Kevin Hart Knocks Jerry Seinfeld Off the Throne to Become World's Highest-Paid Comedian

The new highest-paid comedian on Earth is Kevin Hart, who earned more than twice as much as Jerry Seinfeld

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Image via Complex Original
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Jerry Seinfeld, confirmed god of comedy and a guy who regularly makes ridiculous amounts of money, has officially been dethroned. Seinfeld's proven habit of calmly sliding into the No. 1 spot on Forbes' annual ranking of the highest-paid comedians on the planet has come to an end, unsurprisingly at the hands of new champ Kevin Hart.

Kevin Hart earned a Seinfeld-toppling $87.5 million between June 2015 and June 2016, a number that was also good enough to land Hart on the Celebrity 100. Seinfeld didn't exactly have a lackluster year either, as he still managed to bag another $43.5 million during the Forbes ranking period.

If reading through a bunch of numbers that look depressingly higher than the ones found in your bank account is something you're into, then go right ahead and peep Forbes' list of the 10 highest-paid comedians (in extra depressing reverse chronological order!) on this dear planet of ours:

  • John Bishop ($7 million)
  • Russell Peters ($9 million)
  • Gabriel Iglesias ($9.5 million)
  • Jim Gaffigan ($12.5 million)
  • Dave Chappelle ($13 million)
  • Jeff Dunham ($13.5 million)
  • Amy Schumer ($17 million)
  • Terry Fator ($21 million)
  • Jerry Seinfeld ($43.5 million)
  • Kevin Hart ($87.5 million)

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Hart will next be seen in the decidedly cinematic stand-up documentary What Now? next month. The film, directed by Leslie Small and Tim Story (Ride Along 2), chronicles Hart's historic performance in front of 50,000 fans at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. "I didn't think that I could do bigger or better," Hart told Complex at a What Now? screening earlier this month. "With What Now, I was able to do that. Selling out a football stadium is nothing to be frowned upon in comedy and capturing it on camera is an even bigger task."

Peep What Now? in theaters starting Oct. 14.

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