Friday, August 18, 2006

Who are the Best Comedians Ever?

The question of the week this week is a funny one. Who are the greatest comedians of all time? Here's my list of names I came up with to get us started. In no way should this be considered the comprehensive, end all, be all, list.

Bill Cosby
Jerry Seinfeld
Eddie Murphy
Richard Pryor
Flip Wilson
Robin Williams
Billy Crystal
Whoopi Goldberg
Dana Carvey
Lenny Bruce
Red Skelton
Rodney Dangerfield
Dennis Miller
Carol Burnette
Lilly Tomlin
Tim Conway
Gilda Radner
Groucho Marx

1 comment:

Piccu said...

I have to say Bill Cosby is number 1 if for no other reason than Bill Cosby:Himself. That is the funniest stand up performance in history. It is not filthy and it has things that little kids and their parents can find funny. Even when he is talking about marriage and child birth and raising kids. As a kid I could find those "adult" subjects hilarious.

I think I will go Richard Pryor as my 2 because without Pryor their would be no Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle. Pryor invented the whole difference between whites and blacks gag that still is being used today. And no one can do it better.

My 3 is Eddie Murphy because Delirious and Raw are legendary. There is so much stuff packed into those performances, you can throw out SNL and his movies and still consider him one the funniest men in the history of comedy.

After those three, you could probably plug in anyone else. Seinfeld was great and should have a mention for no other reason than his TV show.

Tim Conway is probably underrated. I remember watching him on The Carol Burnett Show and he was the best on a show filled with great performers.

Here's one that maybe would be overlooked by some, instead of Groucho Marx, my favorite of the Brothers was Harpo. He was the silent one with the big blonde afro. He never spoke, but he was always the funniest one in the room. Check out Duck Soup and find out how great he was in the scenes with the lemonade salesman.