Dec. 29, 2025

Reaction to Billboard's Top 25 Stand-Up Comedians - did they get The Top 5 right and the three they got WRONG

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac comments on Billboard's list of the Top 25 Comedians of the 21st Century....there are three names that should NOT be on here. How did they do for teh Top 5? Let's look and listen...

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Kalaroga Shark Media either Johnny Mack with Your Daily Comedy News.

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This is a sequel to yesterday's episode. It is the

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rest of the list from Billboard dot com. They have

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listed the top twenty five stand up comedians of the

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twenty first century. In yesterday's episode, I covered twenty five

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through sixteen. We were up to Ricky Gervais. As usual,

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when I do these list episodes, I don't like to

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look at them in advance because I want to just

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react and I'm really really curious and fearful what we're

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about to find out here, all right? Scrolling down number

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fifteen is Mitch Hedberg. Good, good pick. I have to

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remember to add him to my list, which I'll probably

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do as tomorrow's episode Mitch Hedburgh one of my favorites.

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I'm glad that they included him here, as Mitch passed

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away at age thirty seven and two thousand and five,

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so didn't have all that longer career in the twenty

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first century. Billboard writes, Hedberg's time among comedy's top ranksted

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less than ten years, ushered in by a breakthrough in

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nineteen ninety six on David Letterman's show Edberg left behind

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just one comedy special, two albums, plus the posthumous third album,

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and an indelible legacy. Time magazine suggested in nineteen ninety

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eight that Heedburg could become the next Seinfeld. Number fourteen

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Dave Attell great pick and if you listened to yesterday's episode,

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I explained who has put together this list for Billboard,

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and I really respect the hell out of them. Billboard writes,

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if you never experienced in New York in the nineties, check

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out a tell. The gritty, economically strapped, crack and crime

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infested city at that time runs through his DNA. The

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scruffy beard, dark worn jacket over gray hoodie eccessorized with

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a similarly colorless beanie or baseball cap, screams nineteen ninety

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two Afternoon Bar regular, But make no mistake, utel Mey

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look old scale, but he's just as hilarious in this

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century as he was the last one. A great pick.

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Number thirteen. Oh my god, I'm not even doing a

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bit here. I just scrolled down and I'm like, are

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you effing serious? Adam Sandler seriously absolutely not, no, no, no.

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They talk about his movies, but this is a stand

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up list. Billboard writes he's not to be underestimated as

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a stand up comedian. The Brooklyn born New Hampshire Race

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Sandler finished number nine among Billboard's box score Top grossing

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comics of twenty three and twenty four The Sandman as

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a master storyteller with an acrobatic voice. Sandler also does

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musical comedy. Well, I will absolutely disagree on that. Boy,

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that is just a terrible pick. If you listen to

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the show, you know my opinions on Adam Sandler comedy

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and no, absolutely one of the top twenty five. Absolutely

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not a right Number twelve Nateprighatsy. I think this is

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way overrated. I mean, he's nice, but I don't know.

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When I finish my list, I'll see if he makes it.

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But twelve is absurdly high. You're gonna tell me Nate

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is better than Hedberg. You're gonna tell me Nate is

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better than Dave Attel. You're gonna tell me Nate is

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better than Jim Gaffigan. No, No, and no, absolutely not.

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Crazy talk. Number eleven even more crazy talk? Are you

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serious with this list? Billboard? Sebastian Maniscal. My current opinion

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is Sebastian is just doing a version that I call

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old man Dice Clay. Like if Dice turned sixty and

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decided I should curse a little bit less, you'd wind

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up with whatever Sebastian's doing right now. That's a horrible pick,

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all right. Number ten Robin Williams. Interesting. I wouldn't have

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thought about Robin, but let's say what Billboard has to say.

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Robin williams last stand up tour took place in two

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thousand and eight, and the HBO special that resulted, Weapons

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of Self Destruction came in two thousand and nine. Williams

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passed away in twenty fourteen. See, I would think of

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him more as a twentieth century stand up I don't

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think this pick is ridiculous. Robin Williams was really good

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on stage. I don't think I'll include him on my list.

