The Unfunny Comedian List – IOTW Report

The Unfunny Comedian List

Sunday, 25 March 2018, 13:04 BFH Uncategorized 93

PHenry started a list in the Jim Carrey thread of unfunny comedians.

I can think of no other list that would cause as many fights amongst people than this. You can make a list of unattractive celebrities and there’d be less division. A list of bad singers and bands would be less controversial.

There must be something in our DNA and/or our psyche that elicits a more defensive and protective response when our taste in humor is attacked.

Here’s PHenry’s list:

Gallagher
Whoopi Goldberg
Joyless Behar
Garrett Morris
Chris Elliott
Joan Rivers

I agree whole-heartedly with Whoopi, Garrett Morris and Joy Behar. Gallagher I don’t remember too much. Chris Elliott is more of a weirdo actor than a comedian, and in certain settings he can make me laugh, but over-all, overrated.

Joan Rivers. The most arguable on the list. I’m not a huge fan. But, hands down, the most unfunny, least talented person on this list is Garrett Morris.

Here’s my list-

Robin Williams  (Don’t get it. Never will. He was manic, emulated the trappings of a comedian, had the moves, the rhythm, never said a thing remotely clever, unless he stole it from a fellow comedian. Which, for me, made me embarrassed for him.)

Tracy Morgan  (When he had his accident, everyone started talking about him like we almost lost a comedic icon. Let me tell you, the accident was funnier than him, and the accident wasn’t funny.)

Dane Cook  (Here’s a guy who felt like he had the stuff to do long conversational comedy, like Bill Cosby, and he didn’t. He’s an annoying guy that is like the time bandit at a party. They won’t shut up and they are not as charming as they think they are. He got popular like Fidget Spinners got popular. Where are Fidget Spinners now? Exactly.)

Aziz Ansari  (No charisma. No timing. No jokes. Looks like a weasel. I simply do not get it.)

Andrew Dice Clay  (Just attitude. When you get beyond the attitude what are you left with? Fonzie’s foul-mouthed overweight brother?)

Seth Rogan  (I’ve been around these low-energy, pothead, grungy slackers that slept through school, but somehow think of themselves as superior to you. It’s not funny.)

 

 

93 Comments on The Unfunny Comedian List

  13. I notice a some comedians are horrible on stage, alone, but if they’re put in a show/movie with a script, they’re funny. They ‘act funny’, but they’re just not funny under their own power.

    9

  14. I can actually remember when David Letterman was a good host of his Late, Late Show. Then he got political. Jay Leno was a better host of the Tonight Show, but he wasn’t Johnny Carson. I haven’t watched any of the late night television shows for decades. They all went political during the George W. Bush years. Just think how much comedy fodder the Obamas and Clintons gave to these lazy bastards, and nary a word from any of the talk show hosts. The very worst of the lot had to be Chelsea ManHandler though.

    15

  15. I’m old.
    All the comedians I remember were funny – and they’re all dead.

    Back in the old days you had to have more than just “shit,” “fuck,” “nigger,” toilet jokes, “Trump,” “Bush,” anti-Christian-isms, and shrieking anti-American polemics to make it in comedy.

    All but about 2 over the past 30 years have sucked ass.
    Not literally “sucked ass” but figuratively, as in: “Damn! That comedian sucks ass!”

    izlamo delenda est …

    11

  18. Gallagher was funny in his prime, but his repertoire was limited and always ended with smashing a watermelon. But they all have limited material, a “schtick” that they use until it gets tiring (for some, that might be 10 minutes, tops). I liked Norm Crosby with his misuse of words (usually something close to a homonym that greatly altered the meaning), but even he I could only take in small doses. George Carlin, I think, was one of the best, he appealed to many people for a long time.

