Sept. 13, 2026

Rolling Stone’s 2017 ‘50 Best Stand-Up Comics’: Who Holds Up in 2026

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac cold-reads and reacts to Rolling Stone’s “50 Best Stand-Up Comics of All Time” list from Feb. 14, 2017, noting the magazine’s modern-stand-up criteria and reassessing choices nearly a decade later. He questions or comments on many rankings (including Wanda Sykes, Aziz Ansari, Reggie Watts, Tig Notaro, Patton Oswalt, Jonathan Winters, Mitch Hedberg, and others), flags some comics as forgotten, and highlights entries like Gary Shandling, Dick Gregory, Redd Foxx, Rodney Dangerfield, Eddie Murphy, and Dave Chappelle. He discusses the complications of figures like Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, and Louis C.K., and explains that Louis C.K.’s cancellation came after the list. He concludes that a current list would differ, citing names like John Mulaney and Nate Bargatze and noting omissions such as Jim Gaffigan.

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A little different today. I'm doing this one on the fly.

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So recently I was recording an episode and I referenced

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Rolling Stone's 50 Best Stand-Up Comics of All Time, which

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was published February 14th, 2017. And I haven't looked at this.

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I'm doing this cold. I just thought it'd be interesting

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together to go through this list and see how we

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feel about it. nearly 10 years later. I don't know

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how this episode is going to go. We're doing this

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on the fly here. Back in 2017, Rolling Stone said,

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and coming up with our version of a comic canon,

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we weighed artistic merit, technical proficiency, and sense of timing,

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quality of their written material, their delivery, and degree of influence,

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and often their sense of what makes something anything funny.

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No disrespect to the foundational figures who shaped the earliest incarnations,

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but this list tiptoes past some of the early craftsmen,

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and focuses on the unique voices who have helped push

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stand-up forward in more recent days. These 50 stand-ups best

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embody what we've come to expect of our modern-day comedians. Okay,

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so that's fair. So that eliminates, you know, do we

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have to talk about Mark Twain or Bob Hope or anybody?

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So we're doing modern stand-up. Now, I don't know where

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Rolling Stone considers the line. It's usually around Lenny Bruce

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or very early George Carlin is where that line is drawn.

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At number 50... They have Wanda Sykes. Now I have

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to see some more names, but initially I'm looking at

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this and going, Wanda Sykes is in the top 50.

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Now we're just starting. I don't know who's not on

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this list, but already 10 years later, I'm like, Wanda Sykes? 49.

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Aziz Ansari. How do you feel about that 10 years later?

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That's crazy talk, isn't it? Again, I don't know who's

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on the list or not on the list yet, but

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Aziz is crazy to have him as one of the

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top standups of all time. That's nutty. 48. Margaret Cho. 47.

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Elaine Boosler. Now she has become forgotten. Rolling Stone wrote,

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imagine the prototypical female comic of the 1980s. Big hair,

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suit jacket with shoulder pads. I like the shoulder pads.

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And sleeves rolled up. The brick wall behind her. You're

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imagining Elaine Boosler. At a time in which women comedians

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were not talking about sex, Boosler addressed it head on. 46,

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Reggie Watts. I mean, really? Reggie Watts? One of the

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top 50 stand-ups of all time? Nine years ago? Are

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you insane? Plus, he's a little canceled right now. Crazy, crazy, crazy. 45,

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Freddie Prinze. He's forgotten. Do you even know who this is,

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younger listener? The reason you might not is because the charming,

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mustached kid had nothing but potential, but he got caught

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up in 70s drug culture and had problems dealing with

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a dizzying rise to fame after sitcom Chico and the

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Man took off. Freddie died by suicide at age 22.

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He only had one album called Looking Good and one

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early HBO special. But yeah, he was huge for five

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minutes there. Number 44, Russell Peters. Top 50. 43, Amy Schumer.

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I wonder where she'd fall on a list in 2026. 42,

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Phyllis Diller. Somebody you don't hear much about right now. 41,

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Bernie Mac. 40, Gary Shandling. I should throw him in

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the deep dives as well. He's become forgotten. I've got

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to add to my list here for the deep dives.

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Hold on. I'm going to hit pause on the recording

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and leave myself a note. Note has been left. I

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forgot how much I liked Gary Shaling. I feel like

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Gary Shaling has gotten summarized as just a guy that

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hosted Larry Sanders, or maybe you remember he was one

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of the two permanent guest hosts of The Tonight Show.

