The 30 greatest stand-up comedy specials of all time
From Richard Pryor and Robin Williams to Mitch Hedberg and Hannah Gadsby, we're putting a spotlight on some of the best stand-ups ever
TV Lists Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is so much more than telling jokes with a microphone in hand. For seasoned masters of the art, it’s an exploration of everything right and wrong with humanity, all at once, from the way we have sex to the way we buy groceries to the ways we hurt each other and even, for certain brilliant comic minds, the ways we die. A lot of people can do it well, but only a handful of stand-ups are able to trace the full range of human experience in their performances, and even fewer are able to do all of that in the course of a single night of performance. Those are the comedians we’re honoring right now. From foundational legends to modern masters, here are the 30 best stand-up comedy specials of all time, in chronological order.
Note: For the purposes of this list, a “special” is a filmed performance, so comedy albums that don’t feature visual components are out. We’re also excluding character comedians who spend their entire sets playing other people real or imagined, so greats like Gilda Radner didn’t quite make this specific list.
190 Comments
Look, we know he’s a terrible human being now, and it’s become all of the rage to say “Oh, Bill Cosby was never funny”… but, c’mon. There’s no way Bill Cosby Himself doesn’t make this list.I probably would have tried to squeeze a Lewis Black one in as well, but I won’t quibble with the rest of the list that much and since The White Album (my favorite) didn’t have a filmed performance.
Yeah, this isn’t so much as “greatest comedy specials” as it is “greatest comedy specials by people we haven’t retroactively decided who are bad.” See also: Louis CK. Yes, he’s an awful guy, but there’s no denying that “Hilarious” is, well, hilarious.
Yep, pretty much. I’m put off by a lot of Chappelle’s recent stuff (his fixation on trans people) but his “Killin’ Them Softly” special from way back (even before Chappelle’s Show) is better than a lot of stuff on this list. And a Louis CK special is deserving too (take your pick from Shameless up through 2017), in spite of the gross stuff from his personal life.
Yep. Killin’ Them Softly and Himself are pretty easily, hands down, my two favorite comedy specials of all time. Woof.
Yeah. Chappelle seems a dick (not only from his inability to let go of his trans-bashing, but also what I’ve heard from people I know who work at clubs where he’s performed), but Killing them Softly is a masterful stand up special.Also Kid Gorgeous is like the 3rd or 4th best Mulaney special, give or take if you found his most recent one funny or self-indulgent (I’m kind of on the fence).
“People we haven’t retroactively decided who are bad” is a weird way to say “people who aren’t disgusting sex criminals,” but go off, king.
Which makes it really weird that Pryor made the cut.
Yeah, only kinda checked the list to see what was missing. Louis CK, at his comedic height, was like 1992 Michael Jordan. In a vacuum, he absolutely deserves to be on this list.
As long as we are talking about merit – Louis CK’s Sincerely that won the Grammy in 2022 was by far the funniest out of all the other nominees. And my family and I grew up having Bill Cosby’s Himself committed to memory since it ran on basic cable non-stop in the 80s, and we still invariably all end up quoting “Dad is great! He give us chocolate cake!” every time we are together. We’ll never stop. We also acknowledge he is an evil monster. But, that doesn’t take away from the fact that it is one of the best comedy specials in history.
Yeah, I knew it wouldn’t make the list. Turned out he was a monstrous pig and it also spawned the Cosby Show, which a lot of the youngins around her probably think is lame as Hell.But at the time, DAMN, did that show crack me up.
That show just dominated. I grew up in elementary school years in a largely black town (I am not black). Simpsons was huge. Then it went up against the Cosby show. Kids in my class were watching the Cosby show. I still went simpsons, but i watched Cosby show in reruns and when it didnt conflict.
To clarify, I was referring to the stand-up special cracking me up. Worded poorly. But I did enjoy the Cosby Show for a few seasons before tiring of it. Liked the spin-off, A Different World, as well.Simpsons was also my favorite show (in its prime), but Cosby Show predated it by nearly 5 years. Not positive, but I think I may have been officially done with Cosby by the time Simpsons premiered.
I dont know that I ever watched Cosby new. It was watching reruns in syndication (or who knows might have been reruns during primetime, since that was a thing in between seasons). Every kid was talking simpsons, but i think Cosby was bigger with families at the time. My family didnt watch sitcoms together.
The Cosby Show was on the air for a good 5 years before the Simpsons ever aired (aside from as short skits on The Tracy Ullman show.)
