BS: Your favourite comedian

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: alanabit
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 01:33 PM

Yes, Ronnie Barker was great! No one has mentioned Charlie Chaplin. I believe his influence on comedy will be around for generations to come. The greatest comedian I have ever seen - or will - is virtually unknown outside the busking scene, although he will never be forgotten by anyone lucky enough to have seen him working. Phil Free's influence is at work on other performers, who have never heard of him. I have never seen anyone who was so naturally funny and totally without malice.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: theleveller
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 11:50 AM

oops missed off 'swanny'

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: theleveller
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 11:49 AM

Ronnie Barker. Who else could broadcast this on prime time television and not get a single complaint?

This is the story of Rindercella and her sugly isters.   

   Rindercella and her sugly isters lived in a marge lansion. Rindercella worked very hard frubbing sloors, emptying poss pits, and shivelling shot.   

   At the end of the day, she was knucking fackered.   

   The sugly isters were right bugly astards. One was called Mary Hinge,    and the other was called Betty Swallocks; they were really forrible huckers;they had fetty sweet and fetty swannies. The sugly isters had tickets to go to the ball, but the cotton runts would not let Rindercella go.   

   Suddenly there was a bucking fang, and her gairy fodmother appeared. Her name was Shairy Hithole and she was a light rucking fesbian. She turned a pumpkin and six mite wice into a hucking cuge farriage with six dandy ronkeys who had buge hollocks and dig bicks.   

   The gairy fodmother told Rindercella to be back by dimnlight otherwise, there would be a cucking falamity.   

   At the ball, Rindercella was dancing with the prandsome hince when suddenly the clock struck twelve. "Mist all chucking frighty!!!" said Rindercella, and she ran out tripping barse over ollocks, so dropping her slass glipper.   

   The very next day the prandsome hince knocked on Rindercella's door and the sugly isters let him in. Suddenly, Betty Swallocks lifted her leg and let off a fig bart. "Who's ust jarted??" asked the prandsome hince.

   "Blame that fugly ucker over there!!" said Mary Hinge. When the stinking brown cloud had lifted, he tried the slass glipper on both the sugly isters without success and their feet stucking funk.   

   Betty Swallocks was ducking fisgusted and gave the prandsome hince a knack in the kickers. This was not difficult as he had bucking fuge halls and a hig bard on.   

   He tried the slass glipper on Rindercella and it fitted pucking ferfectly.   

   Rindercella and the prandsome hince were married. The pransome hince lived his life in lucking fuxury, and Rindercella lived hers with a follen

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: olddude
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 11:30 AM

Marx brothers, Oh yea ... never cared for Bob Hope, how about Jerry Lewis ... laughed my face off as a kid. Today, naw

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: GUEST,hilo
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 11:03 AM

Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Billy Connolly, John Cleese, Ronnie Corbett, Jo Brand (sometimes)

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 09:13 AM

Groucho's my all-time favorite, with W.C. Fields a near second. George Carlin was brilliant and no one can match the frenetic stream-of-consciousness of Robin Williams. Of modern day standups, I loved Mitch Hedberg and Dmitri Martin is very funny but lately most of my faves are from the other side of the pond: Billy Connelly, Russell Brand, Ed Byrne, Dylan Moran, Jimmy Carr, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 08:50 AM

... and then we had Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch, Eric Barker, Cyril Fletcher...

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Becca72
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 08:48 AM

George Carlin will forever be my favorite but I also love Bob Marley (local guy), Denis Leary, Gary Gulman and John Heffron (both Last Comic Standing contestants), Steve Martin, Jon Stewart, and the list goes on and on. As a teen and early 20's I watched a LOT of Comedy Central.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 08:46 AM

Interested that nobody has mentioned Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, Jack Benny [tho one mention of Red Skelton, only it called him Skeleton!]. That was surely a vintage generation over there. And how about the Marx Bros, the Mills Bros, the Three Stooges? & all those are Stateside. Over here I grew up with Tommy Handley, Vic Oliver [who did a regular Hi-Gang show with visiting Americans Bebe Daniels & Ben Lyon], Ted Ray, Tommy Trinder, Ronald Frankau, Billy Bennett ~~ just about the tail-end of the old Music Hall tradition. My father had seen such as Marie Lloyd, Dan Leno, Albert Chevalier, Gus Elen... But they, alas, all before my time; tho an aged Nellie Wallace was still going in my childhood in the 30s-40s. And I recall seeing the great Suzette Tarri, as part of audience for a radio show, The Happidrome, in 1943, which had its own resident team of comics, led by Harry Korris.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: olddude
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 08:37 AM

I am with Bill, but I never cared for George Carlin at all. The other for sure ... Spaw is on my list

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Bobert
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 08:09 AM

I'm with Patsy... Richard Pryor...

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: GUEST,Steamin' Willie
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 05:40 AM

Richard Bridge.


(Happy New Year Joe...)

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 05:36 AM

Richard Prior at the Apollo was hilariously funny but because of the content was forbidden by my mother to watch him but recently it has been re-shown and it is still funnier than ever.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 04:55 AM

No one makes me laugh like my own family. My kids usually.

But when my Mom, her twin, my cousin Peggy get around the kitchen table I always take a precautionary trip to the bathroom before I join them.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Ebbie
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 02:48 AM

"...and-don't laugh....Bill Crosby." Janie

Now, was that Bing? *bg*

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 12:46 AM

You're all reminding me of others I liked as well. The question with some of them becomes "are they only a comedian," and if they act all of the time in funny movies, is that the same as being a comedian? Offstage, not in the cinema, are some of these people also funny? I haven't seen interviews with all of them, so I'm just asking.

