Entertainment For Lively Minds
Funny People
Posted by Joe R on 29 April 2010 - 1:01pm.
Simple question: who, in your opinion, is the funniest comedian currently treading the boards?
Although his latest show isn't his best, I still don't think I can look past Dylan Moran as being the best stand-up around.
Over to you...
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Stewart
Lee
Sean
Lock.
Not offensive, not edgy, just daft and very very funny. And a lovely bloke as well.
Dara O'Briain
Makes it look effortless. Clever, knowing and yet still engaging and inclusive.
Eddie Izzard
Closely followed by the three above in the same order, Stewart Lee, Sean Lock & Dara O'Briain.
Bill Bailey
Ross Noble
Eddie Izzard would get my vote
Also Swedes Henrik Schyffert, Magnus Betnér and Fredrik Lindström.
Current favourite...
Micky Flanagan. Seeing him again on 8 May.
I watch stand-up for a living.
Seconded...
...on the 8th May are you just going out? Or out out?
Micky's New York/cockney accent/come in your house routine is side-splittingly funny.
Hurrah!
Good to know someone else is on to him. The first time I saw him do the 'Come in your house' routine, maybe four or five years ago, was quite a revelation.
I also love the stuff about his friend returning home from holiday in Thailand, warning that pointing with the foot is offensive. 'Oi! You!'
On 8 May we will go out to see him, then out out afterwards. He's a lovely fellow, too.
Thirded
Though my friend Jakki tells the "Are you out..." routine better
Stewart Lee
or Daniel Kitson
still treading the boards
Ken Dodd
Have seen Ken Dodd a few times...
... and it's astonishing to behold. Last time was a few years ago and he was on-stage for almost 4 hours, he is a machine.
I'm not going to tell anyone here what to find funny, but anyone who's remotely interested in British stand-up should try and catch a genuine legend (one of the last) while he's still with us. He's 83 this year and still on tour! Dates every month for the rest of the year at http://www.kendoddshows.com/.
Norman
Collier
N--man
-ollier!
Off---on again.
A Few Of Note
- Sean Lock (as previously mentioned)
- Bill Bailey
- Jimmy Carr ("controversial", but I like him)
- Tim Vine (how many one liners? Can I remember any?)
- Michael McIntyre (seems to be getting a bit of critical baclkash at the moment, but I still find his stuff funny)
- Rhod Gilbert (How can anyone be so annoyed about such apparently mundane stuff?)
Frank Skinner
Eddie Izzard
Recent stuff may not have been as good as some of the earlier stuff, but still one of the best out there.
No contest
It's Daniel Kitson.
The people that tend to make me laugh...
are notable for the fact that they're not comedians. Tom Baker is a very funny man, as is Steve Davis.
Jim Davidson?
Or perhaps Roy Chubby Brown. Too blue for TV you know...
Not sure if he's a "stand up" as such
but Mark Steel's programmes at 6.30pm on Wednesday evenings on Radio 4 where he is travelling around the country visiting different places and talking amusingly about them for half an hour (Mark Steel's In Town) are consistently funny, and must have been hard work (relatively speaking) to pull together.
another vote for Kitson
also Alun Cochrane and Jon Richardson.
louis ck
Check him out on youtube.
Agree
His dvd about turning 40 was hilarious.
We dont get many here
because most south africans idea of humour is leon schuster. Anyway Jim Jeffries cleared the joint in 20 mins. Those of us left had a bloody great night.
If it`s political Americans you want
Bill Maher is hard to beat.
Izzard for sheer comedic genius, inventiveness and love of language and
Ricky Gervais stand up isn`t bad either.
new
Daniel Kitson was funny when I seen him about 6 years ago but i haven't heard of him since.
John Bishop is also very funny. And my wife who isnt really into comedians thinks he is great. Sean Lock has went off the boil a bit as has Johnny Vegas sadly as they were brilliant a few years back.Same with Eddie Izzard.
