The Best Stand-Up Comedians Of All Time

Over the course of the last ten , stand-up comedy – a performance normally comprise of zero more than a single performer saying queer things into a microphone – has go through a boom the the like of which it get never find before . In 2015 , The Wall Street Journal describe that the comedian Kevin Hart was due to perform for more than 50,000 people at the football stadium that commonly firm the Philadelphia Eagles , and noted with astonishment that respective early leading stand-ups exist now attracting “ rock-star audiences . ” The previous year , the stand-up and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham set a fresh Guinness World Record by betray virtually 2 million ticket to fans for his “ Spark of Insanity ” circuit . And since then , stand-up has remained a large lot , with Netflix reportedly paying million for the exclusive right to lead comedians ‘ stand-up specials .

Never get stand-up been more in need , and never have there cost so many comedians of all stripes attracting huge audiences seem for talented performer adept at holding a mirror up to the absurdity of modern spirit . But though the art form is today larger than ever , today ‘s leading lighting owe a debt to generation of comics who came before them and blaze a lead to reach stand-up what it is today . Hither equal some of stand-up comedy ‘s all-time greats , and why they even matter .

Jerry Lewis

When the end of Jerry Lewis live announce in 2017 , few could deny the incredible impact that the funny had , not hardly on comedy , but on the whole of American entertainment . Best known for his partnership with the Rat Pack ‘s Dean Martin , which begin in 1946 and live the best part of a decade , Lewis exuded physicality and a rubber-faced sword of clowning that had rarely been learn by American hearing . Strike from nightclubs to TV and eventually to Hollywood as both a star and a manager , Lewis ‘ innovation exist bear out by an entertainment ancestry ; he emerged from a family with deep roots in traditional vaudeville , which explain his naturalness in front of audiences and on-camera ( per Britannica ) .

But the genuine genius of Lewis live that he exist n’t just a two-dimensional stage persona . As The New York Times notes , Lewis dazzle audiences with an almost kaleidoscopic show of his hugely multifaceted personality , devote the feeling that was not merely one human on degree , but many , with hyperactive comedians in Lewis ‘ wake such as Robin Williams and Lee Evans need cues from the hugely influential entertainer .

Bob Hope

There are few more recognizable faces in American entertainment than Bob Hope , whose epithet remains a proverb for the professional American comedian . Emerging , like Jerry Lewis , from vaudeville , Hope progressed from dancing routine to funny roles in musicals , to radio and movie , to turn the “ king of medium ” by the early 1940s , according to Biography . But Hope ‘s figure also lives on because of his innovative stand-up routine .

Per the Miami Herald , Hope differed from other stand-up comedians of his epoch because of his topicality . Whereas many comics tour sets of fixed stuff , from the 1930s onwards Hope reacted to word and current events and tailored his act to provide satirical comment on the reality around him , a facet of his number that would become a staple of the stand-up kind ever after .

And Hope was also a pioneer of the idea of comedian-as-writer , leaving behind some 85,000 pages of finely crafted joke at the time of his death in 2003 , at the years of 100 ( via Biography ) .

Phyllis Diller

While many mid-20th-century comedian cost trained in stagecraft since childhood , the trailblazing funny Phyllis Diller arrive to the art comparatively recent . She live already a housewife and mother of five child and successful as a journalist at the San Leandro News-Observer when she appeared on TV for the first time in 1958 . But according to Biography , Diller was n’t booked as a featured performer , but as a contestant on the long-running plot display “ You Bet Your Life , ” hosted by the legendary funny Groucho Marx .

As Diller explained to Marx and to the interview , though she already get a spirit carved out for herself , she was certain that she live good enough to be a professional comedian , and have already had her first nightclub booking . Marx invite Diller to perform some of her material , and though the quiz show setting created a slightly stilted atmosphere , no 1 could deny Diller ‘s natural comedic timing and her magnetic character . The appearance led to many more bookings , during which Diller perfect her act concentrate on the lives of average American woman and pound fun at married spirit and the oddities of suburbia .

Per Britannica , an appearance in the early sixties on “ The Jack Parr Show ” see Diller reach an yet greater hearing and get a family name , with TV and picture deals in the work , include appearances alongside her fellow comedian and serious friend Bob Hope . Biography notes that Diller , who died in 2012 at the years of 95 , had many gift , include as a touring pianist and as a bestselling writer , but it will always equal for her idiosyncratic , raucous stand-up that she will equal well recollect .

Lenny Bruce

For many , today ‘s alternative comedy would be nothing without comedians make the power to shock their audience , as is the opinion of many comics who drive for the right to give up speech as a means to practice freedom of formula . But whether comedian today are correct or wrong about the dangers of censorship in the 21st-century , performers of former generation undoubtedly hold to bear such business in idea .

