Nothing takes more guts than standing onstage and promising to amuse an audience with just a microphone and your thoughts. Stand-up comedy requires a certain kind of talent that blends fearlessness with intellect and charisma, all deployed in precisely chosen words that land with the right tone and timing.
Now that a poorly conceived idea can be shown to everyone and never deleted, comedians have become even more necessary for clearing the fog of timid over-seriousness that floats around our most sensitive topics. In a constantly shifting and confusing world, most public figures weave tangled rhetorical knots with their speech, aiming to cloak their actual beliefs and intentions under a sheet of respectability. Comedians cut the bullshit.
They wade into the subjects avoided in polite conversation to test their substance, weigh their importance and mock the phony aspects as they strive towards truth, or at least, valid subjective opinions. They can offend or make points that age like milk, but when they can also bring low the powerful and reframe the way we think about race, politics, religion, society, relationships and ourselves while inspiring compassion between people—because nothing erases division like laughing at the same thing.
If your fave isn’t on here, allow me to mimic the best comedians and state the honest truth: the headline says “Best” for SEO purposes. I am barely an authority and the rankings are subjective. These people make me laugh and I think they will do the same for you. Enjoy.
25. Staying Alive (Tracy Morgan)
24. Tig (Tig Notaro)
23. Homecoming King (Hasan Minhaj)
22. On Drugs (Lucas Brothers)
21. Mouthful of Shame (Jim Norton)
20. One of the Greats (Chelsea Peretti)
19. Live [At The Time] (Demetri Martin)
18. My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (Mike Birbiglia)
17. Make Happy (Bo Burnham)
16. I'm A Grown Little Man (Kevin Hart)
15. Buried Alive (Aziz Ansari)
14. A Speck of Dust (Sarah Silverman)
13. Live at the Purple Onion (Zak Galifianakis)
12. Bare (Jim Jefferies)
11. Talking for Clapping (Patton Oswalt)
10. PsyCHO (Margaret Cho)
9. Beer Hall Putsch (Doug Stanhope)
8. Live from Chicago (Hannibal Burress)
7. You People Are All The Same (Bill Burr)
6. Breaking All The Rules (Sam Kinison)
5. Beyond the Pale (Jim Gaffigan)
4. Hitler's Dog, Gossip, and Trickery (Norm MacDonald)
3. The Age of Spin and Deep in the Heart of Texas (Dave Chappelle)
Year: 2017
After fearing that viewers were laughing at stereotypes as opposed to his satirization of them, Dave Chappelle turned down $50 million of Comedy Central’s dollars and went to Africa. A decade later, he returns with a complimentary pair of Netflix specials: The Age of Spin and Deep in the Heart of Texas. In lieu of the high-pitched frenzies of his early works, Chappelle substitutes a relaxed crotchetiness that fits his unparalleled ability to drop an utterly absurd opening statement, then guide the audience to his conclusion with his unassailable sense of reason and timing. His specials amble from one topic to another, and he’s at his best when he’s getting personal: wrangling with the difficulty of being inspired by Bill Cosby, explaining why he bombed at a stand-up show Detroit (he was high) and providing nuanced commentary on his mixed feelings towards his hard-earned, then abandoned fame. Some of his bits feel a little dated and that may be due to his age or the gap between the recording and the release date. But still, few comedians can hit higher highs than Chappelle and the universe just feels better aligned when he’s onstage with a microphone.