Ross Noble
is one of the few comedians who can have me literally crying with laughter, with stomach cramps, splitting sides and all the other general symptoms that come with the joy of mirth
Other favourites include Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey, Dave Gorman John Bishop and Tim Vine. Vine, especially, is great at what he does. The art of hitting the audience in the face with punchline after punchline is brilliant as far as I'm concerned.
Yes, but....
...I've seen him live and cried. I've listened to his radio travels podcast and snored. I've watched his motorbiking round australia TV series and wept in frustration, his off-stage travelogue was tedious in the extreme, and the only interest was seeing how a random idea (in early gestation and poorly thought out) would turn into a killer piece in that night's show. He only really functions on stage it seems.
Favourite Tim Vine gags...
I went in to this record shop and said to the bloke behind the counter, 'What have you got by The Doors?' He said, 'A bucket of sand and a fire blanket'.
----
So, I got a job as the Duke of Edinburgh's hairdresser. On the first day, I drove up to the gates at Buckingham Palace and said to the policeman, 'I'm here to cut Prince Philip's hair, can you let me in to the car park, please?'
He said, 'Have you got a permit?' I said, 'No, I'm just taking a bit off the back.'
Exit Signs?
They're on the way out
all the family like
Rhod Gilbert...
any comedians that create something from nothing, picking up on the observational.
question ; are there any ladies that are as good as the chaps. they seem to just extract the urine from themselves.
all the family like
Rhod Gilbert...
any comedians that create something from nothing, picking up on the observational.
question ; are there any ladies that are as good as the chaps. they seem to just extract the urine from themselves.
all the family like
Rhod Gilbert...
any comedians that create something from nothing, picking up on the observational.
question ; are there any ladies that are as good as the chaps. they seem to just extract the urine from themselves.
Lady...
Sarah Millican is excellent.
Agreed
I will add Shappi Khorsandi to the list too.
Agreed, Agreed
and add Lucy Porter
I also have...
...a soft spot for Jo Brand, still. The last time I caught Countdown, which was quite a while ago, she was incredibly funny in Dictionary Corner. She did a stand-up spot at a charity gig I attended not long ago and still has it.
And I miss Linda Smith. She was terribly good, especially on her particular area of London, with its local newspaper, The Newham Murderer.
'Twas a few years ago.
A mate of mine was knobbing Lucy Porter, and had it bad for her.
A group of us, including Said Mate, went off sailing for the weekend. We moored up for lunch on the Saturday and Mate insisted that we put Lucy And Friends Radio 2 lunchtime comedy show on. So we did. The five of us listened for a bit. We sat there, being polite, listening.
There wasn't a lot of laughing. None at all, actually.
Eventually, someone had to say it.
"Dave, is this supposed to be funny?"
It was then open season and ten minutes of inspired pisstaking took place.
The point was then raised that Dave had laughed more in the ten minutes of abuse than he had done at the preceding twenty of his beloved's finest work.
Lucy is, by all accounts, a lovely girl but I don't find her funny.
Quite, Lenny.
Lucy Porter is clearly a nice girl - you can tell from her demeanour. But you'll hear nary a snigger from my direction when she's being funny for money.
I'll throw in Maria Bamford
Mandelson
you've got to just laugh at him
Jim Gaffigan
It's Murray's best friend Jim
I was just watching him on FOTC the other day!
Gaffigan
Never heard of this guy. But Jesus I love that "making the bed" gag... nicely done!
Marcus Brigstocke...
...seems to say a lot of things that I think, but in a much funnier and more lucid manner.
Frank Carson
I ended up in a late night drinking hole in Camden many years back with Frank Carson and Ruby Murray.
He was like this all evening....and I mean that in a good way.
Funny you should ask...
Stewart Lee, Dara O'Briain & Bill Bailey all do it for me.
And we seem to be concentrating on the UK, but I maintain Chris Rock's "Bigger & Blacker" show is the best single stand-up performance of recent years.