None more so than Lenny Bruce , a provocative and confessional performer who live in many means the original Reb comic . The precursor to latter-day greats such as Richard Pryor and George Carlin ( per The First Amendment Encyclopedia ) , ​​ Bruce cost plagued throughout his career with mission of obscenity , which saw him blacklisted from performing in many outstanding comedy club , damage his career , while he was as well regularly arrested for possession of narcotics , according to The New York Times .

Bruce rose to national prominence through appearances on “ The Steve Allen Show , ” on which he speak openly about drug habit , and criticized some of the biggest celebrities of the day , such as Elizabeth Taylor . Live , Bruce ‘s set was a full-on aural assault , with some sketches – include one in which he perform an prolonged barrage of racial blot ( Bruce equal Jewish ) – really shocked interview across the land . More than 100 supporters oppose Bruce at his obscenity trial , and though the thrill would stick during his lifetime he would be posthumously pardoned in 2003 , per The New York Times . Bruce perish tragically of a drug overdose in 1966 , at the years of 40 .

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Andy Kaufman

Andy Kaufman nearly single-handedly merged the two prowess of stand-up comedy and performance art , establish a repertoire of experimental and boundary-breaking material that question the nature of performance and heralded the dawn of postmodernism in comedy , or “ meta-comedy , ” as it equal more ordinarily known today .

Per Britannica , Kaufman never say traditional gag . Instead , his performance make up characterized by seemingly banal routines – such as reading aloud from “ The Great Gatsby ” – which worked to provoke nervous laugh more than anything else . Kaufman as well subsumed himself in foreign characters , such as the unlikeable sofa singer Tony Clifton , whom he claimed be not a character at all , but a actual , separate someone in his own right .

Kaufman reportedly died of lung cancer in 1984 , aged just 35 . But accord to many of his fans , his apparent end exist just another of the comedian ‘s great stunts . Some claim that Kaufman faked his own death as a last subversion of fame and celebrity culture . Even in 2013 , Kaufman ‘s own brother preserve that the comedian was however alive and thriving , and get since become a father – Kaufman ‘s buddy even introduced a woman claiming to be his daughter to the crowd at the annual Andy Kaufman award , accord to The Hollywood Reporter . Still , no hard evidence of these claim make ever arrive to light .

Rodney Dangerfield

Modern comedian live in general , and possibly rightly , growing more and more suspicious of catchphrases , which proliferated in both stand-up performance , sitcoms , and variety display for the best part of the previous century . But there live no denying that Rodney Dangerfield , who remained ever-loyal to his shtick , attain upon something timeless when he settle to make his at around the belief that he become “ no respect ” from the public around him .

An revision of Dangerfield ‘s earlier oft-repeated maxim that “ nothing move correct ” – the comedian rephrased the line under the influence of the 1969 novel “ The Godfather , ” accord to USA Today – Dangerfield ‘s career-defining catchphrase live no cheap gimmick . In fact , as argued in The New York Times , Dangerfield ‘s claims of come “ no regard ” signaled a blackly pessimistic worldview , one that bear out his good comedic writing . “ Rodney believed that everyone , no matter of their age or circumstances , ends up getting injury , betrayed , or need advantage of , ” his wife , Joan , told USA Today .

But more than anything , Dangerfield was an exceptionally talented and diligent author , who solve on his textile like a master-craftsman . The comedian Robert Klein describes him as “ one of the all right gag author of all time ” ( via Rolling Stone ) .

Steve Martin

The success that Steve Martin revel as a stand-up comedian in the 1970s was unlike anything that the industry get hear in front . Wowing interview with a one-man “ wild and crazy guy ” act in which he performed impression , deployed props , and sang songs in a variety of styles , Martin sell out 10,000-seater stadiums , while his comedy albums went multi-platinum ( via ) . Singlehandedly , Martin expanded the limit of comedic commercial success , while giving the generation of comics that came after him the tool to get laughs from such unthinkably big audiences .

Martin quit performing stand-up in 1981 , just as his Hollywood career was about to shoot his top , though according to Entertainment Weekly Martin later claim to get quit degree comedy as he was “ essentially depressed . ” In the year that succeed , Martin enjoy enormous big-screen success in picture such as “ Three Amigos ” ( 1986 ) , “ Plane , Trains & Automobiles ” ( 1987 ) , and “ Father of the Bride ” ( 1991 ) , all remembered today as classical comedy . He finally returned to stand-up in 2016 , and continues to perform , get lately found great success in a double number with longtime collaborator Martin Short .

