ROTFL???

^^ It's hard to argue against your assessment and there is no dobut that live he was unequaled but Bill Cosby live in his hey day was hilarious too and remarkably he was able to do it without using "foul" language. Still I'll never forget Pryor's Mudbone stories, just too fucking funny...

@Bullwinkle you're right and he probably would have made my list but sadly I never got the chance to catch him live on stage.

^^ yet...

Richard Pryor was the best.

And I always liked Steven Wright's style.

I saw some unknown guy in a small casino in Vegas about 12 years ago. Can't remember his name. But he really had me ROTFL. funny as any of the big name guys

I'll take the Monty Python crew and John Cleese in Fawlty Towers 30 years ago was classic. That crew even had a radio show before forming Monty Python. It was called 'I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again' - those boys were even edgier and blacker on radio than they were on TV.

The Royal Canadian Air Farce ranks right up there with me also. Dave Broadfoot's character, Sergeant Preston of the RCMP was absolutely classic.....'When I regained consciousness.........'

I've only seen a few comedians live and believe or not the best was Carrot Top in Vegas. It wasn't my idea to go and I thought it would suck, but he's hilarious.

Dave Chapelle and Gabriel Iglecias with a I

I've seen Gabriel twice and he is absolutly hysterical. I can hear his laugh even as I write this , very funny.

What about chicks? Paula Poundstone, Rosanne Barr, Ellen DeGeneres, Shelley Berman, Lily Tomlin, Rosie O'Donnell, others?

Some of my favs, all except Robin Williams I've seen "Live", to add to the list...

Jerry Seinfeld
Andrew Dice Clay
Robert Schimmel
Ron White
Lewis Black
Jeff Foxworthy
Robin Williams

Amazing Johnathan

Bob Hope. No shit Sherlock. That dude could make a coffin laugh. I know I'm dating myself, but I saw him at a "club" show (not filmed or recorded) and he was better than anyone else I've seen (live or on TV) in 50 years - by a mile!

Bernie Mac was a master. Cedric the Entertainer is good. Pryor & Redd Foxx were greatness personified. If Katt Williams had more than 4 jokes he could still be somebody. Gabriel Iglesias is a keeper

Another vote for Steven Wright and a close second place finish for Ron White.

Eddie Murphy during the Delirious album was the best comedy concert I have been to. I went with work friends to the Blue Collar comedy tour and was surprised how funny they were. Seinfeld in concert was the most over rated.

Very unusual this thread. I know almost none of these comics that you Americans mention. George Carlin and Robin Williams are the only two that I consider to be funny of those names that I recognize.

I guess that the comedy of American culture does not travel well to Canada. British comedy travels very well to Canada however. The Quebecois stand up artists are more irreverent than our Anglo comedians but my French vocabulary does not include all the new words invented since about 1975 so I miss much of the bite of current Quebecois comedians.

....don't get mad at me, buy I think Larry the Cable Guy can be pretty fuckin' funny.

I would love to see his live act.

In no particular order:

+ Bill Cosby (enjoy his intellectual insights)
+ Eddie Murphy (in his prime)
+ Chris Rock
+ Dave Chappelle
+ Chevy Chase (maybe not much of a standup – but loved his movies – thought “The Three Amigos” was hilarious)
+ Dave Attell (used to love his insomniac TV show on USA channel)

@ farmerart I agree that to a certain degree the comedic sense of humor up in the great white north is different but if you consider all of the comedians and comedic actors that Canada has contributed it is quite impressive. Take for example the following short list:

John Candy
Dan Aykroyd
Jim Carrey
Martin Short
Mike Myers
Josie Mandel
Norm Macdonald
Tommy Chong (of Cheech & Chong fame)

Obviously there are dozens more but that is a short list. Do any of them ring a bell farmerart?

Dave Chappelle

@MondoGoGo,

I recognize all those names (save for Josie Mandel) merely because I know that they are Canadian. The thing is.....they are not that funny except for Norm Macdonald whose brother is even more hilarious even though the brother is a television journalist. The best Canadian comedy is satirical, ironic, sarcastic social and political commentary delivered with a stone cold deadpan manner. It is also self-deprecating and can be out-and-out slapstick. Names like Roger Abbott, Dave Broadfoot, Luba Goy, Don Ferguson. Cathy Smith, Shaun Majunder, Russell Peters, Rick Mercer, Max Ferguson, Cathy Walsh, Johnny Wayne, Frank Schuster come readily to mind.