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He was in rotation with Jay Leno there. There's definitely

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an alternate universe where Gary Shaling got 1130. Rolling Stone

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in 2017 wrote, watch any of Gary Shandling's specials. They

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recommend Alone in Vegas and you'll see a charming neurotic

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burying Una's looks in his failure with women in an

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attempt to let the audience breathe easily. He told GQ

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in 2010, what I want to happen is that I

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talk for an hour and the audience doesn't realize it's

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funny until they're driving home. Number 39, Moms Mabley. I

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am ignorant about Moms Mabley's career, so I will not

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comment on whether that is a good pick or not. 38,

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Roseanne Barr. Times change over a decade, don't they? 37,

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Sam Kinison. Sam was a shooting star, man. When he

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was hot, he was hot, but I'm not sure he

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lasted long enough. 37 probably feels about right to me.

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Rolling Stone wrote, It's being a little kind, actually. He

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would occasionally acknowledge why he never groused about the evils

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of men. Because a man never broke my heart. A

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man never made me want to drive my car into

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an effing wall. 36. Daniel Kitson, who I'm ignorant about.

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Fusing stand-up and theater into carefully structured solo ventures, this

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British comic scrutinizes bits of his biography while contemplating bigger issues,

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the nature of time, memory, and individual perception. I don't

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know anything about Daniel, so I can't judge. 35. Do

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you hear the reaction? Okay, in 2017, somebody at Rolling Stone...

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Thought of the top 50 comedians of all time. That

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Tig Notaro was number 35. Star Trek ruiner Tig Notaro. No, no, no, no, no. 34.

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Another Star Trek ruiner, Patton Oswalt. All these comedians went

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on to ruin Star Trek. 33. Wow. Here's a name.

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Janine Garofalo? When's the last time you thought about stand-up

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comedian Janine Garofalo? 32. Patrice O'Neill I have shared on

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this podcast. I did not enjoy The Man's Company. He

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loved to F with people, and when I'm working, I

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just try and be professional, so be professional back, dude.

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The comedians love Patrice O'Neill. I did not enjoy the man,

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so I am biased here. He's number 32. 31. Sarah Silverman.

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Almost top 30 of all time. I mean, Sarah's nice

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and all, but I mean, you know what? The more

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I think about it, her last two specials have been great,

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and I've had them above my top of the year.

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All right, maybe I got to reevaluate Sarah Silverman. Maybe

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that's not crazy. 30, Woody Allen. And when I said

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Woody Allen, you kind of went, ugh. Yeah, so it's

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hard to judge Woody Allen's career. I wonder if Mr.

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Cosby's on this list. So let's just move on. 29,

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Dick Gregory. I'm under-familiar with Dick Gregory. Rolling Stone told

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us since breaking out while working at the Playboy Club

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back in the day, Dick Gregory has been at the

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forefront of the fight for civil rights in his comedy

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and in life. He was jailed at Selma, shot during

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the Watts riots of 1965, ran for president in 68,

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and always, always brought the struggle to the stage. confronted

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by a southern waitress who told him, we don't serve

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colored people here. He said, I don't need colored people nowhere.

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Bring me a whole fried chicken. That is funny. Dick Gregory,

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number 29. 28, Robert Klein, another one of those pioneers

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of 70s comedy whose name you don't hear, but gotta

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respect the work. Do you like observation on autobiographical stand-up,

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asks Rolling Stone. You have Robert Klein to thank. When

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he recorded his first special for HBO in 1975, the

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very first stand-up concert the premium cable channel ever aired,

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He enjoyed his linguistic freedoms and said it's subscription and

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then dropped an S word. But Johnny Mac likes to

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keep it clean. Rolling Stone correctly says Robert Klein's rhythm

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would highly influence comics like Jerry Seinfeld. Highly influenced. Doing

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a lot of work in that sentence. Red Fox at

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number 27. If you've never listened to Red Fox comedy,

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it is a wonderful wordplay. And we'll take the break

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into number 26, Rodney Dangerfield. We'll come back. We'll look

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at the top 25 of Rolling Stone's top 50 best

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stand-up comics of all time from 2017. We continue. It's

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Rolling Stone's 50 best stand-up comics of all time as

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written in 2017. At number 25, Eddie Murphy. If you're

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old like me, you loved Eddie Murphy until you got

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a little older and realized it was all just a

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Richard Pryor cover act. It was still funny. It's still great.

