The 10 Greatest Stand-Up Comedy Specials Ever
7. Paula Poundstone, Cats, Cops, and Stuff
Paula Poundstone's salty badinage with her audiences is an unbeatable exercise in improvisation. The classic comedian (and exceptional Tweeter)'s 1990 HBO special sees her investigating an audience member whose mother "tore her face open on a lube rack."
6. Sam Kinison, Family Entertainment Hour
Seeing a comedian embrace monumental fame (and infamy) and use it to explode on the world stage is electric. In one of Sam Kinison's last specials, the caterwauling great addresses his critics, his indulgences and his arrest. He also elevates the time-waster of prank phone calls to a vengeful high art.
5. Steve Martin, A Wild and Crazy Guy
In the late '70s, no one gave a damn about Steve Martin except "everyone on Earth," as the comedian himself once noted. His special based on his best Saturday Night Live character is full of props, falls, delirium, and a strange patina of cool.
4. Chris Rock, Bring the Pain
Stand-up comedy was ready for a new Richard Pryor scion in the late '90s, and Chris Rock filled the void with alarming resonance. Now just over a decade old, his special Bring the Pain teems with iconography: The leather jacket, the giant monogram, the stage-stalking, the asthmatically convulsive audience. The post-millennial world is still waiting for a special to astound with this level of fearlessness.
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Comments
Dang. That's isthe most jacked up note I've heard today. But, I'm not sure, myself.
Geez. That's just about the most jacked up piece I've seen today. But somehow, I'm not positive, myself.
Angela Bonifield
Lovely just what I was searching for.Thanks to the author for taking his time on this one.
I have to disagree a little bit with this list. Although they are all amazing acts in their own right I feel that Bill Cosby "Himself's" stand up (he was actually sitting down the whole time) was absolutely amazing. That comedy show was clean but absolutely funny to the core. If you ever get a chance to watch it I highly recommend it.
Kathy Griffin has NEVER been funny. Seeing that entry at number 10 tells me you're list is PURE SHIT, and I'm through reading anything on this site...
Kathy Griffin and no Bill Hicks. That's a joke in of itself.
Thats nonsense in comparing Kathy Griffin to George Carlin with the "mannered" remark. George Carlin was a very mannered comedian who kept diligent records of his notes (purportedly a whole storage shed full), and practiced his routine over a long period of time
The fact that Patrice O'Neal's Elephant In The Room was excluded is criminal & insane.
Maybe you should try comedy, putting kathy griffin on this list, that's pretty hilarious. No Dave Chappelle, No Bill Hicks, No Patrice O'neal, no Louis CK, no Bill Burr.
No Louis C.K? The best social commentator since Carlin and one of the best, if not the best comedian alive? And more importantly - WHERE THE FUCK IS BILL HICKS? ...... Mr Bill fucking Hicks, one of the BEST of all time? The one who was telling like it was and did not give a shit about social outbrusts? If there is such thing as heaven (which there is not ,you fucking children 😛 ), he's probably smoking fat blunt with Carlin and Pryor, watching over Louis C.K. to make sure, that after his demise he will join them at the table of stand-up Gods (which is in the room resevred for people that not only made the audiance laugh, but also think).
BILL fuckin' HICKS !! Member of the Holy Trinity (Carlin + Pryor + Hicks = Carprycks)
plus Louis C.K. who sould easily be in top 5.
What is wrong with the person who made this list! And the funny thing is that I'm from Poland, english is my second language and all those comedians are unknown to polish audiance, simply because they don't broadcast any of them (but I have no idea how they would translate some word-play jokes).
And yet I have to "fight" for the memory of Bill and for the inclusion of ginger comedian in the name of equality, political corectness and his fucking brilliant material which he changes every year.
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