It's time for someone to mention Woody Allen. Not only a great comedian, but also a great film maker.

peter cook, eddie izzard, sean hughes, mark steel (the guy is a genius), john sessions, jimmy carr, rich hall, bill bailey. ardal o hanlon, dermot morgan, dara o brian, lenny bruce, spike milligan, dudley moore, tommy tiernan, robin williams in his prime of mentalism, ed byrne, colm murphy, mark thomas, russel brand, ricky gervais, dave gorman, the guy i cant think of his name but he is funny believe me!, jo brand, steven wright, jasp[er carrott (for his mad uncle in the pub kinda guy), peter serafinowiz (sorry if i spelt that wrong), steve coogan, not so much in stand up but his characters are great,

no one has mentioned ben elton! you will all get rep points for that!!! tosspot of the highest order! or les dennis or the rascist bastard trhat is jim "chalky" davidson!

Not mentioned: Brian Posehn


"I've been a nerd for like.......30 years."

the mark steel lectures......"darwin"


part 1
part 2
part 3

rich hall.... live at the apollo

part 1
part 2

spike milligan....


on bbc tv show "room 101" excellent!!

part 1
part 2
part 3

spike milligan and the goons....


the first irish rocket to the moon
the irish olympics

enjoy em!

"& poeple always say to me, yr older than 30 bro."

BTW, I have to correct you...


I also forgot to mention, Maria Bamford.

I see, I see.

Bill Cosby at his peek was great.

Ah, I forgot to mention in my last post that I have an autographed Zach Galifianakis poster next to me. He's pretty great.

Gawd....Rodney Dangerfield!

Zach is definitely my favorite of the Comedians of Comedy.


Of course, I'm disappointed in myself for forgetting one of the greats. Thanks for the reminder.

I'll second Ed Byrne. I'm also VERY glad to see no one on this forum mention Dane Cook.

Pretty good list.

I'd add to mine Dara O'Briain after having sen him live. And Jeremy Hardy was very good as well.

Dylan Moran

He was on tv last night and I really enjoyed his stand up.

Patton Oswalt

Mitch Hedberg
Armando Iannucci
Chris Morris
The Futurama writers
Rich Hall
Adam & Joe (if they qualify)

And someone who hasn't been mentioned yet...

Frank Sidebottom

Yeah Dylan Moran is great. I think his Monster is the best stand-up performance that I've seen, though I wasn't keen on his next one. I like the way that while rambling and philosphising he will drop in random surreal details (which only register a few seconds later).

Good call on Simon Pegg (as someone you don't find funny): I hate that brand of comedy, which just relies on recognition, i.e., haha this bit is like that bit in Star Wars where they fight with lightsabres but they're fighting with baguettes instead, etc.

I hate how this stuff is mostly regional. I know, like, three or four people from the lists from the English, whereas I seem to know all the American comedians.

How come so few comedians from England cross over to the US?
Do many US comedians cross over there?

I really enjoyed that Dylan Moran thing last night as well, i enjoy the creativity of the way he links his main bits (I dunno about the word "jokes") rather than going "So i was walking down the road the other day..." so it all flows into one.

The Kids in the Hall

As this threads popped back up
I personally have never been one to like any of those things, but i think your assertion that he's the "lads mag" comedian of choice probably has alot to do with the fact that he's just popular with alot of people.
I reject the "because he's dead" bollocks as well. That business isnt romantic its just sad.

Two more:

David Hoyle


Rob Brydon

At the moment I'd put Chris Morris at the top of my list, but he almost transcends comdy altogether.

Still think Lenny Bruce is the greatest stand up comedian ever, but, like Chris Morris, his brilliance almost transcends comedy altogether at times. Richard Pryor is way up there too, but for me it'll always be Lenny Bruce.





Gets my vote as one of the greatest Americans of the Twentieth Century.

head like a fucking orange


Karl Pilkington

this guy is god damn hillarious

I forgot how good this is: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mPOZnz0Jmc4

great clip porky

He's one of those who's a bit too scary to be popular, ever. That idea of transgression in comedy, where it goes beyond 'joke > punchline > audience'. I know you're not overly fond of Hicks (and I'm not either) but him and Jerry Sadowicz [sp?] are very good at comedy that's so vitriolic it stops being funny and becomes quite tragic (which is an avenue of comedy rarely explored in stand-up).

Anyway, I remember seeing the Divine David when I was on the other side of puberty very late at night on channel 4 and being absolutely petrified. Amazing.

Did we mention John Cooper Clark? Was a welcome relief to see him at ATP last year, broke up all the turgid guitar bands nicely.

Seriously, his is like an interesting lecture at times.

A soap box for someone that deserves a soap box.

Mitch Hedberg

morris is more than comedy. he is art... albiet fucking hilarious art but art nonetheless....

here is chris morris interviewing peter cook on radio..... cook is playing a made up english aristocratic celebrity.. fucking brilliant!!!!

why bother pt 1

part 2

Mitch Hedberg

Mitch Hedberg

Bill Hicks
George Carlin
Lenny Bruce
Richard Pryor
Chris Rock
Patton Oswalt
Brian Posehen
Bill Cosby
Bob Newhart
Peter Cook
Monty Python
Kids in The Hall
Norm Macdonald
Spike Milligan
Steven Wright
Mitch Hedberg
Lewis Black
Rodney Dangerfield
David Cross
Dave Atell
Steve Martin
Sam Kinnison
Robin Williams
Eddie Izzard
Jasper Carrot
Rowan Atikinson

Amongst others.

David Hoyle at his scary looking best.

I have decided Stewart Lee and Chris Morris are seriously the best comedians ever. The global economy episode of Stewart Lee's 'Comedy Vehicles' has no equals in comedy at the moment. I can't really prove this, but he just is on a completely different level to hint that's true. Everyone should be allowed to watch it, not just UK viewers.

George Carlin was pretty awesome

And Stewart Lee had a joke about the Jesus Lizard in yesterday's episode

And The Jesus And Mary Chain

Im delighted about Stewart Lee's series, using the idea of a stand up comedian getting their own TV series as material for a stand up comedian whos got their own TV series has been tremendous.

Shame the sketches are shit though. While I get that's deliberate, they're still a waste of 1/3rd of the running time.

they are shit, but i don't get that as being deliberate, why do you say they are?

i'm glad that there's someone on tv making mockery of the likes of clarkson and his audience.