Lewis Black
Please buy his albums, they are all brilliant but the best is 'The End of the Universe'.
oh have an up
At the Kilkenny Comedy Festival a few years back, a pal had tickets to a show including the said Mr Black. I'd never seen such a powerhouse of delivery. Honest to God laughs but a hell of a lot of bile in there as well. Lewis Black rocks.
If you want something a bit earthier, there's a chap called Mike Wilmot who can be a hoot. He's utterly filthy, but the delivery. Oh the delivery. Every line shot out with a raspy voice soaked in booze and fags. He's an awfully nice chap too. As I tried to sneak into a post show party at the same festival, he chanced upon me.
'Y'havin' difficulty gettin' past the fuckin' morons on the fuckin' door, my friend?' he wheezed
'yup...'
'Wait a minute, I got my pass somewhere, I'll sort it out...'
Paddy
that was just brilliant - have an up on me. Haven't laughed so much in ages...
Lewis is a genius
That'll be you laughing at the words 'Moo cow fuck milk'
Depends...
If I'm looking for pure observational, highly cynical, sarky, high-brow : it has to be Stewart Lee. Saw him on his last tour and he was brilliant.
For good simple funny, I think Lee Mack is better in his game now than he's ever been. Going to see him in November. It looks like he's following a Michael McIntyre trajectory - i.e funny whilst he's not rammed down your throat every time you turn on the telly, so I'm looking forward to enjoying him before that happens.
Saw McIntyre at a small gig in Stockton just months before the big Live At The Apollo gig that thrust him into the nation's spotlight and he was original, quirky and funny. Now he's part of the wallpaper.
Russell Howard
can reduce me to wheezing jelly, although as he gets more shouty and sweary I'm finding it less so
Yeah, I'm with you on that...
... though I can't work out quite why. I mean, I laughed till I cried at the Lewis Black clip just above - maybe it's because the "fucks" aren't just randomly thrown in to show he's a big boy, they're perfectly timed and part of the gag, whereas with some of our comics, like Russell, it just seems like effect.
Personally I think Billy Connolly, when he was really good back in the 70s/80s, was the funniest man in the world, he could easily reduce me to tears of mirth. But the funniest thing I ever saw him do was on BBC Scotland at tea-time, a kind of "Audience With..." only the audience was a bunch of school kids & he couldn't swear at all. Given his usual act, that was obviously a challenge, but it was one he rose to magnificently. I think I nearly died laughing when I first saw that. I wish they'd repeat it.
Impossible to name just one
Because they're all so different stylistically. But I always like listeningto/watching Dave Gorman, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, Bill Bailey, Ross Noble.
But the latest things I've seen that made me laugh were these:
(I bought one of his CD's on the strength of this; he's very funny indeed)
I still think...
...Frank Skinner takes some beating. This is virtuoso stand-up: old-school, sustained, brilliantly observed and hilarious:
I really like Stewart Lee, Sean Lock and Bill Bailey too. Daniel Kitson is a cracker too.
Everyone knows that the funniest comedians
are your mates at work. When on a roll, workmates (and just mates, generally) are capable of making you howl harder, louder and longer than any so-called 'professional' comedians. It took me a while to come to terms with this, but it happens to be true.
Rhod Gilbert
and Tim Vine
Chris Hendrie
No clips Im afraid and i think his best years are probably behind him, but, on form, unbeatable.
Doug Stanhope
I saw him for the first time
doing inserts on Charlie Brooker's Newswipe. He reminded me of Hicks even then, though I think he more of a cynic that Hicks (who I think was something of a romantic at heart, hard as it is to believe).
Either way, he's pretty bloody good.
Stanhope
is also my current favourite. Very Hicks-ish. He's doing a week in London in September (I think).
I have seen Lock, Gilbert and O'Briain this year and all three were excellent and very different in style. I also really enjoyed Ross Noble last year but completely agree that he should lay off the documentary stuff.
Phil Nichol
Saw him at Latitude last year , had never heard of him before , was bloody hilarious.
Having watched all of the clips above
I found Frank Carson made me laugh the most!
Robin Williams