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But it's a Richard Pryor cover act. Rolling Stone writes,

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in his magic moment, Eddie Murphy saw stand-up comedy transform

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into rock star art. The SNL breakout star strutted, preened,

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and doused the audience in sex like Let It Bleed-era

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Mick Jagger. That is a good comparison. Listen to the

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crowds in the films Raw and Delirious. They're not at

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a comedy show, they're getting lit at a party in

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which pants might be optional. Some of Murphy's Act from

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those days hasn't aged well, but certain bits like the

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one about the ice cream man will remain evergreen. Yeah,

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you listen to some of that stuff and it's like, oh,

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times have changed. Number 24, Eddie Izzard. 23, Don Rickles. 22,

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Jonathan Winters. I never got or enjoyed a Jonathan Winters.

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I feel like that picks too high. 21, Bob Newhart.

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Number 20. Okay. Now, I'm going to say a name.

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If you're a long-time listener, you know I love this person.

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A decade has gone by, and I feel like this

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is way too high because the body of work just

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isn't there. But you know that I love. Number 20,

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Mitch Hedberg. They write jokes like, when I was a boy,

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I laid in my twin-size bed and wondered where my

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brother was. Or, Every book is a children's book if

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the kid can read. Only gave you a sense of

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Hedberg's wonderful efficiency. He also paid a high degree of

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attention to syntax. And while some of his jokes bordered

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on dad material, he's a hippopotamus, just a really cool potamus.

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But it was all just a way for him to

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show his audience that they should be looking through the groovy,

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rose-colored lenses he had on, seemingly all the time. His

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hit-to-miss ratio was off the charts. He was great, but

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there's just not the body of work there that the

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others have. Number 19, Albert Brooks. Rolling Stone wrote in 2017,

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back when he was a stand-up, Albert Brooks was as

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interested in how comedy works as whether it worked. His

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record Comedy Minus One was just half a routine with

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lots of dead air for you, the listener, to perform

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the other half with the lines printed in and an

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insert provided. That's insane. 18, Kevin Hart. And they were

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saying this 10 years ago. Interesting pick. 17, Bill Burr.

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I would guess over the past decade, Bill Burr would

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move up on such a list. Sixteen, Billy Connolly. Fifteen,

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Stephen Wright. Fourteen, Andy Kaufman. That's an interesting pick. They wrote,

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even if Andy Kaufman hadn't wrestled women for the Intergender

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Wrestling Championship, hadn't created abusive, overly hacky, alter ego Tony Clifton,

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and hadn't took his entire audience at Carnegie Hall out

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for milk and cookies, he would still be a legend.

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An audience-baiting bit of performance art Hoffman's career was the

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country's first major introduction with what's sometimes called anti-comedy. 13.

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Bill Hicks. I'm sure Dennis Leary would agree. You don't

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hear much about Bill Hicks these days. 12. Robin Williams.

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Some people have accused Robin Williams of being a comedy thief,

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but the man knew how to perform. 11. Steve Martin. Now,

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this is one of those interesting things of, you know,

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you hang around long enough and people forget, but Steve

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Martin was a rock star comedian in the 70s. You

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listen to the material now, and you're like, what? But

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back in the day, okay. Ten, Mort Sahl. Okay, Rolling

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Stone is being artsy here. They said, when Mort Sahl

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was playing the hungry eye in San Francisco during the 60s,

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he brought a new informality to weighty issues. Casually clad

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in red cordigan and button-down shirt, a newspaper folded under

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his arm, he riffed on politics in a way no

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one had heard before. All right. And into the top nine,

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I guess. We're already into the top ten. Back in 2017,

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Rolling Stone has, at number nine, Dave Chappelle. I think

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Dave might rank higher these days if we were to

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redo the list, and that is high praise. Eight, Bill Cosby. Again,

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Rolling Stone wrote, his legacy is beyond tarnished now, but

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without Bill Cosby, there would be no Richard Pryor, no

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Dave Chappelle, no Louis C.K. As a comic and storyteller,

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he advanced the art of stand-up by leaps and bounds.

