Poll: Who are your favorite comedians through the decades?

Do you have a favorite stand-up comedian? Take a trip through the decades and find out how popular your stand-up comedy opinions are!

 

Stand-up comedy started to really develop in the 1950s and 1960s. The rise of these comedy legends came in the form of traditional stand-up, sketch comedy and through popular TV shows. These original comedy legends inspired generations of young stand-up comedians to come. With over seven decades of stand-up comedians, we want to know which comedian is your favorite from each decade. 

Time to see how your comedy opinions compare to others! 

  1. If you had to pick one, which stand-up comedian would you choose as your favorite from the 1950s?
  2. Which of these 1960s stand-up comedy legends are you choosing as your favorite?
  3. We are moving through time to the 1970s. Who is your favorite stand-up comedian?
  4. We are now in the 1980s. The lights dim down at a theater, which comedian are you hoping walks out?
  5. If you had to pick just one, who are you choosing as your favorite stand-up comedian from the 1990s?
  6. Finally, our search for the best stand-up comedian comes to end in the 2000s. Which one are you picking?
  7. Which show would you pick to watch in 1960 to see some of your favorite comedians?
  8. It's the 1970s and you want to find a show to watch. Which show would you pick if you were feeling like laughing along with your favorite comedian?
  9. Which show from the 1980s would you put on if you wanted to see a comedian you really enjoyed?
  10. Finally, it's the 1990s. Which show are you turning on after a long day to sit and laugh at?
  11. Which comedic duo do you believe is the best between all decades?
  12. In which decade do you believe had the best comedians?

Poll: Who are your favorite comedians through the decades?

Your Result...

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque nec ante ipsum. Mauris viverra, urna et porta sagittis, lorem diam dapibus diam, et lacinia libero quam id risus.
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
Close

348 Comments

Hollie 1 month ago
first of all Carol was NOT on in the 60s
lucy was on during the 50s and 60s
Maybe they will take notice of some of the quizzes and see what people are watching notice how that full house got a lot of votes but yet its on for hours on sunday am they ask what are fav are and then put something totaly different on lol like Barney miller how many are watching that 3
WGH 3 months ago
Abbott and Costello?
SERIOUSLY?!
They were hacks who stole the Three Stooges act. That's the reason why Moe Howard hated them so much.
AlbertHanson 10 months ago
61% similar. There are plenty of other comedians who aren't mentioned. My favorite comedy is, 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'. It was the last movie in which a lot of comedians from the 20s through the 40s appeared. And then there was the comedy team of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy from the 40s-50s. But what about Vincent Price? A lot of his movies would be classified as 'Black Comedy' for combining horror and comedy. There are many more I'm forgetting.
garyhallman 11 months ago
carol burnett wasnt on in 1960 , & rowan & martins laugh in was not on in the 1980s
AlbertHanson garyhallman 10 months ago
The Carol Burnett Show premiered on September 11, 1967, which qualifies for the 1960s. She also appeared in other shows beginning in 1956.
On the other hand, Rowan and Martin's Laugh In went off the air in 1973, long before the 1980s were even thought of.
BuckeyeBeth7 11 months ago
59% similar

Tbh I’m disappointed that Burns & Allen weren’t a choice for at least one of these questions. As a GenXer I obviously didn’t see them in first run but I greatly enjoyed the show when I saw them late-night years ago on some channel. Was it MeTV? It was the 1st B&A show (1951-1957) when they were in their house, not 2nd one when they moved downtown. I don’t think I’ve seen that one. I think it was in a lineup with The Jack Benny show also. For those who know, was it my imagination that the Jack Benny show sometimes was a sitcom with crazy adventures with his friends like the Dick Van Dyke show and sometimes it was a variety show like the Carol Burnett show? Did they revamp the show halfway through it or am I mixing it up with some thing else? In my defense whatever channel played those shows were playing them at like 3 & 4 am.
RedSamRackham 12 months ago
* 1960's or 1970's without option of Don Rickles?!?!? tsk tsk tsk, you hockey pucks! ...
JohnAustin79 13 months ago
I only got 44% similar 😄! Some of the stuff on this poll is mind boggling! For one, Laugh-In was on in the '60s, not the '80s. The Smothers Brothers was on in the '80s and they served as the variety show for that era I do believe.

