After previewing Kathy Griffin's newest stand-up special a couple days ago, I wondered why the art of the stand-up special seems to have withered in an age where a simple one-liner can become the most popular video on the Internet. The best stand-up specials of all time remain compulsively consumable gems years later, well after Comedy Central stopped using them to pad its daily schedule. Movieline has compiled its 10 favorite specials after the jump with the hope of honoring a format that deserves to stay relevant forever. Banjos and mic stands ready!
10. Kathy Griffin, Allegedly
Say what you will about Kathy Griffin's place alongside traditionally observant icons like Bill Cosby, but the woman practically invented her own form of stand-up. In Allegedly, she broke down the hierarchy of Hollywood's status-obsessed culture to staggering effect. She may not be a mannered comedian (she even claims not to prepare a single line of dialogue ahead of time), but that's what makes her a legend: She's George Carlin as filtered through Louella Parsons.
9. Dana Carvey, Critic's Choice
Dana Carvey's post-SNL career hasn't lived up to his genius, but his '90s HBO special Critic's Choice takes his best character material and punctuates it with droll observational material. His riff on singer-songwriters and their onstage tics is as hilarious as his more familiar "Choppin' Broccoli" shtick.
8. Robin Williams, An Evening with Robin Williams
Everything about Williams' 1982 special is iconic: The manic infiltration of his audience, the schizoid pacing, the rapid-shifting character voices aided by Williams' Juilliard training. While he'd go onto Oscar-winning prestige, this era will always be Williams' funnest.
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.
3. George Carlin, Carlin at Carnegie
To pick a "best" Carlin special is impossible, but Carlin at Carnegie saw the dirty-word-hocking comedian embrace the world's most prestigious stage. Though the video below may seem like a less provocative sketch in the late master's oeuvre, it proves the Carlin is also unmatched when it comes to the greatest comedian skill of all: Reading an audience.
2. Eddie Murphy, Delirious
Norbit who? Daddy Day what? All of your dubious Eddie Murphy associations disintegrate upon re-watching Delirious, the 1983 HBO special that launched Murphy from SNL whiz kid to bona fide superstar. Behind the rage-red leather suit and caricature voices, Murphy was a man who knew how to relate. Have you thought of an ice-cream truck the same since?
1. Richard Pryor, Live on the Sunset Strip
Was there any doubt? Richard Pryor's 1982 special is an unfiltered lecture in cultural awareness that doubles as slam poetry. The tricky part of a provocateur's job is remaining accessible enough to be liked, and Pryor managed to only become more endearing as he continued to probe taboos, societal woes, indulgences, and the mystery of women, sometimes all wrapped up within the space of 30 seconds. Live on the Sunset Strip also happens to be a timeless viewing experience 30 years later. Perfection.