Yeah, i think it had more to do with the time slot being moved. I dont remember if it was Simpsons or Cosby who moved…i want to say onto Thursday…it was definitely a time shortly before the simpsons carved out the 8pm Sunday night (EST) slot.
which a lot of the youngins around her probably think is lame as Hell.A lot of oldins think the Cosby show was lame, too – because it was. People were so excited about a show with upper class black people that they apparently never noticed that it was bad even by 80s sitcom standards: Broad, corny and juvenile. It was basically Charles in Charge with melanin.ETA: I’m talking specifically about the Cosby show, which sucked, not his standup, which is the topic at hand here.
100%. It’s sad what a POS Cosby turned out to be but there is no way to deny that set is in the Pantheon of all-time great comedy specials.
Who says Bill Cosby was never funny?Anyways, I’m fine with not celebrating the work of a serial rapist in a subjective list, but yeah, but for him being a serial rapist, Himself is at the tippy top of any list of great comedy specials. Hard to think of of myself laughing any harder at lighthearted depictions of intergenerational child abuse.
I agree about Cosby, heck I even remeber listen to round plactic things called albums of him from back in the early 70’s, funny stuff.Also agree with Lewis Black, his Comedy Central half hour/hour still kills me. I saw so many good ones on that series.
I hate the old predator as much as anyone, but the idea of “Nanette” on this list without some of the more obvious omissions like Cosby is truly absurd.
I would say the same for any of four Louis CK specials.
I agree with this. Dennis Miller should also be considered. While he’s an unfunny crank now, “Mr Miller Goes to Washington” is one of the best specials ever.
Uh…Paula Poundstone is somehow acceptable? No one googled her first?
40+ years later, even with suction replacing cuspidors (those mini-toilets we used to spit in), the Dentist visit part of Bill Cosby: Himself still holds up. Dads are serving chocolate cake for breakfast. It takes hard work, to keep from working.
I was just about to write that. Any list of the greatest comedy specials that omits Bill Cosby “Himself” is simply a false list. On any given day, it could easily be the greatest comedy special ever.
There are so many classic bits — many of which people a certain age knew by heart.
And what makes it all the more amazing is that, for its nearly 2 hour running, he only uses one curse word, and a lesser one, at that. A_____E.
Unfortunately, because of what monster Bill Cosby was revealed to be (and, make no doubt, he IS an absolute monster), we have to act as if this set never existed.
Which is to say, is it fair to judge performance arts based on the bad behavior of the artist?
Nate Bargatze’s new special on Amazon Prime is really funny.https://www.amazon.com/Nate-Bargatze-Hello-World/dp/B0B856WWSB
I’ll throw in a Tennessee Kid or Greatest Average American on Netflix or even “Yelled at by a Clown” (to be fair, I don’t think that one was filmed). Nate is hysterical live, I was lucky to see him a few times before he really blew up.
no Bill Hicks?? Blasphemy!!
Agreed; I came to the comments specifically to shill for Rant In E Minor. But I guess since it’s audio-only, it doesn’t exist for these modern kids, with their clothes and their hairstyles.
The list is specifically filmed performances, as noted at the very beginning.
Fair enough. Now if you’ll excuse me, that cloud’s not going to yell at itself…
I’m 100% behind you – I hope they do the other version of this list they mention in the intro because there are some huge omissions.
And their complicated shoes!
Youth Culture Killed My Dog
The omission of Stewart Lee is a bigger insult
And not even a particularly good two hours.
I mean its a bit american centric , I’d have included any Billy Connolly , Lenny Henry ( I know , but his late 80s Live and Unleashed , is really good) and Dara O’Brien , Tommy Tiernan or Dave Allan ( 70s Irish comedian who’s sadly forgotten about today but was phenomenal back then , if he’d been American he’d probably be hailed as an all time great ,but US conedy historians kind of assume most UK and Irish conedians were of the ‘take my wife, please’ ilk.Oh an Bill Bailey..christ how did I forget Bill Bailey!!
Those are all solid choices, Allan is a great pick.
I realize he’s said some problematic things in recent years (to say the least), but I still do not understand how in the world Dave Chappelle: Killin’ Them Softly isn’t on this list.
Yep.
Yeah that’s a glaring omission. If they can include the insanely homophobic Delirious, then KTS should absolutely be fair game, given that it’d be 20 years before Chappelle would get super vocal about his transphobia.
