Stand up and fall down

Posting has felt a little heavy of late - that last gun control installment really got me down - so let's have a laugh. Here are my favorite all-time comedy routines. No particular order, just as they came to me culled down to 10. Watch half of them and you won't need to do sit-ups for a week.


1. Eddie Izzard "Dress to Kill" - My family probably quotes this routine every day.

2. Robin Williams "An Evening at the Met" - Candidate for funniest man ever at the top of his game.

3. Richard Pryor "Live on the Sunset Strip" - Old school, consistently mentioned by other comedians as a game changer.

4. Stephen Banks "Home Entertainment Center" - One of the best things you're probably never seen or even heard of. A.D.D made hysterical.

5. George Carlin - he did like 15 specials for HBO, so take your pick. My personal preference is earlier as opposed to later as I think he got kind of bitter and mean towards the end, but even weak George is still funnier than most things.

6.Tim Allen "Men are Pigs" - Dated? Probably. Sexist? Definitely. Does is still make me laugh my ass off? Oh my yes.

7. Bob Nelson "Nelson Schmelson" - This special might not even be his best stuff, but you can search other short bits on YouTube until your stomach hurts. "Jiffy Jeff" and "Football All-Stars" are good searches.

8. Bill Cosby "Himself" - The Cos talking family and life,. Great, but please dig up his old albums:  "Wonderfulness", "Is a Very Funny Fellow", etc. Otherwise you will miss out on some of the best ever.

9. Jim Gaffigan "Mr. Universe" - Bacon and the weird whispering audience member.

10. Eddie Murphy "Delirious" - We can forget where Eddie started after so many movies - good and bad - but this bit for me is a got-to and way better - and less offensive - than "Raw".

Honorable mention because you probably missed it and it should be seen: Colin Quinn "Long Story Short". Jerry Seinfeld directed.

I am chagrined to notice that my list includes no women, which is no fault of Sarah Silverman, Paula Poundstone, Ellen DeGeneres, Janeane Garofalo or Wanda Sykes, to name a few. All brilliant, all hysterical and succeeded despite comedy being a boys' club, a fact I will somewhat sheepishly mention in my defense.

Culled from the list: Louis C.K., Lewis Black, Steven Wright, Gabriel Iglesias, Jeff Dunham.

Note: I was going to include video links to the list - had done so in fact - but a lot of them are probably in copyright violation so I removed them. You're on you own.