The 40 best comedy albums of all time, ranked
These landmark records capture legends like Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, and Joan Rivers at their laugh-out-loud best
Music Lists Denis Leary
The dirty secret about comedy albums is that not every great comedian can record a great album. Plenty of great comedians either never got around to preserving their act on wax or they wound up with an LP that didn’t quite showcase their comedic strengths, either capturing an off night in a club or pursuing a conceptual direction that didn’t quite deliver. Then again, there were times where a concept wound up being so strong, it elevated a performer who wouldn’t otherwise be considered a candidate for the Comedy Hall of Fame. Take The First Family, the seminal 1962 LP lampooning the John F. Kennedy White House: Vaughn Meader may not have significant comedic skills but his JFK impression was enough to fuel a landmark comedy record.
The First Family is joined on this list by records from comic legends such as Robin Williams, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Joan Rivers, to name a few. These are the 40 albums that document a stand-up comedian in full flight, a comic using a studio as their foil, and a number of points in between. Some might have an aesthetic approach that feels slightly antiquated or cover topics that are out of date, but shifts of perspective are inevitable: the passage of time inevitably alters the perception of the content. That’s the case with such masters of the form as Bill Cosby and Woody Allen, comedians who recorded successful and influential albums at their prime but those records may sound uncomfortable to a contemporary listener due to the scandals that have tarnished their legacies. We decided not to include those albums for that reason. The records collected here can still amuse and entertain thanks to the execution of the bits—from both the comedian and their producers—that keep these albums fresh and funny years after their initial release.
101 Comments
Came here to see how high my favorite comedy album was ranked, but it’s not on here. So, some love for Steven Wright’s I Have a Pony (1985).
It’s 17.
I like the laconic pacing of your reply.
Glad to see that Stan Freberg has not been completely forgotten. My dad used to play his albums fairly often, but he seemed to be completely unknown among my friends. “How can you never have heard The Old Payola Roll Blues?”, 8 year old me wondered.And I dare I suggest… Bill Cosby had some really good comedy albums as well?
It’s interesting that on both this list and the previous one on stand-up specials they’ve left off Cosby and Louis CK. I’m not at all suggesting those guys need their reputations rehabilitated, or even, really, that they need to be on these lists. But if they’re going to include the racist and homophobic stuff of the ‘70s and ‘80s (even if laden with caveats), it seems odd they’d leave off two of the pre-eminent comics of their respective generations. I wonder what lines they drew on the spectrum from offensive content to offensive behavior to criminal behavior.
I guess criminal or exploitative behavior in their personal lives was the line, because Cosby’s act was pretty inoffensive.
Cosby’s earlier records (Noah’s Arc for example) were great. I haven’t heard any CK’s albums, but I do like his older HBO specials. There’s also Al Franken, who I believe got thrown under the bus with all the rest. I get it that many folks dont want to patronize these guys, but still, they did exist.
I thought that might be it, but it must be something more like both “criminal” and “recent” because several of those on the list had their own run-ins with the law over the years, including arrests and convictions.My kid (12) is just getting into standup, and I’ve played him neither Cosby nor Murphy, but I wonder which one – in a vacuum – would be worse to play him with his 0% knowledge of their backgrounds (I’ll let him find both on his own and make his own call on those, but just as a thought experiment).
Who?
But Pryor is somehow ok
Louis CK is a lot less offensive to me than Dice. I hated that guy and the simple-minded idiots who thought he was funny. What a fuckin clown.
And they praise Denis Leary’s “Asshole” song which was directly lifted from Louis CK.
No Woody Allen either. I’m not mad, but what are these lists even about if they can’t include rapists and child molesters?
Bill Hicks should have been higher and the album should have been Dangerous. I was unaware of that Sellers album
That’s not Dice’s debut album. It’s his second.
Phew … I was beginning to think Newhart had been ignored as I slid through these.
Mrs. Webb…MRS. WEBB!
I love how people still give Newhart credit for the phone gag, when he stole it lock, stock and barrel from Shelley Berman, who had a gold record and won a Grammy with it in 1959. It’s not like Berman was an unknown, but Newhart completely buried his career. Berman was bitter about until the day he died.
