Sports: A Game Of Inches: Top 50 Comedians

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