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Number nine Maria Bamford. Now this is really interesting. The

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people that like Maria Bamford, love Maria Bamford, and the

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rest of us are like, yeah, she's fine, not gonna

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make my list again. The people who love her right

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now are throwing their sneaker at the wall, going, Johnny Mack,

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you don't know what you're talking about. I've seen her

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live and it was fine. Okay, next up, Number eight,

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really interesting pick here. My initial reaction to it is

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negative and thinking this is kind of crazy. I know

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people love this guy, but number eight. Norm MacDonald eight

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above Jim Gaffigan. Billboard rights, the comedian, who died in

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twenty twenty one at the age of sixty one, is

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revered as a comedy warrior whose deadpan comedy style and storytelling,

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like his extended joke about a troubled moth, were as

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fearless as they were unique. See I think of him

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more as great on the desk doing appearances on Conan.

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He's got a wonderful comedy album that I love, but

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it's more sketches with There's the Gambling Sportscaster and the

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Fantastic Four sketch and a Superman sketch all on that

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one album. I'm not sure the body of work is there.

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Billboard all right. Number seven Kevin Hart hard to argue.

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We can argue a replacement, but not crazy nine specials,

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thirty movies, more TV shows than that, and multiple streaming partnerships.

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Johnny mcoay says the man likes to work. Billboard writes,

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so when heart reconnects to his power base, as he

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did in his recent Netflix special Acting My Age, which

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I had high up on my list this year. It's

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a bracing reminder of what's driving all that activity. Relentless

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jokes and stories that seem like conversational observations but are

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in fact owned by years of restless roadwork. Not crazy

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all right. Number six Jerry Seinfeld. Now in the twenty

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first century. I saw Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock on

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back to back nights at the Las Vegas Comedy Festival,

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and Chris Rock was way better than everybody else until

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the next night when Jerry Seinfeld went up and was

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way better than Chris Rock. I do associate Seinfeld with

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the nineties. But let's see what Billboard has to say.

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Where this list compiled at the end of the twentieth century,

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Seinfeld would almost certainly have topped it. Because it's twenty

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five years into the twenty first century, Seinfeld will have

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to settle for being the wealthiest comedian. And make no mistake,

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Seinfeld is still Hella funny and his comedy has grown.

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No Moss has been on AI, which includes a refund

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why Frankenstein wore a sport coat in the original Universal

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Monster Movies is a beautiful thing. So we're up to

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the top five, which seems like a good time to

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take a break, and boy, I'm scared continuing bill Board's

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Best Comedians of the twenty first century. Number five Bill

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Burr not absurd, although I think his last special is

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a bit of a fall off. Hey, that happens to everyone,

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including all the great home run hitters. And I guess

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Bill Burr is doing just fine. After playing the Reod

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Comedy Festival earlier this year, he apparently is the fifth

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best stand up of the twenty first century. Really solid.

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Who doesn't like Bill Burr's comedy? Can't nitpick that one?

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You know, with all of these we can pick placement,

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but not absurd. Also not absurd at all, And a

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really strong pick is John Mullenie at number four. All right,

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So if mullanie is at four, I'm just thinking off

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the top of my head. So c K's left, Chappelle

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is left? Who else is left that I'm not thinking about?

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This is going to be interesting, Okay? They right? Malani

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has made the combination of the extraordinary, unusual and extraordinarily

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funny sort of his thing, whether he's wrestling with a

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bunch of fourteen year old boys on the Netflix show

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or plotting the death of a non essential grandparent to

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get the attention to Craves in elementary school in Baby

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j Perhaps most fascinating is the four plus minute been

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on Donald Trump's first administration from the twenty eighteen special

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Kid Gorgeous at Radio City, which never once mentions Trump's name.