By the time I worked with him he was well over it. RIP to us both.
I heard him on a podcast (maybe Gilbert Gottfried, I’m not sure) a year or so before he died, and he seemed pretty bitter still.
Trust me. He’s over it now.
Uh, no. The telephone monologues go back to 1913 when Joe Hayman recorded “Cohen On the Telephone” for Columbia. And I’d bet anything Berman had a copy of George Jessel’s “Hello, Mama,” a celebrated two-part Decca 78 from 1937. Other vintage comedy aficionados can probably supply a dozen or more telephone monologues appearing on cylinders, discs, Vitaphone shorts and radio broadcasts. Berman essentially buried his own career when documentarians captured him in a total rage after a ringing telephone interrupted a critical moment of a dramatic monologue.
I refuse to listen to or watch anything Bill Cosby related now, but he was such a huge part of my childhood. Cosby’s “Himself” would be very high on this list if it wasn’t for Bill Cosby being an utterly abhorrent human being.
So what you’re saying is that Bill Cosby “Himself” would be on this list if not for Bill Cosby himself.
It’s a shame there aren’t more women on this list. At the very least there should be an honorable mention for Carol Burnett and Phyllis Diller.
Wanda Sykes, Margaret Cho, Monique, Iliza Shlesinger, Sarah Silverman and Ali Wong are just a few that I can name off the top of my head that have had amazing stand-up careers with several successful specials. What exactly constitutes an “album” anymore? Are they even a thing?
What exactly constitutes an “album” anymore? Are they even a thing?
Yes. Most of the women you listed have well-regarded ones, in fact.
I guess the goofball surrealism of The Firesign Theater is too offbeat for a list like this. All Hail Marx and Lenin is weird and funny.
I agree that it would be best to have mentioned why Cosby was excluded. I no longer listen to him, but he towered over comedy in the 70s.
The First Three are brilliant. I can still recite most, but perhaps because they weren’t “comedy” they don’t make the list.
They weren’t “Stand-up.” They were definitely comedy.
I thought studio albums were fair game per the intro.
Agreed on Firesign Theatre! They were made for records. I’m insulted that they aren’t on this list!
The exclusion or Firesign Theatre makes this list an abomination of ignorance, depravity and poor choices in shoes.Eat flaming death fascist media pigs!
No Pete & Dud/Derek & Clive?
or Beyond The Fringe. I would have liked to seen on the list Rowan Atkinson, Jasper Carrott and Secret Policeman’s Ball (if that would be considered actual stand-up). I listened to Ben Elton “Motormouth” recently (again) and that still stands up as does Alexi Sayles “Cak”(?). It was a very good list though. I could add stuff to it all day and night.
No, because as is too often the case with things like this at the A.V. Club, it’s invariably a list of the best American [things-in-question] of all time. I suppose we ought to be grateful the writers managed to include any non-American albums at all.
I know it’s somewhat recent, but John Mulaney “New In Town” is very very good.
Hey, I was in the audience when Mr Attell recorded Skanks for the Memories! I am part of history.
Damn I’m jealous. I knew the first time I listened to that album it would be legendary when he walked a lady in the first few moments and left it in the recording.
This is a cowardly list, keeping Bill Cosby off of it. Say what you will about his crimes, but his place as the pre-eminent comedian of several generations cannot be erased. I don’t know that Louis CK ever had an actual comedy album, so his not being on this list isn’t as egregious, but you don’t have comedy as it is today without Cosby. Art and artist must be separated. You can choose to not listen to, or engage with, the art of an artist you despise, but when it’s any sort of serious discussion about the artform, you can’t just pretend that THE biggest figure in that medium no longer exists. Grow a backbone and put some effort into breaking down why even a monster like Cosby still deserves his place in a list like this. Or if you’re going to keep him off of it, have the courage to own it and explain why.
I’m glad he’s not on this list. He wasn’t that funny.
Counterpoint: At his height he was. His stand-up was miles better than his tv shows and movies. He has only himself to blame for destroying his reputation.