Neither country's comedy is better than the other's......they are just different. Our two countries do have different histories and cultures, you know, even though we are very close neighbours.

First of all, anyone who names a female as a top contender for comedian has got mental problems. Women aren't funny. And most, if not all, female comedians are ugly as fuck. I just can't watch them... Paula Poundstone, Rosanne Barr, Ellen DeGeneres, Shelley Berman, Lily Tomlin, Rosie O'Donnell??? Are you freaking kidding me?

The closest to being funny (well, maybe humorous) was Tomlin when she was good, but I can't even watch Barr and DeGeneres and O'Donnell cuz they're too fucking UGLY !!! And not funny.

Now, to the real comedians...

I don't think I ever laughed harder that watching the first half of Eddie Murphy in Delirious. Geezus that was funny. Murphy has got to be one of the naturally funniest guys out there...all his stuff on Saturday Night Live was fucking brilliant, and on and on. But like most comedians, as time went on they got too commercial and became just stupid. Wasn't he in like Doctor Doolittle and shit? Just shameful for such a talented guy.

Kinda like George Carlin. In his day he was one of the best. But then he became an angry old man and I couldn't even watch him.

Bill Cosby was also on the top when it comes to stand up. Until he just relied on being able to 'wing it' in every freakin' monologue, and sometimes it was just boring as shit. But the guy was a master.

And of course Pryor was one of the best, if not THE best. Absolutely brillant. Funny as FUCK. I felt so bad for the guy after he burned himself, and he just looked like a frail old guy who had lost his edge.

And I can't believe nobody mentioned Steve Martin, who, in his day, was an awesome standup comedian. Well, for a short while he was. He was one of my favorites, and his Saturday Night Live stuff was incredible. Though now that I look back on recordings of some of that stuff he doesn't seem as awesome as I remember at the time, but anyways....

But there were a lot of guys who were just great to watch in movies and shit, but weren't necessarily that FUNNY in a standup sense. John Candy was a great character guy who was fun to watch, Belushi was great, Mike Myers was awesome to watch in sketches and movies (I loved all that Austin Powers stuff, except where they did disgusting poop jokes), Jim Carey is an incredible comic actor. Chevy Chase was very watchable, but he relied on prat falls way too much.

On the other hand, guys like Robin Williams were just annoying to watch. His standup was just this insane stream of consciousness nonsense that really wasn't funny, but he figured if he said it all fast enough then if he bombed with one joke there was another coming along in 2.5 seconds. Seinfeld just wasn't funny, but his show was one of the best on TV in spite of him being involved. Steven Wright wasn't funny, just annoying. Neither was Carrot Top...no different from that useless Sledge-A-Matic guy who just pulled out stupid props.

Now I was also a big fan of Jonathan Winters way back when. Funny guy doing standup, and great in movies. But he was a little too improv and stream of consciousness for me.

HEY WAIT A MINUTE MONDO!!! SHELLEY BERMAN IS A GUY, NOT A GIRL !!!

But he still sucked as a comedian.

And my vote for possibly the worst comedian of all time...

That asshole on Saturday Night Live who did the goat boy or whatever it was. That's it. That's all he did. The most useless shit on TV.

Oh, I found it...the guy's name is Jim Breuer. Fucking useless and stupid

ditto: Jonathan winters
Don Rickles on dean Martin celebrity roasts and on his SNL appearence, he'd follow the script for about 15-20 seconds,then he'd start improvising and get out of hand,and it look like the rest of the cast was pissed
Remember when I was younger, me and some friends would pass the pipe around, and laugh are asses off watching late night Groucho Marx and W.C. fields movies
(I'm not as old as I sound I just like some older comedians)

And Don Rickles...all I remember from that guy was he had a single "shtick", and that was pretty much calling everyone DUMMY !!! Came off as just an angry old guy who wasn't funny.

On the other hand, I think Rodney Dangerfield could be absolutely hilarious. Guy had great timing, and was what Rickles could never be. He even related to a younger crowd.

And on the other other hand, speaking of old timers with the same tired "shtick", another contender for worst comedian was that asshole Norm Crosby. His entire claim to fame was mispronouncing words. That's it. Now maybe that was hilarious to 80 year olds in the retirement home, but otherwise it was fucking stupid.

There were a few other old timers who I never understood how they got in the business, or how they survived. Norm Crosby was a perfect example, but there were others whose names escape me.