100 Funniest People on Earth (revised)
82
On or in the Earth anyway...
1. George Carlin - The undisputed champion because he was the reason most of the others decided to do it. There actually could be some dignity in this profession of stand-up comedy. When he was honored on HBO for his lifetime of achievement he was humble & witty and then he said something that shocked me. He looked at unproven host Jon Stewart and said "I expect big things from you." I remember thinking as Stewart was clearly moved by the comment, that he was just being nice Jon. You're average at best. Now almost 10 years later, Jon Stewart keeps the country sane on a daily basis with his Daily Show. Props to the master. George sees what we seemingly can not. We don't always agree, but I love him like a father.
2. Bill Cosby - Bill could have been #1. Except for one minor detail. He can't help but open his mouth. His criticism of every other black comedian to follow him is just petulant. Other than that though, there is no one funnier really. He is more versatile than Carlin to be sure. His hilarious albums are still funny. If you haven't heard "To My Brother Russell, whom I slept with" then you should be excited. When you hear it, you will never be the same. 'Cause you'll wet your pants and hyperventilate at the same time. His nostalgia about childhood is universal even though none of us ever played BUCK-BUCK with Fat Albert, or tried to raise five kids in a funny intelligent way like he did with Theo and Rudy on Cosby Show. P.S. Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids was the best show around when I grew up.
3. Bill Murray. The proof is everywhere! Do i really need to list his best films. Pick a decade. Same story. Comedic genius.
4. Will Ferrell The guy just keeps on climbing the charts. His commitment to character and to living in the moment of that character's lives has given us some of the funniest ad-lib lines ever.
5. Chris Rock - From Pookie in New Jack City to CB-4 to Dogma> the guy did movies. From Bring The Pain to Bigger and Blacker to Never Scared> the guy did Stand-Up. Both Time magazine and Entertainment Weekly have named him funniest man in America, he won Grammys making numerous funny albums, he had funny characters on SNL and he hosted The 77th Annual Academy Awards> he's got acclaim. Two Groundbreaking TV Shows....so why isn't he higher? Have you seen his movies lately?
6. Steve Martin - The Wild and Crazy guy has changed his approach but had remained amusing until recently when he caught whatever Chevy caught that made him unfunny from here on out.
7. Robin Williams - Great in short doses. Does way too many films to be taken seriously at all as far as consistency. Take a year off, dude. Take 5!
8. Jim Carrey
9. Eddie Murphy
10. Woody Allen
11. Steven Wright
12. Richard Pryor
13. Whoopi Goldberg
14. Lewis Black
15. Trey Parker
16. Ellen DeGeneres
17. Larry David
18. Jon Stewart
19. Billy Crystal
20. Sarah Silverman
21. Ricky Gervais
22. Redd Foxx
23. Sam Kinison
24. Bill Maher
25. John Cleese
26. Bob Newhart
27. Lucille Ball
28. Bill Hicks
29. John Belushi
30. Rodney Dangerfield
31. Bernie Mac
32. Dudley Moore
33. Jackie Mason
34. Steve Carell
35. Tom Hanks
36. Christopher Guest
37. Sacha Baron Cohen
38. Phil Hartman
39. Vince Vaughn
40. David Letterman
41. Nathan Lane
42. Chevy Chase
43. Buddy Hackett
44. John Ritter
45. Stephen Colbert
46. Jerry Seinfeld
47. Fred Willard
48. Leslie Neilsen
49. Rowan Atkinson
50. Wanda Sykes
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51. Conan O' Brien
52. Dana Carvey
53. Owen Wilson
54. Dan Castellaneta
55. Roseanne Barr
56. Catherine O'Hara
57. Penn Gillette
58. Ben Stiller
59. Eugene Levy
60. Don Rickles
61. David Cross
62. Albert Brooks
63. Gary Shandling
64. Damon Wayans
65. Bob Nelson
66. Christopher Lloyd
67. Sheri Oteri
68. Andrew 'Dice' Clay
69. Jason Alexander
70. George Burns
71. Denis Leary
72. Jay Leno
73. Danny DeVito
74. Howie Mandel
75. Hank Azaria
76. Jon Lovitz
77. Dennis Miller
78. Gilbert Gottfried
79. Chris Farley
80. Lenny Bruce
81. Martin Short
82. Louis CK
83. Andy Kaufman
84. Ray Romano
85. Parkey Posey
86. D.L. Hughley
87. Gene Wilder
88. Gilda Radner
89. Larry Miller
90. David Spade
91. Tracey Ullman
92. Dave Chappelle
93. Artie Lange
94. Martin Lawrence
95. Rainn Wilson
96. Taylor Negron
97. Billy Connelly
98. Norm McDonald
99. John Goodman
100. The Jerky Boys
Who cracks you up? Any glaring omissions?