I was only a kid back then but I remember seeing them on TV on the weekends in the late-'80s. Two, Andrew Dice Clay only getting 2% of the vote for best comic of the '80s is a little ridiculous 😄! He was selling out stadiums all over the world! He was a comic megastar back then!

Doesn't matter if people think he's trashy now, he was what was popular back in the '80s. And,in the '90s, how is Jeff Foxworthy the most popular comedian? More popular than Adam Sandler and Chris Farley both and they had #1 movies at the box office back then. Also, where is Tim Allen and Drew Carey at in your '90s section of this poll?

They were both waaaayyyy more popular than Jeff Foxworthy back in the '90s. They had books out back in the '90s that were popular, just like Jeff Foxworthy did. But they surpass Jeff Foxworthy in one regard - they both had super popular sitcoms at that time. Home Improvement ran for 8 years and The Drew Carey Show ran for 9.

Drew Carey also hosted an improv comedy show that was super popular back in the '90s too - Whose Line Is It Anyways. So both of them should've been considered for your '90s section as well. And how about Roseanne? She was one of the most popular female comics of the '80s and '90s back then.

She had the number one comedy sitcom on TV back in the late-'80s to mid-'90s in Roseanne. Irregardless of how controversial she is today, that same controversy garnered her fame back in the day, just like it did Andrew Dice Clay. But they should still be recognized for their contributions to comedy and yet Roseanne's not in your poll. And how is that the '80s isn't the best decade for comedy as well?

Comedians were selling out stadiums back in the '80s. That was never done before then. You had more comedy clubs galore back then (Second City in Chicago, The Laff Factory in Los Angeles, etc etc.) than in any other decade. I grew up in a very small suburban town in Connecticut back in the '80s and even they had a comedy club.

It was small 😄 but they had one. Comedy was all the rage in the '80s. Also, you said Abbott and Costello are more popular than Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. How is that possible?

Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor had, like, 3 number one movies back in the late-'70s to early-'90s together. They did Silver Streak, Stir Crazy, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil. They did do one more movie together but that was in the early-'90s (Another You) and it didn't do too good at the box office. Or how about not including Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner in your poll together?

They're there separately but they should be included together because they made three popular movies together back then as well - Hanky Panky, The Woman In Red, and Haunted Honeymoon (Which is a classic 🙂! My Mom and I used to watch that movie together whenever it came on.). The next time you guys put together a poll, MeTV, you should make sure to research it thoroughly first 🙂.
BorisK 13 months ago
Wow not a very well researched quiz ... Laugh In was never on in the 1980s.
Marti67 BorisK 13 months ago
That's what I said. They were 60s 70s
CH65 13 months ago
54%
Tough choices through the 70's - not much to choose from after that.
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in the 1980's? Only off by two decades!
15inchBlackandWhite 13 months ago
Major error in this quiz. Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In was long gone by the 1980's.
GravediggerMark 19 months ago
Question #9 has an incorrect possible answer; Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in was on from 1967 to 1973. It was not on in the 1980's. Remedial homework time for someone.
I thought the same thing!
JDnHuntsvilleAL 21 months ago
I can't get a final tally because I can't answer #6 -- never heard of any of these "comedians."
bagandwallyfan52 21 months ago
Howard Morris (Ernest T Bass on
The Andy Griffith Show and
Jim VARNEY Ernest P Worrell
Were both excellent comedy actors.
Ernest Goes To Camp and Ernest
Scared Stupid are wonderful
Comedy Movies.
Ernest T Bass and
Ernest P Worrell
Forever
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?