Yeah I didn’t see Delirious for the first time until the late 00’s. The person I was seeing at the time was raving about it, but I didn’t have her nostalgia. Don’t think I even got halfway through and shut it off. I was just like… this is so gross.
It was essential viewing back in the 80s , but yeah the gay panic stuff didn’t age well.I mean watching it nowadays there’s a LOT that to modern sensibilities is not good , which is a pity.Having said that , if Murphy went back and redid the What if MR T were gay thing , as less of a punching down rapey thing , and more as a what if a newly outed huge christian mohawked 80s celebrity tried to navigate the gay dating scene, it’d maybe work ?. ( basically be ridiculous but sympathetic and empathic, rather than just punching down)
He’s definitely become a parody of himself now, but Killin’ Them Softly is a flawless stand-up set. Its insane to leave it off this list.
Parody of himself? Chappelle is better now than he’s every been.
Had to make room for Nanette.
I was fortunate enough to see Steve Martin’s first tour after he blew up on SNL. It was transplendent.
100% Fresh is one of the best movies of the last decade– let alone one of the best stand-up specials. Also Hitler’s Dog is a million times better than Norm’s last special.
I’m glad Nanette is on the list, it’s an incredible piece of work.It’s a very American centric list, (with Izzard being a big exception due to her crossover appeal in the States).Stewart Lee absolutely deserves to be on this list.
Jim Jeffries too. His gun control rant is epic and part of a really strong set.
I’ve gone off him a bit over the years – I first caught him live at The Reading Festival in 2003 and then saw the Alcoholocaust tour, both of which were great (even if it was really clear in the latter he needed to stop drinking), but his recent stuff hasn’t really captured me as much.He’s positioning himself as an anti-Chapelle, but a lot of the ideas (to me) just don’t land, he used to be really able to thread the needle of saying something that would make you gasp but without punching down at the targets.I’d say what James Acaster did with Cold Lasagne was a much better version of some of the stuff he’s gone for.
Glad someone mentioned Acaster. I’m a tiny bit conflicted about whether such a list should include CLHM1999 or Acaster’s 4-part Netflix special. Gonna go w/ CLHM, if only because of the ‘brave little cis boy’ bit.
The whole beginning of that show, bathed in trans pride colours is a masterpiece, plus the whole section on mental health was great too.Simon Amstell should be on this list too now I think about it.
To be honest, I didn’t even register the trans pride colours in it; gonna need to rewatch with that in mind (I rewatch CLHM every six months or so, so not much of a bother there). I also love Acaster’s framing of Brexit as a crappy restaurant experience. And -elsewhere- as a cup of tea (it’s better/stronger if the teabag stays in).
It’s almost a crime that he’s never won Edinburgh Fringe, five consecutive nominations notwithstanding.
He said on an American chat show that he only ever gets nominated for a Critic’s Choice award in the years where people reinvent the genre (Nanette and Inside).To be fair, it’s missing the white, but the colour choice for a solid half hour of trans ally ship is very well co-ordinated:
The Neil Diamond story kills me everytime.
His mishaps with a vibrating egg were even better
This was my pick also. His mid-2000’s stuff is absolute gold.Up Gunter! Up!
I do think it’s funny that the contents of the list and the general lack of standup outside America on it, combined, imply that Hannah Gadsby is the greatest comic Australia has ever produced.
I’d say Nanette is one of the more important pieces of comedy to come out of there for a good long while but it does leave out Tim Minchin, Adam Hills, Brendon Burns’ “So I Suppose This is Offensive Now” was also an incredible special.
Nanette is an incredible piece in that it’s not, in the least, funny.
I know there will be 1000 replies like this, but the omission of Dave Chapelle’s Killin’ Them Softly (2000) seems irresponsible on a list like this. He was the most famous comedian in the world in the early 2000s, and this was his most famous and best special. Regardless of how bad his standup is now, Killin’ Them Softly was incredible. And, you didn’t include it for something by Margaret Cho? So, being funny wasn’t part of the criteria?
Given that Nanette was on the list, the answer to that last question is a resounding ‘No’.
Dude, what is your obsession with Nanette in these comments? We get it, you didn’t like it. You don’t need to announce it under every other comment.
