes of clips from the upcoming season of her television show, Amy Schumer took the stage. Amy Schumer's Amy Schumer -- you like her or you don't. I thought this was the funniest joke of the night, about a conversation she had with her new neighbor.

Neighbor: Did you hear the news?
Amy: No!
Neighbor: Jesus is coming back!
Amy: Well, I'm Jewish, so...
Neighbor: Oh, you haven't found Jesus?
Amy: Oh, we found him alright... Happy Easter!

So anyway, here's a clip of Amy doing stand up on YouTube. Even if you don't like her, at around the 6 minute mark she works in an Oregon Trail joke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujWraZJTMzo

OK, trying this again. In no order.

Louis CK
Dave Chappelle
Mitch Hedberg
Brian Regan
Patrice O'Neal