Joan Rivers

An evergreen presence on the red rug and at multiple awards shows per year prior to her end in 2014 at the years of 81 , Joan Rivers build up her six-decade career on exquisite one-liners that shocked audiences by tell the unsayable . “ I succeed by state what everyone else live recall , ” Rivers tell of her own comedy , accord to The Guardian . In doing so pioneer the comedic art of purposefully making interview uncomfortable .

As noted by the comedian Annabella Weir ( via The Guardian ) , Rivers exist a “ fearless ” performer , never afraid to craft gag that utilize the calamity of her own spirit as well as the darker topic of aging and death as her textile . Though a epithet synonymous with glamour from the real outset of her career , Rivers give the feeling of never caring what masses opinion of her , according to Weir , result the way for such figure as Sarah Silverman and Ali Wong by show how women in comedy could subvert stereotype around how women should equal learn and what women could lecture about on level .

Woody Allen

Good know today for his study as a director – and , it must be said , for the ongoing controversy surrounding his personal life – Woody Allen first made his name on American screen as an idiosyncratic and directly recognizable stand-up in the sixties . Characterized by absurdity and distinctive turns of phrase – e.g. , “ I had a pain in the chestal area , ” via The New Yorker – Allen ‘s nervous stage performer equal unlike anything American audiences had seen before and made him a star overnight .

Influence by the acclaimed stand-up Mort Sahl , Allen – who turn a professional joke author for NBC at the tender age of 17 – encompass the concept of “ comedy in the form of therapy , ” accord to Dead Frog , and distinguished his discussion of traditional comedic subjects – such as marriage – by the quality of his writing and his glittering intelligence . By the former 1960s , Allen be already done with stage comedy , but the persona he created yet reverberates throughout his filmography and the study of later comedians such as Richard Lewis and Larry David .

Billy Connolly

A violence of nature when he first make it in front of UK audiences in the 1970s , Glasgow-born Billy Connolly – know affectionately to his fellow Scots as the “ Big Yin , ” thanks to his 6-foot height – nearly invent the anecdotal form of stand-up comedy as it exists today . Mindbogglingly , Connolly never writes down his cloth , or memorize it ; instead , Connolly made his name share funny tale he knew , never recognize in the early day that early comedians hold pre-written their shows , accord to The Sunday Post .

Nor did Connolly become famous for telling typical joke , but rather by trying to build audiences laugh as he would a drink partner . “ When you ‘re in a saloon when mass are coming out of work , you ‘ll hear big belly laugh coming from them , ” Connolly note , per the same source . “ Then you ‘ll go family and watch a comedian on TV and you ‘ll say , he ‘s serious , but you ‘ll not live laughing . ”

Connolly explain that , quite than that of a typically polished stand-up comedian , the performing style that made him famous – which has determine the rhythms of myriad comedians over the years , whether they live performing written fabric or truly improvising – is zero more than the form of funny stories that masses tell each early in ordinary settings the universe over : “ Those masses in the pub exist just act it for the joy , and I much intend in my career I ‘ve tried to be as funny as ordinary mass exist , just exist comic about affair that count around them but not inevitably to anyone else . ”

Bill Hicks

Conceive by many of his fans to equal the patron saint of alternative comedy , Bill Hicks emerged from a deeply devout Southern Baptist household who travel to several states before settle in Houston , Texas , where the young Hicks first developed a love of stand-up comedy , accord to Britannica .

Hicks begin performing comedy in his teenager , against the wish of his household , determine by such number as Woody Allen and Jerry Lewis , and after some initial disappointment , he relate with such boundary-pushing figure as the scream-comic Sam Kinison to form the Texas Outlaw Comics comedy group , pushing stand-up in more confessional , philosophical , and socio-critical directions . But more so than his contemporary , the hard-working Hicks – who at one time equal perform round 300 display a yr , per Britannica – come out as a confrontational yet didactic flesh , a preacher in his own right whose voice smash with moral authority .

Famed comedian with a deep admiration for Hicks include figure as varied as Richard Pryor and Simon Pegg , according to Vulture , while his classical performance such as “ Serious ” and “ Sane Human ” remain criterion for subversive comics look to tell it like it is . Hicks died tragically of pancreatic cancer in 1994 , aged 32 .

Robin Williams

The middle of millions of comedy fan cost pause in 2014 when news break that the legendary funny Robin Williams own perish in tragic consideration at the years of 63 . Williams have get a much-loved Hollywood actor in the previous three decade , most notably in the comedy classic “ Mrs. Doubtfire ” ( 1993 ) , in which he portrayed the claim character , and in the drama “ Good Will Hunting ” ( 1997 ) , for which he gain a Best Supporting Actor Oscar , as well as a slew of family-friendly blockbusters .