I’ve got two, maybe three comments on here plucking the low-hanging fruit of bashing Nanette. And surprisingly enough, I didn’t actually hate it – I watched it all the way through (though I didn’t like it enough to watch Douglas). My problem with it is that it’s not a comedy special. I’m not even sure Hannah Gadsby would call it a comedy special. She says she’s going to stop doing comedy fifteen minutes in, she says that comedy gets in the way of storytelling (like how she can’t tell the whole story that ends with her getting beaten since that makes the story unfunny – she then tells the story and she’s absolutely right about it not being funny). All of the glowing reviews of it praised aspects other than ‘funny’ with not a lot to say about how much it will make the viewer laugh. To paraphrase another poster’s summation of Rothaniel, it’s good as a lecture on feminism, art history and the gay experience in rural Australia but bad as standup comedy.
“being funny wasn’t part of the criteria” should be the first line on Margaret Cho’s CV
No Bill Burr? No Bill Hicks? No Hannibal Buress? No Stewart Lee? No Cameron Esposito? No Lewis Black?Look, I get that (a) standup comedy has exploded in recent years and (b) it’s all highly subjective, but there’s some A-plus material missing from this list.
Also, and I know this is going to be polarizing, Bobcat Goldthwait’s “I Don’t Mean to Insult You…” is a goddam masterpiece.
I’m surprised Bill Burr wasn’t included. I’m not surprised Hannibal Burress wasn’t included. I think he absolutely should have been, but I wonder if he’s not famous enough? I think Anthony Jeselnik’s “Shakespeare,” too.
Seconded the “Shakespeare” nod.
Burr has probably been the best standup working for the last decade or so (or at least my favorite). I’d put I’m Sorry You Feel That Way on this list, myself.I think I’d include Thoughts and Prayers from Jeselnik. (I also managed to snag a copy of The Jeselnik Offensive and I still watch that from time to time. Sure, all the topical jokes from 2013 are outdated, but overall it’s still just funny as hell, and Jeselnik’s style works great with some guests to break up the darkness and for him to bounce off of or make fun of.)
I don’t think I’ve seen Jeselnik’s standup, but The Jeselnik Offensive was funny as hell.
I think you’re right about Burress. I was thinking the same thing about Joe Mande’s Award-Winning Comedy Special. I think it’s pretty brilliant, but unless you’re a comedy nerd you probably don’t know who he is since he mostly works as a writer.
I memorized that Goldthwait special when I was a kid
really hard to overlook Burr’s “Tonight I Wage War On Philadelphia” set. he took on a room full of assholes and won
Cameron Esposito? lol
Bill Cosby Himself absolutely deserves a place high on this list. It’s a masterwork. My top three are Richard Pryor: Live in Concert, Richard Prior: Live on the Sunset Strip and Billy Cosby Himself. The other notable omission from this list is Gary Gulman’s The Great Depresh. It’s better than at least ten of the specials mentioned. There is a period of a few years in the 90’s for which my pop culture life is a Bermuda Triangle. Young kids, law school, etc. make this time a cultural blindspot. Mitch Hedberg falls squarely into that era. Because so many people that I respect loved him, I’ve tried repeatedly to give him a shot but I just don’t see it. From my perspective, it seems like he’s just a really poor imitation of the brilliant Steven Wright.
Very old man yells at cloud of me, but I don’t find any of the millennial angst specials like Inside & Rothaniel to be all that funny. Certainly not discounting them as artistic works, just not what I think of as comedy.Very happy to see both Steven Wright and Mitch Hedberg make the cut though. I’ve probably heard all the jokes several hundred times from both of them and they never get old.
I didn’t watch Rothaniel because I never liked Jarrod Carmichael’s standup. Which is weird, since I loved The Carmichael Show, but his sort of humor worked really well for me in the form of a talky sitcom but not so much on stage.
I did watch it, and he’s obviously a talented dude, and in the context of a coming out story rather than comedy special, it’s pretty great, but I want a comedy special to leave me in pain from laughing, and it was not at all that.Bo Burnham is pretty much the same for me. Talented writer/performer, but I do not connect with his material in any way. Inside was pretty meh for me, and even Eighth Grade, which was universally loved, didn’t click with me. I think this is all just a mismatch between performers and audience (me) than it is any kind of indicator about the quality of their work.
Between those and Nanette, there’s a certain preference for the “standup special that isn’t that funny but is important!” specials on this list.
Yeah, I enjoyed Nanette, but I didn’t laugh a lot. She is a pretty terrific storyteller though.
I was crestfallen to learn Smacky the Frog isn’t real.
I was glad to see Eddie Murphy on there as that was the first stand up a bunch of my Gen X friends ever saw, I was already familiar with HBO comedy specials. And thanks for George Carlin who I was watching from childhood. There is no comic I miss more over the last 8 years than Carlin.
