EDITOR'S NOTE: I can easily foresee (especially from the GOI authors) disagreement about this list. As objective as I tried to be on this list, admittedly there's subjective bias added and everyone has their two cents. While I am not inherently against disagreement, in fact I encourage it, I will not tolerate any profanity or any grossly disparaging remarks. Any comments of the sorts will be deleted. That being said, argue away! Just be calm and reasonable about it.
Despite we here at GOI being amazing at sports knowledge, we are also knowledgeable about other things. One of those things is stand up comedy. We follow up and coming stand up comedians (in fact I saw Demitri Martin record his first break through album), follow Comedy Central and the late night circuit for new comedians, and even watch Last Comic Standing (in fact many comics on this list deserve a spot because of the show). Being just a big fan of any list in general, I decided to create a list of the greatest stand up comedians of my generation. Comedy Central ran a list of the greatest stand up comedians of all time, but many of those stand ups don't relate to me and the younger generations.
Here's a list of criteria I took into consideration for a comedian to earn a spot on this prestigious and desired list:
- How funny the comedian is to me
- How funny the comedian is to my friends and my generation as a whole
- Repeatability and knowledgability of comedian and comedians' jokes to others
- Impact of comedian on pop culture
- Consistency of humor between multiple specials/ appearances
- Impact of comedian on this generation
Now "my generation", despite it being an awesome Who song, can also be called into question. What constitutes "this generation"? Well, for starters, I am 23 years old, so for all kids within three years of me is considered part of this generation. But in reality, these are just comedians that were funny while I was in high school, college, and just out of college. Basically, comedians that had an impact on teenagers within the past ten years.
Now there are many funny people (most notably Stephen Colbert and Conan O'Brien come to mind) that don't deserve a spot on this list because they never were and are not stand up comedians and many funny people (most notably Seth Rogen and Jon Stewart) that were at one point stand up comedians, but have not really done stand up within the past ten years that earned a spot on this list. I tried to base this list on how a person was at their actual stand up routine, not their acting career, but shit happens. (Although I did factor in the comedian's comedy writing whether it was for a stand up special, a TV show, or a movie). There are also guys like Jerry Seinfeld and Ray Romano that still affected this generation, but I notably left them off the list because I didn't feel they were a part of the new generation of stand up- they were part of a prior one that just so happened to be so awesome that they carried over generations.
But enough disclaimers, on with the list!
50. Mitch Fatal
49. Kevin Hart
48. Andy Kindler
47. Jon Reep
46. Kristen Schaal
45. Eugene Mirman
44. Dan Mintz
43. Tom Papa
42. Nick Di Paolo
41. Jim Norton
40. Alonzo Bodden
39. Patrice O'Neal
38. Ralphie May
37. John Oliver
36. Paul F. Tompkins
35. Arj Barker
34. Russell Brand
33. Wanda Sykes
32. Zack Galifinakis
31. Doug Benson
30. Gabriel Iglesias
29. Aziz Ansari
28. Maria Bamford
27. Daniel Tosh
26. Chelsea Handler
25. Kathleen Madigan
24. Seth Rogen
23. George Lopez
22. Mike Birbiglia
21. Bill Burr
20. Ellen Degeneres
19. Greg Giraldo
18. Joel McHale
17. Sarah Silverman
16. Louie C.K.
15. Greg Fitzsimmons
14. Brian Posehn
13. Stephen Lynch
12. Dennis Leary
11. Jon Stewart
10. Jim Gaffigan
9. Adam Carolla
8. Patton Oswalt
7. Nick Swardson
6. Lewis Black
5. Dave Chapelle
4. Jeff Dunham
3. Mitch Hedberg
2. Brian Regan
1. Demitri Martin
6 comments:
Dear lord this is a crappy list, especially since no one asked for my opinion
russell brand and wanda sykes? Really? Like for real??
Maybe Mitch Hedberg is funny when yr stoned, or dead. I wouldn't know
Patton Oswalt will admit that Louie CK is 10 times better than him
Jim Norton is one of the funniest men EVER(Funniest sing joke ever)
Dave Chapelle 2nd funniest joke ever
Does anyone actually like Lewis Black? I know he's on tv a lot and is jewish, but does anyone actually enjoy listening to him speak?
Dont know if larry david fits into this list, but he can tell a joke
Chris Rock is very relevant to our generation and should be number 1
Considering i cant name 50 comics, nice job sexy rexy
I will respectfully respond
1) Chris Rock at his peak, at his funniest, was in the early 90's. Sure he's put up stand up specials this past decade, put they are not NEARLY as good at his prime, which was early to mid 90's- which puts him in the Jerry Seinfeld category- freakin hilarious but not "this generation"
2) Larry Davis falls in the Colbert/O'Brein category- really funny, but not a stand up comedian
3) Oswalt fully admits he's better than C.K., and me personally, I agree with Patton. But this list isn't just me. Hopefully with Louis C.K.'s new show (even though you told me was disappointing) no one really knows who he is. This list is more than just a collection of who's funny, but more an indictment on how big they are, and considering how many more people know who oswalt is, and how he consistently puts funny stand up material that's new and people like it, he gets a spot in this list
4) I knew you were gonna rag me on Jim Norton b/c you love him and he's really funny but sadly no one knows who he is
5) Lewis Black's first two albums were hysterical and his bits on The Daily Show were awesome. He's just a pure comedian (which is better than like half this list). The only reason he's not higher b/c his latter albums were just decent
6) You're the only person I know that doesn't like Mitch Hedberg. Even though he's been so for so long, SO MANY people know his jokes and can recite them (in fact, by law, you have to re-tell his jokes like him). He also has the Tupac effect where b/c he died so young he couldn't put out more albums that could have been shit
I also don't smoke pot and still think Hedberg is hysterical. Probably the best comedian I've heard that still be funny when his joke bombs
7) What's the second funniest Chapelle joke?
8) Hey, like I said in my post, I invite arguments. Who's in your top 50 (or top however many you can name)?
I refuse to read this probably-BS list because you put Kevin Hart on this list and Kevin Hart was so unfunny that he gave me an ulcer
obviously you did not listen to patton oswalt on the simmons or carolla podcast where he says CK makes him feel like a little sissy girl joke wise
Chapelle joke where he says when did premature ejaculation become a medical issue? I dont know about you but i cant ejaculate fast enough
Now onto the list of 50 worst comics. Dat Phan *cough cough*
Jon Reep should be higher on the list.
I like Jon Reep a lot too but he's not really known by the mainstream or this generation really
I did hear the Patton Oswalt/ Simmons podcast, I obviously knew what you were referring to. But this list isn't solely on who's stand up is the best. Because that's a completely subjective list and everyone on this list would be wrong to everyone else because it's just the funniest comedians to me
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