My two nominations are Andy Kaufman and Lenny Bruce.

Lenny Bruce brought a sense of brutal honesty which has pretty much set the tone for stand up comedy since the 1960's. He also fully integrated comedy with political commentary in a very unabashed way. Most of the comedians mentioned already, save for Dangerfield, owe at least a nod to Lenny Bruce's work.

Andy Kaufman was pure comedic genius. Put simply; were you in on the joke? Are you the joke? Is the joke done? Did the joke start? Is he really dead? Who is Tony Clifton?

 

I saw Gallagher live a couple years ago.
He had his funny bits, but he's basically an old grumpy man who complains a lot and makes fun of everything.

The venue I went to didnt allow him to do his sledge-o-matic bit, so by the end of the show you could tell he was really reaching for things to close out with. He was repeating jokes and generally not funny.

It was a sad moment too because I thought he was great years ago.

I think Chris Rock needs to be in the top 10.

 

Dane Cook

 

lol

 

I don't find Carlin that funny. Clever and witty sure, but not knee slapping hilarious.

I don't know who the best of all time is, but right now Greg Giraldo is my favorite.

And Gilbert Godfrey always cracks me up but some people don't get the guy. I have heard it said that when he does standup in a club the other comedians think he is a genius because he does stuff to piss off the audience and go on wierd tangent, but I find that amusing where others do not.

 

Well if we're doing two I'd like to add Ernie Kovacs - the man was simply amazing for his time.

 

Was it him or his brother?

He has a brother who looks and sounds a lot like him who was out of cash and started doing his brother's (the real one) act. His brother sued him and the phoney one can tour and do comedy but was barred from doing sludge-o-matic as it was intellectual property.

 

3 words:

 

 

It was the real deal. He talked about the "fake" Gallagher during the show. he apparently also did some sledge-o-matic routines at another venue the night before I went so I missed out, but it was really him.