For Carlin I was going to go with A Place for My Stuff but looking around I think it was only an album.
Agreed on George Carlin. If Madonna was (is?) the queen of reinventing herself, Carlin is the comedian’s equivalent. He went from mainstream suit and tie straight man, to counter-culture drugged out hippy, to social observationist, to grumpy old man rooting for humanity’s destruction. No one had more careers in comedy than George Carlin.
Some HUGE omissions from the list: Dave Chappelle, Louis CK, Bill Burr, Demetri Martin, Aziz Ansari, Amy Schumer…probably a few others I’m forgetting about right now. Not sure who I’d take off this list, but at the very least my first 3 should be in there.
I expected to see Amy Schumer. But then we’d have to see commenters saying awful things about her, trying to be funny.
Phrasing!
Yes, I know. Don’t scold me. I was in a hurry and also on drugss (precscribed).
I’ve seen Amy live several times over the years, and I truly think your average episode of Inside Amy Schumer is way funnier than any one special.
I too would have added some Bill Burr.
Burr’s one of my favorites; Chappelle’s Killing Them Softly definitely deserves to be included; and while I’m not the biggest Ansari fan, I did think Buried Alive was excellent.
Not sure who I’d take off this listNanette
I know everyone is throwing in their big missing favorites, but still i gotta say, not including Lenny Bruce here is wild, especially given his level of influence. Some of his bits rely pretty heavily on current events and are now nigh-incomprehensible, but the recording of his Carnegie Hall set still delivers and absolutely should be at the front here.
Let’s Get Small is a far superior set from Steve Martin than Wild and Crazy Guy, IMO. The latter is made up of more callbacks to his SNL characters and leans too hard into recurring bits.
I’m a bit disappointed that Brian Regan: Live! isn’t on the list. Or maybe The Epitome of Hyperbole.
Brian Regan is so incredibly underrated. He’s one of those “comedian’s comedian” type guys who is extremely well-respected and venerated in the industry despite not necessarily being a household name. I still think his Comedy Central Presents set is his best work (the same can be said for like half the comedians on this list lol) but The Epitome of Hyperbole is great as well.
His original live set – the one with “Take Luck!” – is the one that hooked me. The Comedy Central Presents set, Epitome, and I Walked On The Moon are all just genuinely great.
Epitome and Moon are the only two comedy specials I’ve ever actually liked the whole way through.
I love Norm MacDonald, but come on, Nothing Special is an incredibly appropriate title. It’s just not that good, and certainly not Norm’s best work.The roundtable at the end with Conan, Spade, Sandler, Chappell, Shannon, and Letterman reminiscing about Norm is way more amusing than the special itself.
Norm’s “Me Doing Standup” special from 2011 is the best I’ve seen from him. Some of the biggest laughs I’ve had from stand-up.
Norm’s a tough one because he is far more interested in entertaining himself than worrying about audience reaction (Weekend Update the prime example of this).
As incredibly funny as he was, I don’t think standup was his ideal medium.
Yeah, agreed, that’s the obvious pick for me.
Yeah I don’t think I even finished that last one. And I’ve always loved Norm. But I found it dull as butter knives.
I’m sure the Bill Hicks defenders will take affront to my saying so, but Dennis Leary’s No Cure for Cancer carried me through the mid-90s.Also glad to see Mitch Hedberg make the list; the man’s cadence is unmatched. (RIP)
I mean , yeah it’s from his ‘Bill Hicks tribute act ‘ era ,but it would 100% be on my list.
I just love how Hedburg was simultaneously foul-mouthed, and yet most of his jokes were the sort of thing that you could tell to kids if you just left out the swears. Master of making absurdity out of mundanity.
A polar bear asks his father “Dad, am I 100% pure polar bear?” Father Bear says “Yes son, I’m 100% polar bear, your mother is 100% polar bear, you are certainly 100% polar bear. Why do you ask?” Little one says “I’m fuckin’ FREEZING!!!”
life’s rough, get a fucking helmet
?
I always thought the stuff about Leary stealing from Bill Hicks was overstated. If Dennis Leary stole his angry comedian schtick from Hicks, then Hicks stole it from Lenny Bruce (and a bunch of other guys, probably).
Hicks, beloved as he was (and still is) in comedian circles, could never quite put it all together for mass consumption – which is what Leary was able to do.