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All right, number three, Louis c K. All right, so

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Chappelle's gonna be up there? Who's the other one that

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I'm forgetting? I know you're screaming at your phone right now, going,

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how are you forgetting so and so? But all right,

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Louis Ck, just back from Riodd Millboard writes, you may

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have arguments about CK's behavior and its consequences, but no

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one ever accused him of not being funny. His behavior

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derailed a career of women comics, and eventually his own

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career was derailed in turn canceled. Not so much. Do

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you learn anything from it all? Insert shrug emoji here,

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very very fair, All right, I'm just curious here because

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Chapelle's gonna be one of the last two. Who am

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I forgetting here? Let me scroll down two. Chris Rock. Oh,

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of course, I'm so stupid. Have you been screaming at

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the wall for the last ten minutes? I was afraid

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they were gonna like throw out like Amy Schumer or

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something like incredibly absurd? Of course, Chris Rock. I even

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name checked Chris Rock five minutes ago as the second

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best side felt Okay, yeah, of course Chris Rock. Yeah, duh,

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I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. If you've been throwing things

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for the last five minutes, I'm stupid. Sometimes. In two

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thousand and four, Chris Rock titled his fourth special Never Scared.

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In his most recent special, twenty twenty three, Selective Outrage,

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he looks around and finds he's the only unafraid person

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left standing. Rock and lay claimed in the mantles of

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both Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy. His work is personally

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and politically charged the way priors was. But he's also

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a mainstream star on screens both big and small. Most

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of all, he's a no hold barred stand up in comedy.

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No one and nothing is safe. All right, great, pick

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I feel so stupid or I'm gonna scroll down here.

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It has to be Chappelle, right, I'm not gonna scroll

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down or they're gonna be like Tony Hitchcliff is the

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best comedian and I'm gonna like lose my mind. Right,

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this has to be Dave Chappelle. I'm scared. Number one

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is Dave Chappelle, who I was scary there for a second.

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Billboard writes, like the Marvel superhero Daredevil, Chappelle is the

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man with no fear. His critics might say that also,

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like the Marvel superhero, he's blind, so that her anger

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he to the trans community. Looking strictly through the lens

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of comedy, however, Chappelle is the greatest comic of the

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century so far. Some say he's the goat, and that

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may prove true, but that's for another list. Good pick

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let me fly through the whole list for you again

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twenty five, John Stewart No. Twenty four, Billy Connolly No.

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Twenty three, Trevor Noah twenty two, Jim gaffikin Way Too

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Low twenty one, and Gabe Iglesias twenty, Sarah Silverman nineteen,

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Ali Wong No. Eighteen. Patrese O'Neal didn't like him, but

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he was good seventeen. Wanda Sykes No. Sixteen, Ricky Gervais fifteen,

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Hebberg fourteen to Tel thirteen, Sailor is insanity, twelve Naite

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Berghatzy is kind of crazy. Eleven Sebastian is even more crazy.

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Ten Robin Williams nine, Bamford eight, Norm seven, Kevin Hart

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six Seinfeld and then Burr Mulaney, c K, Rock, Chappelle.

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That top five is super solid. I've been scrolling down

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some names here. I haven't ranked this at all, just

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names that I've thrown in my word document. I've written

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the words Chappelle, Burmulaney, c K, Trevor Gaffigan, Sarah Goleman,

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Gary Goldman, Hello, Kyle Kanaan, Jimmy Carr, Matt Rife with

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a question mark. Think about it. He's the body works

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better than you think. Dane Cook, Hello everybody, twenty first century,

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Dane Cook. I kind of want to acknowledge the blue

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collar guys and maybe Foxworthy, because that tour was huge

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and started a whole thing from which Nate Brighetsi's even

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benefiting these days. How about George Lopez, We forgot about him, Hebburg, Hotel,

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Kevin and Rock. But I'll see what I wound up

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putting together, and you know, I still need to think

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about this a little bit more. All Right, nice job, Billboard.

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That could have been a lot more screen Ricky. And

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that is your comedy news for today, See you tomorrow.