    8

  19. Easier to list the funny ones:
    Phyllis Diller Awk Awk Awk! 50 years ago.
    George Carlin
    Lisa Lampinelli so gross but heh!
    Don Rickles
    Sandra Bernhart
    Charlie Chaplin
    Carol Burnette
    Tim Conway
    Wana Sykes (The removable vagina routine – hilarious)
    Carlos Mencia (I don’t care what you people say he makes
    me laugh)

    6

  24. The entire lineup of any episode of ‘Def Comedy Jams’ or whatever shows are like that.

    Most of the comedians had variations of the same schtick; either the white guy voice while prancing around like he’s assless, you don’t be doin dat shit to a sister while evading a scorned onslaught. Goof on whitey.

    For a while there when they got political, it was always to praise Obama. Now the crux of all the, not even funny jokes, is Trump.

    Mason Pryor son of Richard, bombed so bad at the Apollo and got booed off the stage. His opening salvo was on Trump.

    In a pity move MC Steve Harvey got him back on and he just sucks. He’s imortalized on YouTube.

    3

  28. I don’t like ….
    Jimmie Kimmel – thought he was funny on ‘The Man Show’ until I realized all he did was make crude insult remarks & Carolla was the real talent behind the show

    Al Franken – nothing he ever did was funny … NOTHING! …. EVER!!!

    Jerry Seinfeld – mediocre stand-up comic that scored big because of a great writer. He stood around smirking & making snark while his friends & family made nihilistic fools of themselves.

    Chris Kattan – never saw anything funny he did solo

    Martin Short – haven’t been able to stand him since his SCTV days … a dork playing a dork

    Louis CK – I tried, I really did … just couldn’t relate … tired, boring, uninteresting …. maybe I’m not ‘Urbane’ enough

    5

  30. I never found Chris Elliott particularly funny, but I give him a pass in honor of his legendary and brilliant dad, Bob Elliott (half of Bob & Ray, now both passed)

    5

  32. Grew up with pretty much every Bill Cosby LP from his earliest ones up through the ’70s, most of them still memorized. Brilliant in his ingenious simplicity. The man was truly funny with rare skews into adult humor during late-night Vegas shows, but by today’s standards would not raise an eyebrow as far worse is viewed on TV.

    Pretty good actor too but some of his movies, on the other hand…

    6

  34. Funny: Bill Burr, Ron White, Brad Williams

    Unfunny: Kevin Meaney, Bill Engval, Gilbert Gottfried and +1000 for Dane Cook

    Desperate sign of unfunny: Anyone who goes “and uh” expecting raucous laughter.

    3

  36. More recent offerings of the last couple of decades. Clean comedy that has made my family laugh. Some of them have a limited repertoire, but are/were creative to assemble what they do have.

    Tim Hawkins
    Michael Jr.
    Jim Gaffigan

    7

  37. Don Rickles was hilarious. Sometimes Buddy Hackett was. Dangerfield was great. There used to be lots of funny people, but that was before political correctness muzzled people.

    Loved Newhart for his dryness.

    13

  38. Johnny Carson said that for his money, when he was “on,” Pryor was the funniest ever. I never quite understood Pryor’s appeal.

    Newhart should be near or at the top of any all-time list.

    7

  41. Jonathan Winters can be an acquired taste for many but when someone realizes much of his stuff was ad libbed (being squirrelly probably helped), they’re usually awed by his better routines. Robin Williams wanted to be Winters but wasn’t, and all that coke just got in the way.

    Look up Winters’ version of Moby Dick, or the football game.

    8

  45. Virtually every so called female comic would make the unfunny list. Sorry, not sorry. Most women just aren’t funny. It would be easier to list funny women comics than to list the vast number of unfunny ones.

    2

  47. Comedians I like …
    Rodney Dangerfield – best routines on Carson I ever saw, & still laugh my ass off
    Chris Porter
    Jay Hickman
    Rodney Carrington
    Flip Wilson
    William Claude Dunkenfield
    Larry the Cable Guy – before Redneck Comedy Tour (or whatever it was called)
    Bill Hicks
    Jonathan Winters
    Andy Kaufman
    John Belushi
    Groucho Marx
    The Three Stooges
    Sam Kinison
    Martin Mull & Fred Willard on Fernwood Tonight
    Imogen Coco (& her latter day re-incarnation Carol Burnett)
    Bill Burr
    Jackie Gleason
    Soupy Sales (hey! I was a kid! ok?)
    Joe Biden (yes, it’s fun to laugh at stupid)

    3

  51. Not funny:
    Kathy Griffin
    Sarah Silverman
    George Lopez
    Jimmy Kimmel

    Funny:
    George Carlin
    Cosby in his prime
    Johnny Carson – I know he wasn’t a comedian, but he had such a great comic sense and timing. I ususally found him funnier than some of the comedians he had on his show.

