Top Comics

[poliphilo]

Here's a list of the top comedians of all time, as voted for by fellow comics in a poll organized by Channel 4.

1. Peter Cook
2. John Cleese
3. Woody Allen
4. Eric Morecambe
5. Groucho Marx
6. Tommy Cooper
7. Laurel and Hardy
8. Billy Connolly
9. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer
10. Richard Pryor
11. Chris Morris
12. Tony Hancock
13. Bill Hicks
14. Peter Sellers
15. Steve Martin
16. Ronnie Barker
17. Steve Coogan
18. Charlie Chaplin
19. Eddie Izzard
20. Paul Merton

I imagine a lot of these names are going to mean nothing on the far side of the Atlantic.

I've already written a couple of posts about Peter Cook; he seems to be dead fashionable right now. I don't get it, I really don't.

In the tall, manic Englishman stakes I prefer Cleese. Python and Fawlty Towers were much more fully achieved than any of the rather scrappy things Cook did for TV.

Woody Allen. OK, that's probably about right.

Eric Morecambe. A parochial choice.

Groucho. Yes, yes, yes. But where are Harpo and Chico? Those guys were a team.

Tommy Cooper... but I'm getting bored with this exercise already.

But how can Charlie Chaplin score less than middle-of-the road TV comic Ronnie Barker? And where are Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd?

It's a generational thing. The voters are largely middle-aged and so we have a list weighted to comics who were at their prime in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Older names are downgraded and today's comedy gods (guys with shows currently in the schedules)- Ricky Gervais, Walliams and Lucas, Larry David- don't feature at all.

Oh- and what a surprise- no women!

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I am surprised to see Peter Sellers so low on the list. Is he being forgotten?

Many of these names are unfamiliar to me.

In the U.S., surely Jerry Seinfeld would have been high on the list.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't think Sellers is being forgotten. The Goons have a cult following and people still love the Pink Panther. And of course there was that rather good bio-pic with Geoffrey Rush.

I'd have put Sellers closer to the top. He was a genius. Stanley Kubrick said it, so it must be true. His best performances go further and deeper than anybody else's. They are hyper-real.

But perhaps "comedian" is the wrong category for Sellers. Forget Brando and Pacino and De Niro, I'd vote for him as best screen actor!

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I love Billy Connolly, but not necessarily as a comedian. He is a WONDERFUL actor, and so underworked. He just totally steals the show in whatever he's in. I just saw "The Last Samurai", and I was sorry that he was in so little of it and Tom Cruise in so much of it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Connolly is probably the best British stand-up. He was at his best (I think) when younger and angrier. More recently his comedy has been drifting into safer waters.

Everyone says how good he is in Mrs Brown. I'm afraid I haven't seen it.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

You should. Really. It was an excellent film.

Hm. According to IMDB, he's been in 39 movies since 1975. Including "Lemony Snicket". Haven't seen most of them. I gather that the drama thing is new for him, since Mrs. Brown.

I liked him as standup, but he was too angry for me. I liked his TV show better, because it was more controlled. I guess I like him older because he still has all his young-angry sensibility, but he gets it across more effectively now.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed a TV thing he did where he was travelling across Australia on a quad bike, doing gigs on the way.

At one point he got naked and ran about on a beach. That's not something you see every day!

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

It's something I'd like to see every day, though.:)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

LOL

[morrison-maiden.livejournal.com]

But how can Charlie Chaplin score less than middle-of-the road TV comic Ronnie Barker? And where are Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd?

Damn straight! And what about Lenny Bruce?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, Lenny Bruce should be up there. I guess most of the voters were Brits- and the fact is that Lenny never made that big an impression over here.

[morrison-maiden.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's true. He mainly performed in the States, I suppose...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't know that he ever appeared in Britain. I know about him mainly from the bio-pic with Dustin Hoffman.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Is Ronnie Barker one of the "Two Ronnies"? I used to watch that show on CBC when we were at the cottage in the summer.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's right- he's the large one. The smaller one is Ronnie Corbett.

He also starred in a number of sitcoms- the best of which, Porridge, was a fairly edgy little show set in a prison.

[hepo.livejournal.com]

I agree, of course its a generation thing influenced by social standing. How can we say that 'so and so' is the best ever anymore then we can list the top 100 best songs for the 20th Century. OH! They have!

Rowan Atkinson - One of my favourites, but I don't see him on the list. I guess there's no accounting for taste in the world of comedians.

HePo

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I love these exercises- and hate them too. I always have great fun arguing with the list.

My list would be topped by Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. I guess that betrays how old I am.