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Comments
I can not believe that I left Lovitz off! I'm fixing it. I no longer find Dave Chappelle funny. I know I used to. I will delete Mencia for ya though becuse I wasn't exactly committed to him either. Lovitz for Mencia. Ah, The Sytem works.
I agree with you Chapelle was great until he sold out, now I can't watch anything he does. I'm glad you had two of my faves Lewis Black and Denis Leary on there. Joe Rogan is another guy I love since I saw a stand up dvd he did in '01 I think. He's not top 100 material but that performance was funny as hell.
up and comer Ralphie Mays and semi-established Ron White.
I'll look out for ralphie mays but White, is he a 'git her done' guy like Foxworthy and the cable guy? If so, he probably won't make it on here, but you never know, I could love him tomorrow if he's any good.
and Rogan jormins? I'm so used to him being a punchline rather a joke teller. I'll look for that too.
I tried to enjoy the O&A comedy show in Philly it was just vulgarities and insults. at a friend behest, checked out dane cook too. He 's awful. That Pale Guy(?), stephen lynch and saget and I was unimpressed.
Ron White is the "they call me tater salad" guy, but yeah, blue collar comedy. get er done is larry the cable guy, not a fav of mine.
Ralphie Mays is a hoot and just on the top of a rise. You should check him out.
Mos def. Thanks for that l0unn. Says here that Mays is a Last Comic Standing guy, cool.
p.s. I almost listed Harry Shearer on here too from The Simpsons & Spinal Tap
Trivia Q: what is Cheif Wiggum's first name and the first name of his wife?
BILLY CONNOLY, is an outstandingly funny guy too, but hey everyone seems to miss the Scottish ones in top lists LOL.....jimmy
in for billy connoly. he's great. if I'm not mistaken he does the intros on friday nights indies on IFC. really a doll. :)
I can't do tv trivia. I only watch news, indies and like bravo and a&e. yes, I'm that kind of tv elitist. :o
That is why I don't know 3/4 of the celebs in compu's birthday threads. :p
Billy Connelly is so worth bumping someone for. He has that great line about how good he is at cursing.
But whom shall we delete?Hmmmm Maybe Larry Miller? Carrot Top?
carrot top. omg. he belongs on the list of "most annoying", not "most funny".
This is fun!
TV Question: Did any body catch Eli Stone after Lost last night?
My friend had a juicy guest starring part in it. Curious if anyone else saw.
Fantastic Hub! I'm liking Sara Silverman alot lately. Jeffrey Ross should be on there somewhere. How about a separate category for Martin Lawrence? I love his stand-up, but it seems that every other movie he does sucks pretty badly.
Robin Williams?
Don Rickles needs to be moved waaaaaaay up the list in my opinion... no way Bob Newhart is funnier than he is :-)
Also, Foster Brooks needs some honors here too... go to youtube and type "foster brooks dean martin" and you'll see the funniest roast speech you've ever seen :-)
Fantastic list.. great job indeed!
~Peter
Jeffrey Ross I know because he's like the one guy at every roast, right?
Never even heard of Foster Brooks though. checking it out asap
Awesome! It's actually the second video down.. just watched it again and laughed again :-) Please let me know what you think DJ :-)
Peter
Yeah, Jeffrey Ross is the guy you see on the Fryer's Club roasts-but research some of his regular standup. He's a genius. Foster Brooks I remember from when I was a kid. He did this drunk guy kind of act. It was really good, but weird, as if he were alive today he wouldn't be able to do something like that on tv anymore.
Drunks were witty and fun in his time. Now, they're alcoholics and dependants. What a world.
LOL Yea it is a twisted world... I rmember my dad would say he thought Foster was really "partially" drunk during his act. I really don't know but man what a funny act :-)
Peter
I think they were all faced on those roasts...especially Dean Martin.
LOL "faced" I totally agree. Dean slurred almost as much as Foster!
Peter
i assume / hope these are not in specific order. love the fact you got steven wright on there. he is my idol. i met him a couple times this summer. great guy. still my idol. trade chappelle for chris rock. he's terrible and annoying. rock only does race jokes and they're not even funny race jokes.
missing: gaffigan, hurwitz, vanreenen, bill burr, george burns, zach galafinakis and martin (dean and demetri). and please don't add joe rogan. he is a piece of trash. also a piece of trash is owen wilson. he failed at killing himself, which is soooo not funny.
there are some others on there that were sleepers and i'm glad they are on there: rickles, wright - not enough people in our generation know or appreciate these geniuses.
dave attell, james lipton, will arnett, david cross, the marx bros.
ATTELL is funny but always watched his show thinking, if I just went around to bars getting drunk with people it would be a lot better than this. (INSOMNIAC) his stand-up is GOOD though.
Who would you replace him with?