Agreed. He really was that funny. To this day, I am mad at how much of his comedy lives rent free in my head. It does so because it was damn good comedy. If he hadn’t turned out to be a rapist piece of shit, he would be top 5 on this list, I guarantee it.But I also understand (and support) the decision to leave him off.
Absolutely. My family home was one of those that had several of his records. I started listening to them as a kid (along with my dad’s other comedy albums, including amazing stuff by Redd Foxx, Bob Newhart, the Smothers Brothers, and Cheech & Chong, among others) and not only was his stuff funny, it stood up to repeated listens. When Himself came on HBO, I watched it more times than I could count. Like you say, he really, truly was that funny and to imply he wasn’t also incredibly influential is purely revisionist history.But if people, including those who make these kinds of lists, want to not acknowledge their or his existence because of what he did, that’s an entirely valid choice. I haven’t listened to or watched any of his stuff since the allegations came out and I think it sucks that he’s not spending the rest of his days rotting in prison.
Yup. Every so often “dad is great, gives us chocolate cake” gets into my head but I no longer have the album that was on.
That’s from Himself, which also includes the bit about natural childbirth, which pops into my head every time someone I know has a kid. There are a lot of bits from that used in the early seasons of The Cosby Show.
Louis CK released a number of comedy albums; “Chewed Up” and “Hilarious” were probably his most successful, though I preferred “Oh My God” which included the “Of Course… But Maybe” bit.
I suppose, but Louis CK is definitely not known for any particular comedy album enough to be on a top 20 or even top 50 list. He’s a TV comedy special guy. But Cosby? Contrary to Sam01415’s incorrect subjective opinion, Bill Cosby was brilliant and hilarious. Cosby’s albums were in every family’s homes in the 60s and 70s. Bill Cosby was given TV shows because of his comedy albums. Fat Albert was entirely based on his comedy albums. You listen to the biggest comedians of the 80s and 90s, they all cite Cosby as the grandmaster. The Cosby Show was revolutionary and united a nation around the TV every Thursday night.
It’s revisionist history based on social media pressure to say that Cosby wasn’t funny. He was hilarious. He was also a sexual predator monster. Both can be true, and are.
I completely agree. I can imagine it’s a generational thing. For people, like me, who listened to him in the 60’s before his despicable nature came to light, Cosby was very, very funny. Now those younger listen to the same material, knowing Cosby’s true nature, and somehow it’s no longer funny. Same material.I’m also struck by Don Rickles being on the list, acknowledging that some of his material would be inappropriate now. But yet he’s on the list. Cosby’s material – his material – from the 60’s would not be considered inappropriate.
And all three of those albums are better than a lot of the ones they did include here.
I think the old idea that separating artist and art is some sort of concrete moral imperative is not valid for a few reasons. Just to focus on one, by publishing this list, the AV Club is essentially endorsing these albums as products, encouraging us the consumers to seek them out. In doing so, we would be putting money in the pockets of the artists in question and the organizations that support them. Given that it’s an understandable choice to leave out the specific works of still-living artists who have behaved monstrously. Erlewine doesn’t say that of course, and his tastes-have-changed explanation does read as milquetoast. But that would be more of a policy decision and as a freelancer he wouldn’t presume to make it for the AV Club or G/O Media.
Everybody knows why.
You’re arguing with AI.
They did explain why:
“That’s the case with such masters of the form as Bill Cosby and Woody Allen, comedians who recorded successful and influential albums at their prime but those records may sound uncomfortable to a contemporary listener due to the scandals that have tarnished their legacies. We decided not to include those albums for that reason.”
I have to agree – much as I despise him as a person, Bill Cosby’s omission from this list is a shame. He won the “Best Comedy Album” Grammy six years in a row and there is a generation who can do his “Noah” routine by heart.
Norm MacDonald’s Ridiculous is the equal of Sandler’s debut. I wish it had come out in the ‘90s instead of being held until 2006.
I know these lists are destined to annoy people, but only 3 women on your list – there have been more albums by female comedians that deserve to be on your list. Whoopi Goldberg’s Broadway concert definitely and LaWanda Page, Moms Mabley, Margaret Cho, Gilda Radner, Sandra Bernhard, Julia Sweeney all put out records that could have been included on this list.
