Who is the funniest person of all time?

Answer 1

Oh God...what a question...
There are SOOOO many people who are a danger to public health by being so funny.
Billy Connolly has to be up there - the invention, the enthusiasm, the relentless ability to make everybody from teenagers to old grannies wet themselves with laughter. I nearly die every time I play the DVD where he explains "How Yodelling Was Invented". Had a friend who swore he'd never go to see him live again because he feared his lungs might explode from too much laughter.

Richard Pryor's another one - the ability to take real, painful, relevant things and make people roar with laughter about them was Pryor's spectacular gift. Again, thinking of his impression of leopards hunting down a gazelle makes me want to howl with laughter.

I'd have to throw a hefty handful of votes in for Joseph Heller while we're at it - Catch-22 was pant-wettingly funny and terrifyingly poignant at the same time. Go Heller!

Kudos to the answerer who threw W C Fields into the mix - a true orignal and a magnificent gift to humanity. "Anyone who hates children and animals can't be all bad" - priceless.

In the same vein, I'd throw Groucho Marx into the running - "Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot."

Robin Williams, on form, in the 80s, was unbeatable by any contemporary. You had to be on speed to understand his comedy, but god damn, it was worth it! (Famously gave an audience member on "Inside The Actor's Studio" a HERNIA from laughing so much!)

I'd also throw Bill Bailey into the mix - the "medieval roadie", as he's sometimes known, has a frighteningly complex intelligence, a sense of the surreal second to none, and also plays a wicked death metal guitar - "There's more evil in the charts than in an Al-Qaeda suggestion box, really, isn't there?"

But being the Goatboy as you are, you know, ultimately, that my final vote is going to have to be for Mr William Melvin Hicks, who made it alright to exercise your brain in a funny way and still be passionately opposed to mediocrity, hackery and political and religious collusion with the forces of oppression. No-one else in my experience so far quite comes close to Hicks for the masterful use fo comedy not as a cluster-bomb, a palliative or a vehicle, but as a genuine scalpel to dissect the truth of things...

Answer 2

Steven Wright

Answer 3

Ernie Kovacks

Answer 4

Red Skelton

Answer 5

I know there are a lot of funny people and some just make me laugh standing there but I have to giveit to the one who always makes me smile no matter what, when I hear his voice my day is better just because I heard it..

Bugs Bunny

If you don't find a rabbit wearin' lipstick amusing, then we ain't got nothin' to say to each other.

Answer 6

Al Bundy

Answer 7

Bush

Answer 8

So many- I like Dave Chappelle, Katt Williams, a lot of local comedians I see.

Answer 9

My brother/sister in law. (He's the gay). Funniest person on the planet.

Answer 10

Richard Prior, during the height of his career, is largely regarded as the comedy-meister by his peers.