I've seen Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters in interviews - they can't turn it off. But what about Peter Sellers? I don't remember if I ever saw interviews, if he was the same when he wasn't performing in a film?

One of the guys I remember hearing years ago on talk shows interviews who was incredibly funny was Douglas Adams, but he was a funny writer, not a comedian, in the strictest sense. (Hitchhiker's Guide)

Of course I wouldn't say people can be only one thing, but we get our humor from any different sources, so parsing it out some is interesting.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Janie
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 12:08 AM

I've been more than a bit of a radio and TV media hermit for the past 25-30 years. If it ain't on NPR I ain't heard it.

Other than Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert and Tina Fey, who are all so well known that they can't be missed, I don't know who is doing good and pertinent comedy these days.

From the old days -
Robin Williams (he did at least one fabulous HBO stand-up special)
George Carlin
Steve Martin
Eddie Murphy
Lennie Bruce
Gilda Radner (and just about the whole crew of the first years of Saturday Night Live)
and-don't laugh....Bill Crosby.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 11:56 PM

I am watching for news of my cousin, the only one who is my age. She's just started doing stand-up and I admire her greatly for doing so at the age of 57! If you get a chance in the Salt Lake area, check out Cindy Sisson. She was a riot on the phone, today.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Beer
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 11:28 PM

Ebbie,
I couldn't watch the P....K because he stole my fathers line..

Years ago (I did write the following in some thread.)I was riding in my Dad's Model T when it veered to the left and went in the ditch. I said to Dad ( I was about 3or4)"What happened?" and his reply was "The Devil Made Me Do It".
So when I heard for the second time someone by the name of Flip Wilson making money on my father's invention I was very pissed.
True, but not seriously angry. Just a true story of the past.
Ad.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 11:06 PM

For a long time Flip Wilson was my favorite. Not necessarily his slapstick broad comedy but the stiletto stuff he used to slip in.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Beer
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 10:18 PM

Red Skeleton
Peter Sellers
W.C. Fields
But many more as well.
ad.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Amergin
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 10:12 PM

Stephen Lynch...

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 10:02 PM

Peter Sellers, Bill Cosby, John Cleese.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: maple_leaf_boy
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 09:35 PM

Bob Saget in his HBO special "That Ain't Right". I liked the songs that
he did.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Ed T
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 09:18 PM

Dan Quayle and George W Bush made me laugh.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 09:03 PM

I think Lewis Black is my favorite of those currently performing stand-up. He's highly opinionated about politics and I agree with just about everything he says. But of course, he's funny, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Amergin
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 09:02 PM

Steve Martin....Bill Cosby...and George Carlin.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: alanabit
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 08:34 PM

I liked Bill Hicks of the US comedians. I would probably have liked several more had I seen them. Of the UK comedians, my favourites were Spike Milligan and Peter Cook. The Goodies were also a unique and vibrant comedy team, who operated on a shoestring budget. They are often overlooked when people reminisce about comedy. The best comedy series I ever saw was David Nobbs, "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin", which featured the incomparable Leonard Rossiter.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: pdq
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 08:26 PM

Norm Crosby

Jackie Vernon (cleaner stuff)

Jonathan Winters

John Cleese (weird but brilliant)

Johnny Carson (yes, he was that good)

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 08:08 PM

I like some wit in with the comedy, and I don't know that I could name any pure plays. Dick Cavett isn't a comedian, but he is very funny. Same with people like Garrison Keillor and Calvin Trillin. Of the late night hosts who are considered comedians, I used to watch Jay Leno, but several years ago switched over to David Letterman and my favorite of the late guys is Craig Ferguson. He can do wit, he can do silly, and he can do lots in between.

Of the stand up folks who didn't host shows, I think George Carlin was my favorite. He, again, manages wit along with all the rest. I like Joan Rivers for the way she dishes it out, and I love the clever spontaneity of Paula Poundstone. As a kid I loved the Bill Cosby albums and specials, and when I hear them today, I still find them funny (but I heard them so often as a kid that there isn't an element of surprise now. I enjoy watching my kids listen to them!)

Of the British comedians, Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, and Dawn French are names that come to mind.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: akenaton
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 07:47 PM

I dont much care for "stand up comedy" though I realise it is a particularly difficult medium.....

I much prefer situation comedy if well written.

In Scotland we had several series of "Rab C Nesbitt" written by Ian Pattison, which were very successful...and very funny
"Steptoe and Son", "Till death us do part" and the famous "Monty Python" series.

My all time favourite is a little known series called "Early Doors" which has beautifully observed comedy characters and is based on a North of England Pub and its landlord and customers.

It can be viewed on Youtube....both series
here

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 07:40 PM

ummm.. Ernie Kovacs, Buddy Hackett, Emo Phillips, Cliff Arquette (Charlie Weaver), Steve Allen, Mel Brooks......and.... George Carlin!

as you see, I favor older ones...mostly 'different' ones who had something to say.

Subject: RE: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: Ed T
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 07:08 PM

Steve Martin, Bob Newhart, and Bill Maher (if he is considered such).

Subject: BS: Your favourite comedian
From: gnu
Date: 05 Jan 11 - 06:30 PM

I am a great fan of humour. I love to laugh. I love to make people laugh. I often cross that line and offend but I still give it a shot because it`s worth taking the chance to get even one laugh. It`s better than playing and singing on a good night.

My fav of all time, so far, is Derek Edwards.

His YT vids are good but the best stuff is not on YT. I assume it is the same for many performers of all genres. Still, the guy cracks me up. Maybe it`s just that I relate to him. In any case, I like em all, but Derek tickles my funny bone in a country boy way that resonates in my soul.