"Best" comedian ever! Or if there was a Stand up Hall of Fame..

[maveric]

Poll question: "Best" comedian ever! Or if there was a Stand up Hall of Fame..

Who would you name it after?
I left out some mentioned in the other poll due to they havent "made their bones" yet IMHO.

[CBGLuthier]

1. Being my usual picky self

Sid Caesar does not belong on the list. He is a great, in fact one of the greatest comic actors, but I do not believe he ever did a traditional standup routine. Been a while since I read his autobiography, but I am pretty sure he started doing skits in the army and had a few lucky breaks that led to his TV work.

For me Pryor and Carlin are at the top of the list and the rest are competing for a distant third. Distant only because these two were and are so brilliant.

Bruce was funny and important to history but he was destroyed by the government and his drug use.

Hackett was damn funny though. :-)

[MarianJack]

2. Don't Forget Some of the Old Farts!

Henny Youngman, Rodney Dangerfield, etc!

[El Supremo]

3. Well!

You don't think Jack Benny deserves to be on the list?

[maveric]

5. Shelley Berman was pretty funny too.

[TroubleMan]

4. Carlin & Prior are my all-time favorites, but Eddie Murphy should be here

He's gotta be in the top 5 or 10.

[laylah]

6. Red Skelton =)

[Clintmax]

7. This is a tough one to vote on....

There are MANY out there that are really good! Such as:
Bill Cosby (I rolled during his "Himself" routine)
Gallagher (The guy who smacks watermelons with a huge hammer)
Paula Poundstone ("Cats, Cops and Stuff" was great!)
Margaret Cho (She totally cracks me up!)

Plus, many more! If I had to choose just from YOUR list though...I would have to say George Carlin. He's a classic!

[Pharlo]

8. Paul Lynde? Bob Hope? Bill Cosby?

Out of curiousity, what was the criteria you used to compile your list?

[Orsino]

9. Hard to pick one out of this bunch, but...

...Richard Pryor might be the one.

[Shadowen]

10. Bill Hicks.

What can I say? I'm a misanthrope. I would be a member of the People Who Hate People party.

[zanne]

11. Maybe it's just my age...

I'm trying to find today's standup comedians funny. I'm really trying to be amused by gross-out jokes, sexist or racist remarks and "observations". Am I just losing my sense of humor along with my muscle tone or are stand-ups really NOT funny anymore?