Who is your all-time favourite comedic performer?

Mitch Hedberg <3

The late, great George Carlin.
Mitch Hedberg and Emo Philips would be next on my list.
Today I’d have to go with Chris Rock or Mitch Fatal.
Oh, and Emo too. He’s still alive.

I like Russell Peters.

this old fuck

aww, dang. AC beat me to it.

Yesss! George Carlin was amazing as well.

I loved Mitch Hedberg, too, but also Richard Pryor’s stuff is phenomenal.

Steven Wright, George Lopez, George Carlin, Ron White.

Oh, and Bill Hicks too.

Andy Kaufman. He was just so unique and wonderful.

mitch hedberg, demitri martin (i’ve recently started watching him, he’s so so so funny). i liked chris farley a whole lot, and older adam sandler.

Monty
Python
is
my
absolute
favourite
!

And of them, Michael Palin is my favourite Python!

Richard Pryor, Steven Wright, Sarah Silverman, Jim Gaffigan, Eddie Izzard.

Carlin is just assumed

Dammit, edit link expired.

Anyway, yes, Eddie Izzard, old Eddie Murphy, Carlin, Christopher Guest, Richard Pryor, Bill Bailey, Mel Brooks and Jennifer Saunders. John Lennon could also be very funny, in a surrealistic way.

If I’m not mistaken the question asks for your “All-time favorite” comedian not a list of your top favorites.

That said, I’ve loved George Carlin my whole life but my all-time favorite is Mitch Hedberg. His routines Always make me laugh every single time I hear ‘em.

i don’t mind a list… sometimes its hard to narrow it down. no sweat guys!

John Stewart is my man of the moment.

Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie!

@trumi Love them!

Robert? Schimmel? spelling?

@steve6 do you mean Robert Smigel, the guy who created tv funhouse on snl?
...he was also the hand/voice of triumph the insult dog?
if so, solid choice.

No and I’m not sure it’s Robert. It might be Richard. He did routines about sex, airport bathrooms, cancer (while he had cancer) among other bits. I was alone when I saw his cable (HBO?) special and I laughed so hard it hurt.

Red Skelton

It’s Robert Schimmel.

Thank you

Mitch Hedberg here too…

I also liked Mitch’s bass player because of his name.

I agree with Marina about Jon Stewart. As a class though English comedians are the best. I totally love Monty Python especially John Cleese (including Basil Faulty) and my guilty pleasure was Benny Hill. The British don’t seem as angry as American comics and they show NO inhibitions.

Patton Oswalt
David Cross
Bill Hicks… I will see you down in Arizona Bay (Tool lyric taken from him)
all rule!

George Carlin, Eddie Izzard, Margret Cho

I always liked Dave Allen a brilliant Irish comedian, but I must admit to being biased towards Billy Connolly or ” The Big Yin ” as he’s affectionately known to Scots especially Glaswegians…

Carlin, David Cross, Daniel Tosh, Louis C K, Patton Oswalt, Jim Gaffigan, Sam Kinnison, Mike Birbiglia, Dave Chapelle, Eddie Murphy (Raw is classic), Andy Kaufman.

@madcapper…Bill Hicks was indeed the shit (r.i.p.)

@AstroChuck…“They call me Mr. Baseball…mainly because of all the stitches in my face.” (my favorite Emo Phillips line)

@galileogirl Benny Hill was the first comedian that I ever followed on tv. Lurve!

I will always love the pythons.

@Sakata If I’m not mistaken, this question didn’t ask for a list either. You didn’t seem to mind then.

just sayin’ ;)

@jonsblond That was a 3-way tie for 1st. Not a list. Totally different.

Mitch Hedburg, Eddie Izzard, Demetri martin, Daniel Tosh, The Pythons – John Cleese and Michael Palin in particular, George Carlin, Mike Birbiglia, and so many others.

All my favorites are my top picks at different times. They all strike me in different ways, I couldn’t possibly pick just one.

@asmonet That’s exactly how I feel. It’s like trying to pick your favorite music. Different artists for different moods.

@asmonet NICE list.

I have many, but off the top of my head I’d start with Billy Connoly.

Thanks!

And yeah, Billy Connolly = win.

I’ll second @Bluefreedom‘s “Ron White” nod…

brian whitaker!!!!!!!!!

Let’s throw Tommy Cooper in the mix!
No not like that…

Bill Cosby, Abbott and Costello, Peter Seller’s Inspector Clouseau (“ah, the ol, pull over to the side of the road ploy, eh?”, “swine door!!!” “that man is very ‘now-now’, let me tell you!” “Inspector, what kind of bomb was that?” Clouseau: “The exploding kind!” “You have received a bimp on the head!”)Bill Murray—What About Bob?

Peter Kay
Alan Carr
Eddie Izzard
French and Saunders
Victoria Wood
Michael McIntire (I’m not sure if that’s how you spell his name!)

I’m sure there are more but I can’t think of them right now!

Rodney Dangerfield and Sam Kinnison and are tied for the greatest. Most comedians have Rodney up there too. He had that quintissential characteristic of an amazing comic in that he was funny just to look at too. The greatest comic has to have the plight of the everyman aspect: the Charlie Brown connection. That Sam Kinnison bit about Jesus is just amazing too.

Does no one else love Bill Murray and Steve Martin? Are we only talking stand-ups, or comedians in general?

@youresocool Love those guys. Here’s my favorite Murray movie.

Robin Williams, Steve Martin, Melissa Peterman, Will Smith, Damon Wayans, Ellen Degeneros, Jim Belushi….....sorry got carried away, so hard to choose just one.

Your question is very good, but very difficult to answer by older people.

I’ve turned 66 on Dec.24th, but I’m of a youngish look, so nobody has ever rated me older than 65. The highest age of mine was estimated by a young girl and it was 65 years and 6 months. At that time I was 55.

What I mean to say is, I’ve seen so many comedians in my life, and that even in .4 countries – which is former Yugoslavia, today’s North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Germany – as well as world most famous comedians, so it’s very hard for me to make up my mind.

How can I say that the best comedian was Charlie Chaplin, when Jerry Lewis was as good as him? Or how can I pick Louis de Funes or Peter Sellers in Inspector Clouseau, when Rowan Atkinson was as good as them?

Besides, there have been so many comedians in the countries mentioned above, who were as good as the world’s most famous ones, but they had the bad luck of having been born and having performed in countries unknown to the West.

Otto Waalkes and Hape Kerkeling from Germany, Miodrag Petrovic – Ckalja from former Yugoslavia, Duo Trio from North Macedonia or Slavi Trifunov from Bulgaria have made me laugh to tears.

Maybe the most versatile comedian one was Hape Kerkeling. I’m saying this because I enjoy intellectual humor more than trivial one. Meaning, I like humor that contains parody or satire.

EDIT:

I forgot to mention Bill Cosby and the trio in the movie ‘Analyze This’ (Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal and his beautiful wife Lisa Kudrow. Or Bill Murray in “The Groundhog Day”, or the cast in ‘Meet The Fockers’. There also was a series in the 80’s, I forgot its title, it was played in house where there lived several people, and there was a plumber who made most of the jokes there. A tall and slim young man. In my country the series was titled ‘Man In The House’, but I can’t locate it on the internet. It’s not ‘Man About The House’, the characters are not the same.