    3

  52. Molon Labe, I should be embarrassed, but I’m not, the 3 Stooges can still entertain me. John Belushi was pretty funny too. As you can tell my tastes are pretty high brow.

    3

  55. Good:
    Bob McSumpin, worked with him for 18 years, I don’t think he told the same joke twice, hilarious drunken Irishman from “Lung Island”.
    Andy Griffith, no really, he started as a stand-up, They Called it Football, is hilarious.
    Dennis Miller, love having to think my laughs through.
    Cheech and Chong, funny in a gone to pot sort of way.
    Firesign Theater, The Giant Rat of Sumatra.
    Bad:
    Chris Titus, mom was a neurotic drunk, dad was a cave man, flash in the pan.
    Gonna list Kathy G. again, she’s that bad.
    Tried to not repeat, saw few I would disagree with.
    Funny, Carlin has become conservative over time.

    2

  56. Funny:
    Dave Chappelle’s Clayton Bigsby was one of the funniest characters I’ve seen. Dave lost me when he fearlessly quasi supported Trump, caught flak for it and made his latest Netflix mea culpa special trashing Trump and his supporters. Sorry Dave, you’re no independent thinker.

    Dennis Miller (pre O’Reilly) for the thinking man/woman. His rants were like playing Cerebral Scategories. Now he’s just another twitter idiot.

    Brian Regan. Late 80s early 90s material was the best. Clean. Not mean. Facial contortions added a great deal.

    Steve Martin. Again early stuff. Timely for the times. Clean. Not mean.
    Unfunny: almost everyone but the above.

    2

  57. Buck Henry – never got him. Maybe he fed good lines to the SNL crew but BORING.
    Louis CK…repulsive – makes me change the station (I have 4 comedy presets on my XM)

    BUT…
    all the great dead comedians, including these:
    John Pinette
    Mitch Hedberg
    and
    Guy Marks on Dean Martin Roast
    https://youtu.be/r7s-dggVnm8 17:35 priceless

    1

  61. I got to tell you, and this will probably piss some people off, but I think Cheech and Chong sucked. I would rather watch Sinbad over these dudes.

    Brian Regan is my guy. Hands down.

    3

  64. Addendum:
    I concur w Kat, leave politics out of it. If I want a biased political opinion, I’ll tune into CNN/MSNBC.

    Burner: #MeToo!!! I’m the funniest, wittiest, most intelligent comic I know! Why, I’ll spend hours cracking myself up, sometimes I bomb, other times I’ll do an encore.
    Is that wrong?? Should I seek help? 😂

  66. I always enjoyed Dave Allen on Religion/Drunks etc.
    Bill Burr, Winters, Brooks, Joey Bishop Newhart, Carlin, and so many more.
    I could never listen to, for more than a minute, Seth Meyers,The Brit, Toots Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jim Acosta CNN. (Oh yes, he’s a comedian, just
    watch a WH press briefing)

    1

  68. I intensely disliked Andy Kaufman. As funny as lung cancer.

    Can’t stand the Three Stooges either. NOT FUNNY.

    Loved Phyllis Diller, Dave Chappelle and Norm Macdonald.

  69. @PHenry ~ Laugh-In had it’s moments
    Arte Johnson was the best as the Nazi soldier in the bushes …. veddy interesting … & as the Dirty Old Man (Tyron F. Horneigh). Flip Wilson guesting was always funny … Jeraldeen “The Devil made me buy ‘dis’ dress”. Sammy Davis, Jr. … “here come de Judge”. Goldie Hawn was a cutie. Ruth Buzzi … not so much. wasn’t a fan of Jo Anne Worley, Allan Sues, Dennis Allan. liked Gary Owens & Lilly Tomlin
    best Rowan & Martin skit was ‘The Farkel Family’ … hilarious … w/ next door neighbor Ferd Berfel

  70. Back in 1973, I saw Andy Kaufmann in a bar on long island. When he started his mighty mouse crap we booed him off the stage. Never liked him. Don’t care for Rodney Carrington either.

