Which Stand Up Comedians are you enjoying?

I like Eddie Izzard a lot. Dress to Kill and Glorious might be the most perfect form of stand-up comedy ever.

Early Bill Cosby (think early to mid-1960s) is funny stuff. He's funnier now that I have a little kid.

I like Stephen Wright a lot too. They just put one of his specials on Netflix. Always a good time.

I'll second the Hedberg recommendation. Richard Jeni had some pretty damn good stuff as well. It seems like all the good ones are dead now. While not a comedian per se, Henry Rollins is usually pretty funny.

Bill Hicks... can somebody explain that guy to me? He doesn't say funny things, or rather, he occasionally says something amusing but first you have to listen to 15-minutes of him just straight-up bitching. Is cynicism on its own that hilarious to people?

The funniest comedian I have ever heard is Mitch Hedberg. I really wish he was still around.

Other gents who have recently made me laugh-
Ricky Gervais
Louis CK
Mike Burbiglia
Daniel Tosh

mjl1783 wrote: Bill Hicks... can somebody explain that guy to me? He doesn't say funny things, or rather, he occasionally says something amusing but first you have to listen to 15-minutes of him just straight-up bitching. Is cynicism on its own that hilarious to people?

Yeah, his routine largely consists of just pointing out human fallacies instead of making jokes about them. Sort of like Carlin, except that he is more sceptical than cynical.

mjl1783 wrote: Bill Hicks... can somebody explain that guy to me? He doesn't say funny things, or rather, he occasionally says something amusing but first you have to listen to 15-minutes of him just straight-up bitching. Is cynicism on its own that hilarious to people?

Some people listen to comedy not to laugh but to get that town hall "Here, Here!!" type feeling. In other words they just want to listen to someone they agree with. I find that Hicks brand of comedy dates very poorly, much like Lenny Bruce. I can still enjoy Jackie Vernon's 50's and 60's bits thanks to his surrealistic approach (a precurser to Hedberg and Wright, and I guess Demetri Martin too) but many of the 70's and 80's comedians that relied on you agreeing with them aren't as funny as they once were.

Carlin suffers from this too but not as much. The guy was so damned prolific that there's something for almost everybody if you watch enough. He has a new special every year for several years. Just an enormous output. No one, except Cosby, has that much material.

Norm Macdonald is definitely my favorite of all time. I find that he's like Andy Kaufmann if Andy Kaufman was actually funny and not just an idea man. Some people don't get Norm but for me I think his brand of comedy is hardwired into me. It might be partly because his diction and accent are almost identical to what I grew up with. We are both Canadians who grew up surrounded by Quebecois.

His Sagat roast is already lengendary to me. Just such a perfect way to roast a roast and fly over everyone's head. That's a good example of him being Kaufmannesque. But live is where he shines, well, live and anytime he's on Conan. His Conan interviews are mostly all on youtube and they're all brilliant.

... and I'm with Mads on Murphy. I loved Delirous when I was 12 but I can't even sit thorugh it now I find it so dated and painfull. A great impersonater but not a good writer.

Love Norm.

Biggest laughs I've had are probably from Murphy and Rock.

But finding Louis CK was like finding Godflesh; I knew I found my soulmate of the medium. He just really connects with my own sense of humor & point of view.

I like Bill Hicks because he used comedy as a medium to attack what he saw as the ills of society. I didn't always agree with him and he may not have been the funniest person ever, but I respect the hell out of him. He never bowed to what the crowd or the industry wanted from him; he was going to tell you what he wanted you to hear. I wish there were more people like him, but he was a rare breed.

I like Hicks too. I grew up with him and Carlin as my Father and Uncle were huge fans of those guys. I've just found as I've aged that, Hicks especially, doesn't resonate that well outside of America. Much of his material is dependent on you knowing what the fuck was going on in American politics at the time of his shows. In any case I don't dislike either comedian. They are both bonified experts in their field even if they don't focus on the comedy part of being a comedian. Like Brain Regan or someone like him does. I just said that stuff because, well I thought it was true, and after Barnes "everyone else sucks" I thought I'd take digs at the not funny people he chose. Just to be a dick. I respect Kaufmann as well, I just don't think he's very funny.

There's been a real renaissance of new comedians over the last ten-fifteen years. With people like David Cross, Demetri Martin, Mitch Hedberg, Flight of the Conchords, Zack Galinfinackis... it's been crazy and all these guys are fans of what came before. Hicks, Carlin, and Kaufmann helped pave the way for these dudes as much as Dangerfield (who owned a comedy club for years and helped everyone from Sagat to Roseanne to Seinfeld get big) Jackie Vernon, Myron Cohen, Don Rickles, Alan King and all the old school guys.

This thread's been great. I have three comedy specials on the que in vuze thanks to people mentioned here. Thanks and keep it up.


People that actually do suck that no one has mentioned (thankfully).

Dane Cook and Carrot Top.

Damn, David Cross...that is who I forgot! He isn't always genius, but I love his album "Shut up, You Fucking Baby!" His Rickey Henderson bit always make me laugh, and I've heard it at least twenty times.

I almost like David Cross better as an actor than as a stand-up.

Dane Cook proves the cliche that it's more important to be hard-working than talented.

I just finished listening to Arizona Bay for the first time. While a lot of his stuff is topical (LA Riots, Bush out of office, Ted Bundy, etc.), it still holds up really well. What he's saying about the then conflict in Iraq still holds true to this day. A lot of what Hick's addresses during the Persian Gulf Conflict can just as easily be applied to our current situation. The Ted Bundy stuff still holds up as well. He may be talking about Ted Bundy and some women's crazy attraction to him, but you can easily substitute any other dangerous figure. To me, Bundy only provides a mad lib for the joke.

What strikes me as odd about Arizona Bay is the music. The musical interludes, at least for me, actually detract from the album. It's a strange experience.

Dane Cook appears on Louie episode 20 (episode 7 of season 2). That's Louis CK's TV show.

Schweig! wrote: Dane Cook appears on Louie episode 20 (episode 7 of season 2). That's Louis CK's TV show.

There was some controversy about Cook stealing some of CK's jokes (2 in particular) and this episode is supposed to bury the hatchet. I wonder if he'll ever put Leary on there (apparently he stole the Asshole song from one of Louie's old bits). I haven't seen the Cook episode yet because I'm waiting for all of season two to be available before I watch it.

Thanks for mentioning that Bundy bit Million Dollar Mimring, Imma go download that Bay area routine because I want to see that again. It's been years. He works fine for me because I was there, I was alive. But the young University students I work with don't know him from Adam and when they do watch his stuff they tend to not get it.

JonJacob wrote: [..] I'm waiting for all of season two to be available before I watch it.

It's available here .

I should also mention that I was a big fan of Ellen Degeneres back in the day. Was glad to see her folksy charm bring her bigger and better things. Including Portia de Rossi, of course.