Bestest 4 funny men from these shores or from anywhere?

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ayceejay

Guru
Location
Rural Quebec
Perhaps I am nit picking but a funny man is not the same as a comedian. For instance, by his own admission Ronnie Barker claimed that he was not a funny man but could act like one. Tommy Cooper and Spike Milligan on the other hand could make you laugh without saying a word.
Billy Connolly is a funny man.
 
U

User6179

Guest
Spike Milligan
Rowan Atkinson
Michael Palin
Peter Sellers
 

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
Four? Hmm, here's ten off the top of my head... there are probably many others I've forgotten:

Buster Keaton (the best modern clown)
Jacques Tati (the second best modern clown)
Kenneth Williams (seriously, if you haven't heard his radio work, especially on Round the Horne, you should...)
Eric Idle (the funniest of the Pythons)
John Cleese (as others have said, before 1978 - and, the second funniest Python; Fawlty Towers is perhaps the perfect (anti-)sitcom...)
Woody Allen (as a gag-writer, he's unsurpassed)
Bill Hicks (can't beat what Bollo said about him above)
Bill Murray (he only has one facial expression, but it may be the funniest, saddest expression ever...)
Dermot Morgan (AKA Father Ted)
Chris Morris (the satirist Britain deserved)
 

byegad

Legendary Member
Location
NE England
Spine Milligna* definitely.
Eric and Ernie, definitely.
No. 4 is much more difficult, Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Peter Cook, John Cleese and many others deserve to be in there, but I cant narrow number 4 down to one person.

* That well known typo'.
 
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Beebo

Firm and Fruity
Location
Hexleybeef
Perhaps I am nit picking but a funny man is not the same as a comedian.
This is very true, these three "funny men" they arent real people but are very funny. Alan Partridge, David Brent, Rigsby. I dont find Ricky Gervais funny as a real person, but David Brent is hillarious. Steve Coogan isnt as funny without his Alan Partridge wig on, and Leonard Rossiter nailed it as Rigsby.

The one comedian who has been missed from the above lists is Kenny Everett - he was just a very funny man, who broke down convention.


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Herbie

Herbie

Veteran
Location
Aberdeen
Perhaps I am nit picking but a funny man is not the same as a comedian. For instance, by his own admission Ronnie Barker claimed that he was not a funny man but could act like one. Tommy Cooper and Spike Milligan on the other hand could make you laugh without saying a word.
Billy Connolly is a funny man.

good points re Milligan and Cooper Barker was more of a comedy actor but a brilliant and very clever one
 
Some good suggestions. it will vary over time.

Among those I've nearly split my sides to are: Bill Hicks, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, Owen O'Neill, Stewart Lee, Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Eddie Izzard, Ricky Gervais. As a child or very young man, I was gigled up by The Two Ronnies, Monty Python (all), The Goodies and Mel Brooks (not all of those are stand-up).

Of those, probably only Eddie Izzard and Stewart Lee would get a glance from me if I saw they were on somewhere.

A weird thing has happened to comedy lately with its Rock'n'Rollification. A small but undistinguished group of music-hall men and full-offence scatter-gun artists has taken over the airwaves and seem all to host quiz shows which give further oxygen to their pals. None is exceptional and it all feels slightly cartel-like to the viewer.
 

pplpilot

Guru
Location
Knowle
really tough this...

for me in no particular order.

Atkinson / Elton purely for giving us Blackadder.
Bit of a nobber now but you can't deny Gervais has produced some wonderful observational stuff.
I really like Coogan, I thought Saxondale was some of his best?
Barker, nothing more to be said. His role in Porridge was sublime.
George Carlin I liked.
Hicks was of his time.

oh and anyone that can do the Aristocrats joke as good as Gilbert Gottfried

Not funny - Cooper, wisdom, anything remotely like dads army or last of the summer wine type stuff.
 

Beebo

Firm and Fruity
Location
Hexleybeef
Atkinson / Elton purely for giving us Blackadder.
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Richard Curtis wrote the most Blackadder material and also written Vicar of Dibley and many very successful comedy films, but would you call him funny? Probably not.
Which leads us on to script writers, is John Sullivan a funny man, who knows, but he did write the UK's most successful sitcom.
 

DiddlyDodds

Random Resident
Location
Littleborough
Al Murray - Pub Landlord always cracks me up (and behind the character a very clever bloke, did a great series on the second world war in northern France)
 
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