TOTALLY DIsAGREE about Chris Rock! Relevant social commentary with a biting wit. But his movies SUUUUUCK. Except NEW JACK CITY, of course
David Cross is #61
you scared me into thinking I left him off.
sorry, didn't see cross on there. attell is one of the best standups out there, though. i know his show was pretty easy to make and anyone could do it, but he did it so well. he has some of the best one-liners and non-sequiturs ever heard w/ ears. i would trade attell for wilson (owen) any day. all these actors have their lines written for them by funny writers. because you can read a piece of paper w/ funny things on it does not make you funny. the only people from seinfeld who should be on here is jerry himself and larry david. sam kinison just yells, which is annoying and not funny. david spade is also annoying and not funny. he is carrot top minus the fire bush.
billyblogthornton you make too many ponits for me to ignore!
ACTION must be taken.
You're wrong about Owen Wilson because he wrote BOTTLE ROCKET and his character Dignan was one of the funniest roles of all-time. If you missed it.
You make a good point about the Seinfeld actors though. When have they ever been funny besides that show?
Sam Kinison is not just a yeller though. He's the Johnny Cash of Comedians!
If I was to drop Julia who would you insist that I add?
if you drop julia louis, i would add any of the mentioned people, but if i had to pick one, i would pick george burns, cause he's old school and was a funny man till the day he died at 100 years old. he began in vaudeville, which was the origination of american comedy as we know it.
if not burns, i would go w/ attell. he is the best comedian on the list. bill burr is also terrific. i will have to check out bottle rocket and will re-assess my owen wilson comments. i will also check kinison again and check back with you.
Hey this hub is back up!
No Fred Allen? I know he was mostly radio back in the day, but he was a great one liner/ad libber.
Carol Burnette is a wonderful comedian and she cracks me up with her show. She deserves a spot.
Carol Burnette gets NOTHING because she, a veteran of parody actually tried to sue Family Guy for doing a parody of HER. Now THAT is unfunny and lame!
Sorry 'Queen's take on Opera', but no cigar.
Louis CK. Most under-appreciated comedian possibly in history.
Yeah...I think i may have to add Louis CK but if I do who comes down?
Tim Conway, Abbot and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and Don Knotts.
Andy Kaufman probably should be nudged up ahead of quite a few of those people
why is Rowan Atkinson not the first funniest person?????
Obviously an Americans view on what's funny is needed to agree with your choices! Is Tom Hanks funny?! By the way have you ever heard of the Irish comedian Tommy Tiernan ? He is by far one of the top 5 funniest and most original comedians ever. A lot of the people on your list are very safe in their comedy style and are not particularly funny at all, Ray Romano for instance. On the plus side putting Bill Murray in your top 5 is an excellent choice.
why is chris farely so high, next to will ferrell, probably the funniest person to ever come out of saturday night live. i dont know just surprised me to have sarah silverman 20 and farely 79?! ouch
DJ I love ya but Denis Leary definitely deserves to be higher .
uh....JAck black?
I second galifinakis, arnett, i agree farley should be higher...but not at sara silvermans expense. and kaufman should probably be higher. i dont remember seeing conan obrien? oversight on my part???
great list though.
Really tough to put a list like this on. But I can't believe the king of improv, Jonathan Winters isn't on here.
You mean Mearth from Mork & Mindy. He's a genius.
I have been meaning to update this for awhile!
I like Robin Williams but not on the funny side. I like him serious and I love his movies!
How sad for you. Nanu Nanu!
I love these lists! You put something up and get slaughtered! No one person's opinion is right yet we all fight tooth and nail to defend our own. Personally, I'd rate some of our British talent a wee bit higher - I think that Ricky Gervais is the highest in your list - he is as we say, wet-the-bed-funny. Never understood the appeal of Cosby, but Robin Williams, Steve Martin and Bill Murray are worthy of their ranking in your list. Murray for example is that rare American - ie one who gets and does irony! No Pythons?
i think russell peters should be in top 5
Nice list. I think you missed an important one though. Peter Sellers was one of the funniest people ever to walk the face of the Earth. He really paved the way for comics like Jim Carrey ande Dana Carvey. He was the absolute master of that kind of voice & character-driven comedy.
Seth macfarlane
Top 5 should be:
1.Robin williams
2.Seth macfarlane
3.Rowan atkinson
4.Ricky gervais
5.Will ferrell
Where is Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage) or Billy Connelly? The rest of the English speaking world outside America would ,as likely, put them in the top ten.
Dude Charlie Chaplin should be on that list he's supposed to be in the top ten.
bigboimann says:
2 years ago
Great list, but some of those names need to be re-arranged. Dave Chapelle needs to be moved up. Jon Lovitz needs to be added, Carlos Mencia deleted, Flavor Flav added, Katt Williams added.