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Favourite comedians

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backontrack

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We all need to laugh a bit in this day and age, so, who makes you laugh? You can share favourite 'bits' here; standup, clips from panel shows, sitcom snippets, whatever tickles your funnybone.

One of the best comedians today is Eddie Izzard. Here is his fantastic Death Star Canteen sketch (does contain strong language).

 
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61653 HTAFC

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Agree Izzard is brilliant, though I didn't think he did stand-up much any more. If we're talking all-time* then no list should omit people like Dave Allen and Bill Hicks. Even Ben Elton was hilarious once...

Currently Jim Jefferies is someone I find both funny and clever, whereas whilst Milton Jones is funny (in a very different way) on Mock the Week I'm not sure I could sit through a 90 minute show.

*= what do we do about those who've partaken in extra-curricular activities, as we now know? Cosby was never very funny anyway so no loss, but Louis C.K was and arguably still is. I suppose that his indiscretions weren't at the level of Cosby anyway though- more sad and pathetic than monstrous.
 

lyndhurst25

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Stewart Lee is the anti-Izzard. I'm sure that all Scotch people will appreciate his act, even though he's let himself go recently.

 

MidnightFlyer

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Frankie Boyle was absolutely superb back in the day, though he never recovered from leaving Mock the Week. I'm not even sure what he's up to these days.

Al Murray is rather good I find, some of the FUKP stuff he did back in 2015 is well worth a look.
 

Up_Tilt_390

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I quite like my comedians to be bold and daring with their jokes, so it's no surprise that I like ones such as Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr. I just love the shock value of really offensive jokes, and while I won't post any on here I won't hesitate to tell them at a party (unless it's full of people I don't know, but then I wouldn't be going anyway bar a few minor exceptions). Although, I did like Lee Evans when he was active, and I did enjoy going to a live show and seeing him.

Ultimately, I can't really say who my favourite comedian would be, but I am likely to enjoy those whose jokes have that anti-establishment, politically incorrect, and just maybe a hint of racial and sexual stereotypes in them, provided of course they are just jokes with no actual malicious intent. Although I must say, Milton Jones is an anomaly for me because his humour is so simple that it kind of makes me laugh, especially when he said on Mock the Week "the Scottish people have spoken... did anybody understand what they said?".
 

Macwomble

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Sir Kenneth Arthur Dodd.......still going strong at 90....and still one of, if not, the funniest men around (IMHO).
 
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bspahh

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Frankie Boyle was absolutely superb back in the day, though he never recovered from leaving Mock the Week. I'm not even sure what he's up to these days.

He has done a couple of shows for BBC Iplayer. He has a couple of free MP3 files from recent shows at https://www.frankieboyle.com/ They are uncensored and there are some bits which are too offensive to be broadcast. I liked some bits, and not others.

There was an interesting interview with him and Richard Osman in 2014

He is intelligent and articulate. When he makes offensive jokes, it isn't random abuse, but carefully crafted abuse.
 

341o2

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Starting with radio comedy....

The Goon show. Harry Secombe (Neddie....you can't fool me I'm too stupid...Seagoon)

Round the Horne which made the doublre entendre an art form
From a James Bond sendup. Brian Horrocks calls secret agent Horne

"My secretary, Miss Golightly and I have been at UNO all day - can you get here at once? - We'll be carrying on until the small hours"
"These photos are worrying us - Horne (Laughs) "Miss Golightly could catch a cold doing that" - Horrocks (embarassed laugh) Those were taken on the MI5 outing to Southend"

ISIRTA described as a radio custard pie, for example from Tales of the Circus or Life under the Medium sized top...

And so a series of accidents took place....someone fed the elephant sennapods....and everyone was covered in confusion...
"Rudi...I understand when the elephant was fed sennapods....you were behind it"

Tim Brooke Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie went on to TV and the Goodies, of which Scatty Safari with its sendups of pandas, Tony Blackburn and Rolf Harris...or Kung Fu Capers with Bill Oddie as the Grand Master of the ancient martial art of Ecky Thump - black puddings (looking at the ingrediants - 200 - oh poor little tom kittens)
 

TheNewNo2

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The ones who come to the top of my head are Aisling Bea, Sarah Silverman, Stephen Colbert, Adam Hills, Mitchell & Webb.

