There is nothing more American than Standup Comedians. Where else but America can you be paid to pick on the government, tell anatomy jokes, and be a racist. Try going on stage in Russia today and telling a joke about how you spent the night with Putin’s wife. That would be funny for like 20 seconds until the GRU (or the equally quick SVR which used to be called the KGB) wraps you up in a potato sack and actually makes you spend the night with Putin’s wife.
Anyway, Standup Comedians in the United States (and even those imported from Canada and Mexico) have the ability to say anything they want and as long as you laugh at it then it’s just fine. You can riff on handicapped people, people of any and colors, bodily parts, bodily functions, well bodily anything for that matter. For the most part, racial stereotype jokes are fine unless they’re actually about you and of course then it’s off the table.
George Carlin broke out the famous 7 dirty words skit and as cutting edge as that skit was, those 7 dirty words are missing at least one dirty word in that can be said by some when referring to themselves but not said by anyone else for any reason even when referring to themselves. And that word is quite often used by a select few comedians who by chance are most often the funniest. But I digress.
Over the last 50 years, Standup Comedians have had more impact on society than any other genre of people. Comedians say what others are afraid to say and for that reason are the true patriots.
For Discussion: My Top 10 Comedians of All-Time (I tried to stop at 10 but couldn’t because I really love comedians) My Top 50 Comedians of All-Time
| 1 | Richard Pryor |
| 2 | George Carlin |
| 3 | Eddie Murphy |
| 4 | Lenny Bruce |
| 5 | Rodney Dangerfield |
| 6 | Robin Williams |
| 7 | Steve Martin |
| 8 | Mitch Hedberg |
| 9 | Bill Cosby |
| 10 | Louis CK |
| 11 | Dennis Miller |
| 12 | Roseanne Barr |
| 13 | Jerry Lewis |
| 14 | Chris Rock |
| 15 | Don Rickles |
| 16 | Sam Kinison |
| 17 | Jack Benny |
| 18 | Milton Berle |
| 19 | Jerry Seinfeld |
| 20 | Ellen DeGeneres |
| 21 | Johnny Carson |
| 22 | Woody Allen |
| 23 | Steven Wright |
| 24 | Dave Chappelle |
| 25 | Phyllis Diller |
| 26 | Robert Klein |
| 27 | John Belushi |
| 28 | Jeff Foxworthy |
| 29 | Redd Foxx |
| 30 | George Burns |
| 31 | Andy Kaufman |
| 32 | Richard Lewis |
| 33 | Jonathan Winters |
| 34 | Buddy Hackett |
| 35 | Jerry Clower |
| 36 | Andrew ‘Dice’ Clay |
| 37 | Jim Carrey |
| 38 | Tim Allen |
| 39 | Billy Crystal |
| 40 | Lewis Black |
| 41 | Damon Wayans |
| 42 | David Brenner |
| 43 | Dane Cook |
| 44 | Garry Shandling |
| 45 | Red skelton |
| 46 | Sarah silverman |
| 47 | Lisa Lampanelli |
| 48 | David Letterman |
| 49 | Bill Hicks |
| 50 | Martin Lawrence |
| 51 | Bob Hope |
There are about 40 or 50 or more great comedians that I came up with that I think should be on the list so once I think of the next 10, I’ll update this list to the top 100 and who knows, I might rethink the order. But I’m pretty fixed on the TOP 10.