The Standard Bearers
Doug Stanhope
The inheritor of the Lenny-Carlin-Hicks line; his social commentary is stunningly on-the-mark and utterly trenchant. I’ve only seen him live once, but I actually, literally plotzed for the first time in my life. And he gets bonus points for name-checking Derek Edwards in his book.
Marc Maron
I’m very big on Maron too, and not only because he’s maintaining the old Jewish man’s ennui tradition in comedy (though if you agree with the “old” part you can go fuck yourself, because I’m young and he’s younger than I am).
If you don’t know those two, you’ve gotta get current.
These people kill, and you’ve probably never heard of them
Anthony Jeselnik
Jeselnik is a fucking assassin. With every joke comes a setup that you know is a diversion, but you still have no idea where the kill shot is going to come from. Most people only know him from the Trump roast (which runs hot and cold and he only appeared on because Greg Giraldo died). There should be a lot more of his stuff out there, but I think he scares people.
Gary Gulman
So smart, and his bits have depth and detail that draw you in like crazy. His piece on “Role Play” is amazing because you really have to work to keep up with it and not lose track of which character layer he’s in. Funny coincidence: He did a knockout piece on Trump vs. Gates – years before Trump became SCROTUS. Another comic who should be way better known.
Daryl Lenox
I love this guy. For a unique point of view (pun intended), you just can’t beat a mostly-blind black American who spent a bunch of years living in Canada.
And now, the unfunniest “comics” in the world
Dane Cook
The Nickelback of standup comedy. (In “Everything Trump Touches Dies”, Rick White calls Trump “the Nickelback of presidents”. Applying the mathematical concept of transitivity, then, that makes Nickelback the Trump of music. I think that about covers it.)
Iliza Shlesinger
I have to admit to having only seen her “Elder Millennial” special, but if it’s typical of her act, I don’t even get why she’s called a “comedian”. She’s certainly smart and observational, which is what makes this so confusing. It’s a performance, but there’s no art in it, so it’s not performance art. What she actually does is lecture, punctuating it with awkward physical poses, annoying voices, and mugging. During her act she refers to her “jokes”, but there really isn’t anything funny about them. Not a single giggle from this side of the glass, though to hear the audience you’d think that George Carlin just rose from the grave with a fresh head of long blonde hair. And if you think I’m just being sexist, here are just a few current funny bitches who slay me: Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer, Niki Glaser. I’d probably add Whitney Cummings to the list, but I don’t think she actually exists because that’s too much of a porn name to believe.
But Shlesinger is rippin’ hot in those high-waisted pants and bare midriff.
Larry the Cable Guy
Of the Southern crew, there are some pretty damn funny guys, including Jeff Foxworthy, Ron White, and Bill Engvall. Unfortunately, LtCG isn’t among them, though he has been known to tour with them. Along with Dane Cook, I’ll change the station rather than subject myself to his redneck pastiche. In his book, David Cross outed LtCG as a complete phony – it’s a hilarious takedown.
Nitpicking Bastard 