by The Calgary Herald, after interviewing George Carlin, decided to add its own two cents — in Canadian, that’d literally be loony — to the debates over who among us is the funniest of all. Although, actually, I just read it again, and they merely reprinted Comedy Central’s 2004 list with comments.
Their list? 10) Eddie Murphy 9) Roseanne Barr 8) Bill Cosby 7) Rodney Dangerfield 6) Steve Martin 5) Chris Rock 4) Woody Allen 3) Lenny Bruce 2) George Carlin 1) Richard Pryor
Four years later, I wonder how Comedy Central would play it…the network helped showcase Dave Chappelle to the world, only to send him running, and also has seen the dramatic and controversial successes of Dane Cook, Larry the Cable Guy and Carlos Mencia. Would the network have elevated any of these guys up the list for the sake of the network? As if Mencia’s show isn’t example enough of that, rushing to fill the void left behind by Chappelle. And would the four extra years give Jerry Seinfeld better historical play? What about Steven Wright?
It’s certainly a different undertaking than A Special Thing’s semi-annual AST Top 20 rankings, which are very current and completely member-driven through their message board. They had Paul F. Tompkins, Patton Oswalt and Louis CK leading their most recent poll in October.
Would your own Top 10 list of stand-ups be different now than it was four years ago? And if so, how?