No Cosby, no Hicks, no CK, no Chappelle, no Burr, no Buress.Give me a fucking break, this list is fucking embarrassing.
The fact that you included Hannah Gadsby means you didn’t look hard enough
How do you do this without Chappelle? Killing them Softly should be on here. Doesnt matter what his stance is now. That special slayed.
Genuinely might be the single best standup special I’ve ever seen.Unrelated (other than this guy has opened for Chappelle in the past), but I’d also make an argument for one of Daniel Sloss’s specials, probably leaning toward Jigsaw.
The lack of Tom Segura on this list is astonishing.
Dave Attell’s Skanks For the Memories is funnier than every single special on that list.
Dave was so strong there for a while. I got to see a triple bill of Mith Hedburg, Dave Atell and Lewis Back is STL years ago and am so glad I did. Found Mitch and Lewis from the Comenedy Central Half hour comedy Hour shows and had seen Dave on a lot of stuff. Mitch was first and was great, but some of the audience didn’t get him and almost booed when he left. Dave came out and chewed their ass. Then Dave killed and Lewis did too. Miss ya Mitch.
I saw that same tour. Three killers. Great show.
Was just about to leave this same comment. Attell is god tier.
Yeah. Strange man with a strange career but great comedian.
If you’re gonna include Hannah Gadsby (and I agree you should) Douglas is much better than Nannette as a Stand-Up Comedy special
Why include anything from her? She’s not a comedian… Nannette comes across like an excruciating therapy session from a misandrist with some serious anger issues. I feel bad for the lady. She’s got a sad grift – making money off of telling people how bitter she is and what a scary world she lives in. It seems to only perpetuate her issues.
ITT: A bunch of angry white dudes are angry that their favorite angry white dude comedian isn’t on the list
Like Dave Chappelle?
A lot of people already pointed out the omissions. But personally, I’d choose Eddie Murphy Raw over Delirious.
Raw’s the pinnacle in terms of material but the article is right that Delirious was such an unexpectedly perfect debut special that it probably had more impact. He was 22 when it was released. Insane.
I would never argue Delirious’ place in comedy history, but I consider Raw much stronger, overall. Eddie is at his prime at that point, so much more comfortable on stage too, compared to his Deliverious performance. I think it would be more appropriate to have both specials on the list, IMO.
I was wondering why both aren’t on here as well. Looks like they’re picking the best from each comedian. But Raw and Delirious are both top-10 all-time.Also, where the hell is Redd Foxx?? I guess he died before most of the writers were born.
And Redd had an HBO special too, it was so early that they weren’t really giving them names yet, so it’s just called Redd Foxx On Location, great stuff, it’s on youtube.Raw’s great, but even Eddie feels it got a little too mean spirited at times, Delirious is just more fun to me. I know he uses the F word a lot in it, but he wrote that when he was a teenager, and was still a teenager (in the early 80s at that), so I cut him a break on that.
His bit about how when he first tried to do stand-up as a teenager but had never done anything more than take a shit was gold. Amazing how young he was.And yeah he’s fully owned that a lot of the Raw material has aged terribly and makes him cringe. It’s definitely of its time.
I love the cognitive dissonance of declaring “Don’t want no f****ts looking at my ass!” while wearing red pleather pants that were obviously sold as ‘Guaranteed to make f****ts look at your ass or your money back!’
And Redd had an HBO special too, it was so early that they weren’t really giving them names yet, so it’s just called Redd Foxx On LocationChrist, can we please go back to that? I’d much rather watch Tom Smith in Fresno than the overly precious titles every comedian has to come up with these days.Cloud rant over.
Red Foxx is another glaring omission.
First of all, huge props for picking Richard Pryor: Live in Concert, so many of these kinds of lists go with Live on the Sunset Strip, and it’s good, but man, Live in Concert is peak Pryor. I do have a quibble or two, for Carlin, I would have went with Carlin at Carnegie and Robert Klein I would have picked Robert Klein on Broadway. I also wish you had found a place for Elayne Boosler Party of One, I know there’s a quick Cosby cameo, but man, she really is one of the greats that doesn’t get enough attention. And yeah, despite some of his recent antics, Dave Chappelle really is the GOAT when it comes to standup.Just quibbles though, still a good list.