Could have been included, but didn’t really deserve to be. Unless you just want credit given to them because they’re women.
I suppose you could argue that they’re kind of a niche area of comedy, but all of the guys from the blue collar comedy tour (Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Ron White, and Larry the Cable Guy) had comedy albums that went multi-platinum. At the very least Jeff Foxworthy’s “Games Rednecks Play” should’ve made this list, it was in the Billboard top 10 for a while and was utterly inescapable in the late 90’s.
I’d go with Ron White, probably “Drunk in Public.” The other guys may have sold more albums, but they were pretty lame – Foxworthy got super lazy with his dumbass “you might be a redneck” drivel, Engvall was Foxworthy-lite, and Larry the Cable Guy sucked from day one. White is a legit funny storyteller who never really fit in with the family-friendly hackwork of the other Blue Collar Comedy guys.
Agree with this – I’m sure Ron White is quite happy with his bank account, but it’s a bit of a shame that he will be forever lumped together with the other three when he is head and shoulders above them talent-wise.
My favorite Sandler album was What the Hell Happened To Me? but that first one is pretty good too.
I still crack up at the “And now the severe beating of a high school janitor“. Juvenile sure but hearing him demand to let go of his sideburns as the beating happens gives me the giggles.
Mop mop mop, all day longmop mop mop, while I sing this song.Gonna wax that floor, gonna make it shinegonna take off the spray paint with turpentine.
I still sing that to myself whenever I mop. It’s a compulsion.
Spitting bile with a hint of a smile, Denis Leary brought the underground rantings of Bill Hicks into the mainstreamIf by “brought the underground rantings of Bill Hicks into the mainstream” you mean “stole Bill Hicks’ whole act and very persona”, then yes. Hicks himself believed it—to the point that he ended their friendship over it—and numerous other comedians have made that very charge.
Yeah Leary shouldn’t be on here.
I mean , I think he’s a great comedian , but yeah he was pretty much a Bill Hicks Tribute act (joke stealing is the worst crime a comedian can commit , at least that’s what other comics think )for a while , and its annoying as when he did his own stuff it was great, but he’s always going to have that stain on his record .
Very happy to see Dave Attell on this list. From more recent years I think Bill Burr, Jim Gaffigan, and John Mulaney should be here as well.
There may be some deliberate separation between specials and albums. Did Mulaney release any albums that weren’t recordings of his specials? He got a shout-out on that list already.
Yeah could be. Mulaney had “The Top Part” which while recorded live I believe was audio only.
Not a SINGLE Firesign Theatre album? List is invalid.
Not a bad list overall – and comedy is subjective as hell, so there are bound to be quibbles. Mine? Denis Leary. Even if he didn’t blatantly rip off Bill Hicks, he pretty much ripped off Sam Kinison (attitude at least) and wasn’t very good at either. I do find Leary to be a compelling actor, actually – so I don’t blanketly hate his existence.Very glad to see some old-time stuff on here. Freburg, Smothers Brothers, Nichols & May – someone put some thought into this. And Lemmings is a good inclusion. It’s pretty perfect, and the fact that it came out in 1973, when a bunch of people still believed in some sort of hippie idealism, makes it remarkable.
Sam Kinison channeled pervasive homophobia and misogyny in the 80’s that made that decade a hellscape for many. And the shit isn’t funny unless you think yelling “BIT&H” at the top of your lungs is funny.
There’s an interesting tension between people’s affection for older comedians and their classic albums, and the fact that a lot of 80s standup is fucking dire. Ironically, people cling to the sacred cows of the form while simultaneously yammering about how it’s so radical.
I have “Louder Than Hell” memorized. Offensive? Yes. He perfectly encapsulated the sink-or-swim Reagan era mentality. But he is an accurate representation of the time. And many of his bits, like World Hunger, are still brilliant to this day. It was all in his delivery, like no other.
More Carlin.
Mort Sahl? Shelly Berman? Emo Phillips? If Allan Sherman and the Smothers Brothers qualify for this list, so should Tom Lehrer and Homer & Jethro.