  72. Brad Williams the midget. Ive recently learned of him and so far he’s pretty funny.

    Ive been watching Carson late night. I wasn’t aware he hated Reagan and Republicans so much.

    Not a comedian, but one of the most annoying people ever…Ed McMahon. A total waste of air.

    1

  73. We’re leaving out some great old timers – Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Groucho, Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Cosby, Phyllis Diller, and some many more.

    And they pulled it off with out vulgarity, sex, or racism.

    3

  74. Comedians I like (but everyone is subject to change depending on how their private life starts to infect their stage life – politics, relationships, drugs, etc.

    Current –
    Bill Burr
    Brian Regan
    Norm MacDonald

    Back in the day-
    Jay Leno
    Steven Wright
    Bill Cosby
    Ellen DeGeneres

    Deceased-
    Mitch Hedberg
    David Brenner

    More terrible comedians-

    Richard Belzer

    2

  77. Cosby was truly funny. A shame how he turned out.

    Another vote for Sam Kinison. Genius.
    Don Knotts in his prime. Not a standup, but a true comic.
    Phil Silvers.
    Zero Mostel.
    Carl Reiner.
    Jackie Gleason

    Unfunny: Rob Reiner, living proof that comedy is not genetically inheritable.
    More unfunny:
    Adam Sandler
    Seth Rogan and all his copycat slacker imitators
    Lucille Ball. Never funny in anything she was ever in. Off camera a terrible Mommie Dearest diva.

    Funny just once, then never again:
    Jim Carrey( The Mask)
    Ben Stiller (that male-model movie)

    4

  80. Jack Benny was a classic. Rochester was pretty funny too.

    I’ve got lots of old comedy albums and I still like Martin Mull a lot. Bill Cosby albums were great. Especially the God talking to Noah bit. Hilarious. What’s a cubit?

    Gilda Radner. I loved her freewheeling style. Pryor was funnier in the movies than on stand up tour.

    There were so many funny and talented people. But the left smothered and killed comedy like they do everything else. Kill joys.

    2

  81. funny: nick dipaolo, dave attell, prior, redd foxx, norm mcdonald, louis c.k., bill burr, chappelle, rickles, winters, and yes… gilbert gottfried (you either love him or hate him, i love him). not a stand up, but howard stern is funny.

    1

  84. It depends on what type of comedy this list is about. Stand up comedians have a tough job, but I’m a fan of Jim Gaffigan, Steven Wright, Eddie Izzard, Anthony Jeselnik and Bill Burr. I also wish Carlin, Mitch Hedberg and Don Rickles were still around.

    Sketch/Improv is a different animal. Belushi, Bill Murray, Bill Hader, Martin Short, John Candy, Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie are great in this type of comedy.

  87. Yep. Phil Hartmann shot to death by his wife.
    He was funny. Loved his work.

    Buster Keaton was a bit scary.
    We could discuss what constitutes comedy.
    That would be interesting. Problem is that comedy just happens, much to the chagrin of the inadvertent participants.

    2

  89. Bobcat Goldthwait is a talentless, coked-up, beta male pussy. I had the misfortune of meeting him in 2003 when a friend of mine booked him at a casino. He insulted the audience, insulted the casino, and insulted my friend who had been kind enough to book him. He has no idea, but he’s alive today because of me. I talked my buddy and the casino manager out of beating him up. They are big guys and would have killed him. In retrospect, I should have helped them instead. We could have fed him to the gators in a nearby buyou, and that would have been the end of it.

    1

  92. Don’t like:
    Tyler Perry – Just don’t get the cross dressing thing.
    George Lopez – Always angry. Not funny.
    Woody Allen – Whiner, boring.
    Will Farrell – Trys too hard but never gets there.

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