Is acknowledging biology and making jokes about fetishists appropriating womanhood really worth calling “antics”? I’m more worried about the small percentage of fascist a-holes trying to shame this guy for daring to say women have babies and other things 99% of the world agrees upon. Stop trying to shame people for being normal. It’s creepy…
This list is fascinating. No Louis CK? Chapelle’s “Sticks and Stones” doesn’t make the list? No Bill Burr? Bill Hicks doesn’t hit the stratospheric heights of Paula Poundstone or Hannah Gadsby? Jesus, Jim Jefferies gun control bit, in spite of being the most widely shared, memed piece of comedy from anyone who isn’t George Carlin, can’t compete with the all timers? Hells Bells if you wanted to come off as cool with deep cuts you could have gone with Stewart Lee.
Wow! 41 or 59, whatever the comments numbers mentioned…and not one stan for whom I am about to say.He’s been dead for 31 years, and apparently forgotten.SAM KINISONSomeone should scream his name besides me.
I’m sure he’s somewhat “forgotten” now and in lists like this because of the now problematic nature (I haven’t watched his stand-up in years, so this is more guess than any specific criticism) of some of his material, but if you were actually around when Kinison first hit in the mid-80’s the impact was enormous.
Oh, Oh OHHHHH!!!
He was on my list as I went through this one. Still remember the first time he walked out on Letterman’s stage, I had no idea what was going, neither did the audience, but it was great. OH!OH!OH! OOHHHH!Devil – Raaarrwww… oh you’ve been married? oh well never mind, come on in, I’ll show you around, it’s going to be pretty boring for you.
Kinnison is a great example of a comedian who could deliver a strong five or ten minutes on Letterman (or that Rodney Dangerfield HBO special from the 80s,) but whose style and/or depth of material didn’t support an hourlong set.
Yeah, I love me some Sam, but he couldn’t really go the distance, and disappeared up his own ass a bit before he passed.
Holy shit! In my “what about this person and that person” i totally forgot about SAM! Definitely deserves to be here. Great catch!
Chapelle, Sam Kinnison and Bill Hicks are not on this list, but Sarah Silverman is? Oooookeedokee. (quietly walks out of room).
Which special should be on this list?
Probably a bit obscure now, but was hoping to see Dennis Miller’s Black and White.
I absolutely despise the guy now, don’t think any of his current material is very funny, but Killing Them Softly by Dave Chappelle is easily top 10 greatest sets of all time.
Chappelle hasn’t been funny since George W Bush was president.But he *was* funny then.
Oh for Christ’s sake, Brian Regan has at least two specials that are all-timers; multiple comics, some on this list have said he’s one of, if not the best to ever to do it, and he’s nowhere to be found. Ridiculous. Gary Gulman has shows better than some on the list as well.
Annihilation is obviously Patton Oswalt’s most personal special, but pound for pound I think My Weakness Is Strong is his funniest.
Werewolves and Lollipops probably has gotten the most listens from me, but they’re all pretty classic.
I need to listen to some of his earlier stuff again since it’s been a long time. Annihilation was incredible, but I couldn’t watch that more than once. Tragedy Plus Comedy Equals Time always cracks me up. (In a similar vein for an artist I haven’t seen mentioned, Paul F. Tompkins is probably better known as a comedic character actor than a standup, but I think Laboring Under Delusions is really, really funny.)
This needs Stewart Lee and James Acaster
Painfully awful list… No Chapelle, no Greg Geraldo, Brian Reagan, Sam Kinneson, Bill Burr, Ricky Gervais, etc. And Nannette is just cringe-inducing tragedy. I don’t see in what way it’s supposed to be comedy. She just comes across as a mess in her material, doesn’t really make you think or laugh. Same with the Marc Moron special. He’s just not a particularly funny guy, doesn’t have any interesting observations, just grabs the lowest hanging fruit as far as topics go. Last special was just depressing. Cranky people don’t always work well on stage for me if they don’t have charisma.
Of all time? Sheesh.
You’re just not thinking fourth dimensionally!
ChatGPT673.7’s 2027 special “Of The People, By The People, After The People” played on all screens everywhere, with no way to stop it.
Anthony Jeselnik should be on there. Fire in the Maternity Ward is just amazingly funny.
this list is trash
Thank you for this slideshow. Why, it encouraged me to rewatch Sinbad specials Brain Damaged, & Afros & Bell Bottoms. Can’t believe neither made your list, that’s an error. But your list does have some good choices. Thanks again.
Sam Kinison just called. Said he’s still Breaking the Rules.