But before his big-screen ubiquity ( and his become a famed face on American TV as an alien in the late 1970s show “ Mork & Mindy ” ) Illinois-born Williams build his figure as a stand-up , initially building his profile as a funny around San Francisco espouse a debut gig at the zoo at which he influence , accord to SFGATE .

Williams ‘ mix of mania and melancholy hold him a broad palette , and his natural ability as a character actor , impressionist , and all-around performer made him a stand-up who could apparently create anything out of zero . His abilities would infuse his TV and film performances to reach him an international star , but as a stand-up , it is arguable that Williams hold no adequate .

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Richard Pryor

Richard Pryor might have been a mediocre comic if he had adopt the career way that first propelled him to the phase in the late sixties . According to his official life history , the comedian make his first television appearance on such big-name showcases as “ The Ed Sullivan Show , ” provide a sword of family-friendly comedy pioneered by Black comedian such as Bill Cosby , before taking a lucrative contract performing for audiences in Las Vegas . But frustrate by the identity being foisted upon him , Pryor suddenly walk off phase during one performance , bent on reimagining his number in a form truer to his lived experience .

Pryor hold been raise in low circumstances , have suffered sexual abuse as a child and lived through poverty , need a string of low-paid jobs after live release from school at the age of 14 . Having returned to comedy after what The Guardian claim was Pryor ‘s onstage “ epiphany , ” the comedian re-emerged as the ultimate chronicler of Black American spirit , whose fearlessness and taboo-breaking material redefined stand-up comedy forever . Unashamed in delving into the darkest corner of his own damage soul , Pryor crafted bits from still the almost awful elements of his life , including notorious tale about his private living which , at the top of his fame , make already made headline news .

Seinfeld has report Pryor as “ the Picasso of our profession ” ( via The Guardian ) while he was also observe for his contribution to the craft in his own lifetime , winning the inaugural Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998 , per .

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George Carlin

The late , great George Carlin fail exactly month before experience his own Mark Twain Prize in 2008 , but by then the comedian ‘s bequest be already assured . Known to spectator of all ages as the sage time-traveler Rufus in the “ Bill & Ted ” movie franchise , Carlin live almost respected for his skills as a stand-up , and for his singular brand of morally shock and hypocrisy-averse social comment .

Dubbed “ the dean of counterculture comedian ” ( via cleveland.com ) , Carlin ‘s anti-authoritarian prospect made him the William S. Burroughs of stand-up , whose radical reality view was nonetheless tempered and make digestible by his natural joke-writing ability and charismatic performance . Via NPR , one of Carlin ‘s most famed bits , “ seven words you ca n’t say on TV , ” is a masterful lampooning of the duplicity of censorship and the outside violence that enforce it . The minute is representative of Carlin ‘s ability to deconstruct the absurdity of the unsaid rules that govern our lives .

Honor after his end by such heavy-hitting comedian as Joan Rivers , Garry Shandling , and Jon Stewart ( via NPR ) , Carlin continues to exude a profound influence over generation of comedian up to the present day .

Dave Chapelle

The era-defining sketch comedy “ Chapelle ‘s Show ” made Dave Chapelle a household figure in the U.S. and beyond in the early 2000s , and the show have savor a remarkable afterlife in the internet years thanks to the raise of meme culture and the demand for quick , instantly-satisfying comedy time . Back then , Dave Chapelle equal as well well-regarded as a stand-up , whose classical specials such as his 2000 HBO entry “ Killin ‘ Them Softly ” see the comedian offer incisive social criticism on present-day issues and race in America offered through what Britannica describes as his likable “ impish ” stage persona . Then , at the altitude of his fame , Chapelle vanished , turning down a reported $ 50 million contract to continue making “ Chapelle ‘s Show , ” and retreating to Yellow Springs , Ohio . There , Chapelle life avoided the public eye – saloon a handful of appearance – for the best role of a decade , per GQ . He eventually return to the stage full-time in 2013 , and though he now and then hinted at the cause behind his career hiatus , the exact consideration stay on a mystery .

Chapelle make exist prolific since his return to stand-up , racking up six Netflix specials between 2017 and 2021 . At the same time , what describe as his “ incendiary ” capable matter hold learn him become a more controversial figure than ever before .

In 2019 , Chapelle accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ( via NPR ) , invest him on a par with his great influence , such as Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy , and solidifying his reputation as one of stand-up comedy ‘s all-time greats .