I take that back. I could swear I saw a Lehrer album there, but it was Freberg’s
Eddie Izzard: Dressed to Kill is still one of my all-time favorites.
I have fond memories of listening to Lewis Black’s White Album and still quote it, so nice to unexpectedly see it here.
Fun aside: The Great White North Album was referenced in Strange Brew in an interesting angle that showed them start the movie off with a Star Wars ripoff but the film breaks so they start actually doing skits from the album…which pulls back to an audience watching Strange Brew with one guy pointing out ‘Hey they did that stuff in the album….what a ripoff!’ and then show Bob and Doug releasing moths in the theater to escape….and start the movie.Fun bit of 4th wall breaking.
Glad to see Bill Hicks on the list, some of his stuff hasn’t aged well, but that’s often the case with comedy, perhaps more than most mediums, honestly any of his albums could have been on this list, Dangerous and Arizona Bay are both great as well.
You can smell the beer on the floor and hear the drunk frat-guy barfing in the parking lot, but I’ll give a shoutout to “Dirty” John Valby.I was going to post a clip here but I honestly can’t. Barnacle Bill & Gang Bang are disgusting classics that I loved a certain amount of years ago. Now? I quit drinking 8-something years ago and maybe its not in my blood anymore.
This list is painfully missing some Bo Burnham, Eddie Izzard and Bill Burr.
I would have gone with Big Bamboo for Cheech and Chong and Was It Something I Said for Richard Pryor.
You picked the wrong Hicks album. Arizona Bay has the much funnier material, and it flows so much better. Also, Attell deserves to be a little higher; his disc still makes me laugh as hard as the first time.Though to be fair…some of these albums haven’t aged well. And conversely, no Best of Bill Cosby? That’s a hilarious collection, and I get it, he’s a horrible person. Doesn’t change how funny those stories are.
List is gonna list, but Tig Notaro’s Live not being on here is a stunning omission.
Can’t wait for Bill Cosby to die so that it’ll be okay to like his comedy again.
He was a comedian?
Kind of surprised Woody Allen’s Stand Up (that’s the name of the album) from I think 1968 isn’t in here. It’s damn funny and fairly timeless. I know that, like a lot of others, he’s turned into a creep and a weirdo, but the storytelling and delivery showcase how he would make his intentional comedy movies of the 70s and 80s. He’s the classic neurotic Jew throughout the whole thing, without announcing that or even being stereotyped. He was just funny, more than a little nervous, and jittery. But nearly every joke lands, start to finish.
Three Grammys for Best Comedy Album
I revisited “They’re All Gonna Laugh At You!” recently. I’m not sure which of the “Screams of an Innocent School Staff Member Being Brutalized” tracks is the funniest. Probably the Spanish teacher because she’s foreign.(I say this acknowledging that in high school I thought they were hilarious, which is part of the reason they suck).
Toll Booth Willie remains a stone cold classic.
“I’m comin’ out of the BOOOOOOTH!”
Not surprised that Richard Pryor is number 1, but kinda surprised that it was Sunset Strip, instead of the far funnier Live in Concert, or even his early album Craps.
Could use some Maria Bamford.
Robin Harris, Bebe’s Kids.
Jesus, these lists. This is two stand-up lists with no mention of Brian Regan with both having comics who have called him one of if not the best ever. Regan has at least two sets that could be included here. I’ll give you one that should flat out not be on the list and I actually had and *liked* it, Bob and Doug’s album. Wore that cassette out as a teenager, it was lots of fun. There is no goddamned way that it is one of the 40 best comedy albums ever and anyone who suggested it while failing to nominate pretty much any Brian Regan recorded set, never mind his two masterpieces should feel very very bad and immediately disqualify themselves from any discussion about comedy.
No Firesign Theater? No Beyond the Fringe?
Here’s my autographed copy of “Let’s Get Small.” A prized possession. It’s my original copy from junior high school, too! (And you guys are right about Richard Pryor being number one. You just listed the wrong Richard Pryor album.)
I guess Firesign Theater is not in this category limited to single stand-ups doing their thing. Their best stuff was beyond mere comedy, anyway. They change the way you think.