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If we just judge the work, absolutely. If we judge

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the man, it's a lot more complicated, but here we

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are judging the work. Someday Bill Cosby will pass away,

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and I will tell you a story. Number seven, Jerry Seinfeld. Now,

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a decade later, would Jerry have moved up or down?

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Probably slightly moved up. I feel like Jerry's just more

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and more revered as time goes on. And I think

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10 years later, he would absolutely move ahead of number six,

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Joan Rivers, who is starting to become a little forgotten. Five,

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Chris Rock. In 2017, they had Chris Rock ahead of

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Jerry Seinfeld. Would you rank them that way these days?

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I don't think so. There was a time, probably 15

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years ago, at the Las Vegas Comedy Special, I saw

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Rock and Seinfeld on back-to-back nights at Caesars in Las Vegas,

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I think. And that was the order. Rock, and then

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the next night, Jerry. I walked out of Chris Rock going, wow,

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that's stand-up comedy at the top. And then I saw

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Jerry the next night, and Jerry was even better. So

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I would have to flip the ranking there. I am

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not dissing Chris Rock, but I would move Jerry up. Four.

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Louis C.K., It's 2017. When was C.K. canceled? John, you

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host the show. You tell us. OK, the infamous New

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York Times, Louis C.K. is accused by five women of

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sexual misconduct. Article came out November 9th, 2017. And this

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article came out February 14th, 2017. OK, so about eight

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months or so. You do the math. I didn't do it.

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They had Louis C.K. as the fourth greatest all-time stand-up comedian. Now,

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we haven't said Pryor, we haven't said Carlin, we haven't

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said whoever they have at number three that I'm obviously forgetting.

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But back then, when he was number four, Rolling Stone wrote,

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the tall redhead had been working comedy clubs across the

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country for decades, making his bones along with countless other stand-ups.

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But somewhere around the time, he called his four-year-old an

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a-hole and imagined his wife giving him a favor, the

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saddest favor in America. The next level artist we now

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know as Louis C.K. was reborn with a vengeance, starting

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with his 2007 special Shameless. He turned a guy slinging

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penis jokes and absurdist one-liners into a guy slinging penis

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jokes and rigorously honest stories about his life and those

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closest to him. Since then, CK has challenged himself to

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deliver on an unprecedented scale. The self-deprecating social critic has

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crafted many hours of new material, one almost every year,

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and let the material go after recording it. In these specials,

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he not only mapped the mind of a lazy, horny,

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gluttonous dude who happens to be a dad, but a

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culture of entitlement, which everything is amazing and nobody's happy.

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This is what a comic genius looks like, wrote Rolling

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Stone eight months before Louis C.K. was canceled. Number three,

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Lenny Bruce, which leaves the big two. And on any list,

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you can flip the order around. Depends on your personal preference.

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My personal preference is the opposite of how Rolling Stone

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had it. George Carlin at number two. And Richard Pryor, obviously,

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I didn't even have to look. would be number one

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on the list. They wrote, at his Acme, which was

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caught on tape and specials, including live in concert and

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live on the Sunset Strip, Pryor was untouchable. Won't argue

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with them. It's a personal preference once you get that far.

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And that is a look back at Rolling Stone's 50

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best stand-up comics of all time from 2017. Now, just

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off the top of my mind, if we made this

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list today, I didn't say words like Mulaney would probably

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be pretty far up these days. Bregazzi right? Not even

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on the radar 10 years ago. We had a list

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with Wanda Sykes on it, but no Nate Bregazzi 10

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years ago. Would you have Sebastian Maniscalco on a list?

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I'm not doing research. I'm just going off the top

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of my head. Is Nikki Glaser on a list of

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these days? Jim Gaffigan, not on the top 50 on

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a list that had Wanda Sykes and Margaret Cho and

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whoever else I didn't like at the bottom of the list.

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No Jim Gaffigan. Now, Jim won't call you back, but

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he should be on the list ahead of Aziz Ansari.

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He won't call you back either, right? Yeah. So these

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things change. And if we make a current list, I'm

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sure it would be a lot different. And I'm sure

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you're screaming in your phone right now going, John, you

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totally forgot about so-and-so. Again, I'm just doing this off

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the top of my head. Anyway, a fun little diversion.

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And that is your comedy news for today. I'll catch

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you tomorrow.