Posted on 04/12/2013 6:00:41 PM PDT by fhayek
In a recent thread about the death of Jonathan Winters, it was stated that he was one of the funniest men who ever lived. He WAS funny, but he wouldn't be on my list of the funniest who have ever lived. And by "ever", I mean since the dawn of recorded media. My list of the funniest people who have ever lived would be as follows:
Groucho Marx
John Cleese
Mike Myers
Bill Cosby
Peter Cook
Rowan Atkinson
Charlie Chaplin
George Carlin
Mel Brooks
Woody Allen
Douglas Adams.
The sole criterion is that they make me laugh. Hard. Everybody is different. What makes you laugh might make me cringe. And verse visa. So list away...
Henny Youngman, Bill Cosby, Sam Kinison, Mitch Hedberg—going oldest to newest. Cheech and Chong had their moments too.
I’m guessing you meant WILL Rogers?
I also caught Joan Rivers a few times, back when she was just starting out, playing a few small clubs in the Village. She was outstanding.
I think with comedy, the type of venue is a major component of success.
I liked the Smothers Brothers and the Laugh In gang (Rowan and Martin, Goldie Hawn, Ruth Buzzi).
I also liked the original SNL cast: John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radnor, Jane Curtin, Chevy Chase.
A lot of the credit goes to the writers, namely the late Michael O'Donoghue.
Another woman that really cracked me up was Lilly Tomlin.
Foster Brooks, Don Rickles...
Paul Lynde, Stephen Stucker...
Rodney Dangerfield, Sam Kinison...
John Candy, John Belushi...
Ted Knight...
The funniest man who’s ever lived (rarely a woman) is someone you’ve known personally, not somebody you watch from a distance on a screen reading somebody else’s jokes that he, like the very unfunny Bob Hope, paid $15 each. Maybe your uncle. Or your brother.
The funniest guy I’ve ever known, or one of them, has been Ken, with whom I worked at a very stressful job for a couple years. He could make a joke out of anything and everything said to him. We two formed a comedy team there at work, so much so that I would sometime accompany him outside for his fag breaks, when we couldn’t stop laughing. But Ken, as it turned out, had an ego, was a yes man, at this very difficult job where one had to stand up for himself once in a while at least, and one time he got upset and offended about something trivial like a seat arrangement, stopped speaking to me and others, and during a recession quit without prospects for another job. Typical prima donna comedian, yes? The job became unbearable without Ken.
Firesign Theater. Can’t remember the individual names.
I like Dave Foley from The Kids in the Hall and Newsradio....
Bad Doctor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa6tEkSUehs
1. Bob Newhart : Abe Lincoln’s speech.
2. Mitch Hedberg :”I didn’t lose a leg in Viet Nam”
3. Buster Keaton : when a building fell on him.
4. Bill Cosby : driving a stick shift in S.F.
5. Harold Lloyd : in “ Hot Water”
6. Brenden Fraser : Bedazzled (2000)
7. Dustin Hoffman : “Little Big Man”
I can think of more but the one finger I type with is tired, {Good post}
My parents took me to see one of her one-woman shows about 30 years ago and I just was bored stiff.
The funniest people who have ever lived:
Me. (I’m a regular laugh riot. If you had ever met me, you’d know...)
Some of my favorite famous funny people, in no particular order —
Steven Wright
James Herriot
Johnny Carson
Carol Burnett
Bill Cosby
George Carlin
Ellen Degeneres
Billy Crystal
Dennis Miller
Bill Murray
Jimmy Fallon
Robin Williams
Terry Bradshaw
Bob Hope
Gilda Radner
Seth Meyers
Will Rogers
James Thurber
Jimmy Stewart
Sally Field
Paul Lynde
... ... ...
135 posts and not one mention of brother Dave Gardner, Dr. Irwin Corey, Justin Wilson or Spike Jones.
Dang I’m old.
Roy was actually very slye, but was often upstaged by Trigger and Bullet.
Whoopi Goldberg!
Wait, did you say funniest or smelliest?
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