I enjoyed Nanette well enough when I saw it, but it’s really not that funny, and I think there are valid criticisms of it even toward what it’s trying to accomplish. This one is the one that stands out the most to me:https://theoutline.com/post/5962/the-nanette-problem-hannah-gadsby-netflix-review(Do links work around here? I don’t know if they do.)Lots of odd omissions from this list, but I think I mentioned most of those in the replies somewhere (or someone else did, at least).
You may not like Chappelle anymore, but to leave him off the list completely?!? Yeah, nah. Also – hate her now, but Roseanne Barr was fucking funny as a stand up before she had the show (and long before she went all twitter racist and right-wing). Another “went right-wing hack” who should be here is Dennis Miller. Also where is Denis Leary’s “No Cure for Cancer”?!?
Also, aside from Izzard, you know that there are other comedians from outside of the US, right? Billy Connolly? Bill Bailey? Rowan Atkinson? Jimmy Carr? Sarah Millican? Dara O’Briain? Omid Djalili? Frankie Boyle? James Acaster? Aisling Bea?
Another “went right-wing hack” who should be here is Dennis Miller.Black and White is one of my favorite standup sets to just put on in the background and laugh.
I’m so glad you brought up Sarah Millican and Aisling Bea. There are so many funny women in stand-up, but I’ve sort of imprinted on those two a lot for some reason. Millican ticks every box for me with her everywoman vibe and Bea has that genuine eccentric nature which makes watching her a constant delight (her talking about having a surprise baby when it was actually a gut infection, brilliant). All that clearly reflects on their successes, as well as both having several specials that could easily qualify here. And since I’m hyping up women comedians, Taylor Tomlinson is a goddamn star.
James Acaster, Cold Lasagne, Hate Myself, 1999. That’s all.
Yeah Brits deserve better representation here – I would throw in Bill Bailey, Sarah Millican and Jimmy Carr just to get started. Then Frankie Boyle and Rickie Gervais…and then I’d realize that they probably should have their own list because the bench is very deep. Yeah, give us back Izzard and we’ll do our own list, thank you.
Dana Gould’s HBO half-hour should be on this list. I understand why you wouldn’t want to promote them but so should Cosby “Himself” and LCK’s “Shameless.”
Ellen Degeneres: Here and Now 2002 is still one of the funniest goddamn specials I’ve ever seen. Groundbreaking without being obnoxious about it, like several of the other specials listed.But, I guess she is a big meanie now? Cool barometer, bro.
I’d’ve found a spot for Paul F. Tompkins: Driven to Drink, because it’s a clever premise and it’s pretty funny.
Hans Teeuwen’s Live in London. I haven’t laughed harder in my entire life. That complete lack of breath and stabbing stomach pain.
All due respect to the acts that made this list, but Bill Hicks’ Revelations should have been on here before at least 5 or 6 of the others.
You might as well just remove all your Louie reviews since Louis CK doesn’t exist apparently
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For sheer density of talent, I’d nominate Rodney Dangerfield’s 9th Annual Young Comedians Special: Bob Saget, Rita Rudner, Louie Anderson, Sam Kinison, Yakov Smirnoff
I tried watching some of those earlier Eddie Murphy specials – Delirious, Raw – and boy does a lot of it not stand the test of time. Long stretches are just vulgarity and misogyny, as if simply saying the f-work or insulting women is supposed to be funny.
You sound like the whites who were upset about him when Eddie’s specials first aired. Also, I guess, like Bill Cosby. Maybe “have a coke and smile and STFU”
For crowd work, you really cannot beat Ian Bagg. I mean, maybe 5-10% of his show is scripted. The rest is simply crowd work.For not so recent stuff, Jim Gaffigan is still fantastic. Pablo Francisco never got the audience he deserves, but still tours for smallish audiences where tickets are maybe $30. A lot of this list is good, but limiting it to filmed shows kills off too many people (like Bob Newhart, king of the deadpan). Also, Dennis Miller was hilarious before he went insane. The Off White Album is tremendous.
It’s ok to like Paula Poundstone now?
I know he’s a pig, but am I the only one who remembers The Diceman Cometh?
this is stavros halkias erasure
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Is there an honorable mention section for all the Latino stand ups you looked over?
Nothing from: Chapelle, Burr, Gervais, Louis CK, Jefferies, Jeselnik, Gaffigan, Kinison, or Dice.Fucking ridiculous. lol
I’m sorry, you seemed to have shuffled together “the best” and “the worst” specials lists…this list is not good. Comments have already called out whats missing and what shouldn’t be here pretty accurately.