I used to enjoy Russell Howard, but his jokes got too puerile. Frankie Boyle I detest - I don't doubt that his jokes are scathing, but he can't seem to make any jokes which are not actively offensive and obscene. If you're nothing but offensive and obscene, it loses its effect.
 

Bedpan

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Sir Kenneth Arthur Dodd.......still going strong at 90....and still one of, if not, the funniest men around (IMHO).

In years gone by, when I was in my 20s and he was singing songs like Tears for Souvenirs I used to dislike Ken Dodd quite intensely. Fast forward 40 years or so and I saw him perform on TV a few years ago and thought he was absolutely brilliant, and then had the good fortune to see one of his live shows (at High Wycombe) about two or three years ago. He was on stage on his own for about 4 hours (apart from a few minutes when a woman who I think is his partner came on to sing a song or two), intensely funny from start to finish, no swearing or crudity, just good clean jokes a lot of which were at his own expense. Tried to see him again when he was at Leicester earlier this year but it was fully booked. Quite understandably at his age, he doesn't seem to be venturing to venues down south nowadays.
 

DarloRich

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Sir Kenneth Arthur Dodd.......still going strong at 90....and still one of, if not, the funniest men around (IMHO).

a man about as funny as having a leg off.

I quite like my comedians to be bold and daring with their jokes, so it's no surprise that I like ones such as Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr. I just love the shock value of really offensive jokes, and while I won't post any on here I won't hesitate to tell them at a party (unless it's full of people I don't know, but then I wouldn't be going anyway bar a few minor exceptions). Although, I did like Lee Evans when he was active, and I did enjoy going to a live show and seeing him.

Jimmy Carr is about as "bold and daring" as a wet weekend in Bognor. His entire act is that he has a smart suit. Jimmy Carr - offensive - don't be silly. An effete oxbridge southerner pretending to be a comic.

Frankie Boyle is only offensive if you are are unable to deal with bad language. His humour is eviscerating, pointed and hard hitting.
 
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61653 HTAFC

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If you find Lee Evans funny and you're old enough to drink alcohol, you haven't been drinking enough. If he's a comedian then I'm in the running for the Ballon d'Or.
 

DarloRich

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But can still do a five-hour show at 90 years old.

Superb longevity and energy - just not very funny imho. I understand that many love Ken Dodd. I don't. I don't see what is funny about him.

If you find Lee Evans funny and you're old enough to drink alcohol, you haven't been drinking enough. If he's a comedian then I'm in the running for the Ballon d'Or.

His act seems to be that he gurns. A lot.
 

bspahh

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Comedy depends a lot on the context. If you don't understand the setup, then it might be a brilliant joke, but it won't make you laugh.

I really like I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, and I've listened to 400-500 shows. When the joke is singing one song to the tune of another, and you don't recognise either the tune or the lyrics, then its just a bad singer, singing a really bad song.

The problem with sitcoms is that it takes a lot of time to write a good script. There were only ever 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers, and the second series came out over 3 years after the first one.

From recent stuff, I really like Taskmaster on Dave.
 

cactustwirly

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I like most comedians. My favourites include Michael MacIntyre, Jack Whitehall & John Bishop.
I do also like Frankie Boyle, but I've only seen him once, on HIGNFY.
 

Kite159

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The ones who come to the top of my head are Aisling Bea, Sarah Silverman, Stephen Colbert, Adam Hills, Mitchell & Webb.

I used to enjoy Russell Howard, but his jokes got too puerile. Frankie Boyle I detest - I don't doubt that his jokes are scathing, but he can't seem to make any jokes which are not actively offensive and obscene. If you're nothing but offensive and obscene, it loses its effect.

Frankie Boyle is the only comedian I have seen live (going back a few years) which has had bouncers at the side of the stage ready to throw out anybody daring to heckle, he can give out abuse but can't take in abuse and would walk off stage until the heckler is removed. Some comedians would bounce back abuse at said hecklers to go "off-script", but it felt like Mr Boyle was working from a rough script and wouldn't really interact with the crowd (other than to throw a couple insults at people unlucky enough to be in the front row when he walked on stage).
 

northwichcat

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Eddie Izzard and Stewart Lee would be on my list of comedians to avoid along with people like Noel Fielding, Ricky Gervais and Russell Kane. I'd also add Stewart Francis to that list - I found him funny the first time I heard some of his jokes but once you've heard one set of his jokes the others are very predictable.

I like Michael McIntyre, John Bishop and Dave Gorman. I also like Milton Jones and Nina Conti for something different but feel in both cases sometimes they're brilliant, other times they are average. If you include not-well-known comedians then I also like Andy Field and Harriet Dyer.

I once saw Jon Richardson - he was an unusual comedian in person. Normally comedians interact with the audience, he seemed to think the audience was made up of baboons that would attack him if the looked at them directly.
 
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DarloRich

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Eddie Izzard is superb live. Very funny and very intelligent.

I think my favorites are:

Vic and Bob
Eddie Izzard
Frankie Boyle
Billy Connolly
Mark Thomas
Ross Noble
John Bishop
David Mitchell

Ones I cant stand:

Jimmy Carr
Michael McIntyre
Ricky Gervaise
Lee Evans
Jack Whitehall
David Walliams
 
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TheNewNo2

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Gervais is not in any way funny to me. To me what sums him up is Live 8 - he came on stage and said (paraphrasing) "The G8 have agreed to wipe out all the debt. No, just kidding, we can stay here and have more music!". He treated it like the music was the point rather than just the attention grabber, and that utterly sickened me. I have never found anything he's done funny, and I wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire.
 

furnessvale

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Gervais is not in any way funny to me. To me what sums him up is Live 8 - he came on stage and said (paraphrasing) "The G8 have agreed to wipe out all the debt. No, just kidding, we can stay here and have more music!". He treated it like the music was the point rather than just the attention grabber, and that utterly sickened me. I have never found anything he's done funny, and I wouldn't **** on him if he were on fire.
The event at Wembley stadium a few years ago showed him for what he is.
He was the warm up "comedian". Arriving royalty were a few minutes late so he was asked to ad lib for five minutes. He was totally flummoxed. Cursing and swearing at the position the organisers had put him in.

ANY northern circuit comedian would have given them a couple of hours. Ken Dodd would have given them 8 hours.
 

northwichcat

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The event at Wembley stadium a few years ago showed him for what he is.
He was the warm up "comedian". Arriving royalty were a few minutes late so he was asked to ad lib for five minutes. He was totally flummoxed. Cursing and swearing at the position the organisers had put him in.

ANY northern circuit comedian would have given them a couple of hours. Ken Dodd would have given them 8 hours.

A northern audience would have booed Gervais off - if he was lucky.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Gervais is not in any way funny to me. To me what sums him up is Live 8 - he came on stage and said (paraphrasing) "The G8 have agreed to wipe out all the debt. No, just kidding, we can stay here and have more music!". He treated it like the music was the point rather than just the attention grabber, and that utterly sickened me. I have never found anything he's done funny, and I wouldn't **** on him if he were on fire.

The event at Wembley stadium a few years ago showed him for what he is.
He was the warm up "comedian". Arriving royalty were a few minutes late so he was asked to ad lib for five minutes. He was totally flummoxed. Cursing and swearing at the position the organisers had put him in.

ANY northern circuit comedian would have given them a couple of hours. Ken Dodd would have given them 8 hours.

A northern audience would have booed Gervais off - if he was lucky.

I think you may have all missed the subtlety of his approach there. Gervais, much like both Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr, plays on an anti-hero image a bit. The Live8 bit in particular doesn't read as if it was intended to be taken at face value.
You can decide whether or not you find something funny, but it isn't always the fault of the comedian if you don't laugh.
 

northwichcat

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You can decide whether or not you find something funny, but it isn't always the fault of the comedian if you don't laugh.

Whether people laugh depends on 4 things:
1. How good the joke is.
2. How well it is delivered.
3. Whether you fully understand the joke.
4. Whether others laugh - laughter's addictive so you might find yourself laughing at something when you're with someone else that you wouldn't laugh at if you were watching on the TV by yourself.
 

northwichcat

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Give me a Les Dawson monologue any day over today's alternative so called comedians.

His joke along the lines of:

The politicians say we can go to hell, well they should know what it's like - they're the one's building it for us!

Is probably more relevant today than when he originally said it.
 

beeza1

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Most of my favourites are no longer with us and, probably wouldn't pass today's PC brigade! Bernard Manning, Dave Allen, Frank Carson etc.
Of the current crop there is only Peter Kay who I would pay to see, but being a Yorkshireman there is no way I would pay the current asking price for tickets!
The likes of Eddie Izzard, Alan Carr, Michael McIntyre et al are dreadful, as for Ricky Gervais, to me he is probably the least funny man on the planet
 
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