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...

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333 Comments

JohnAustin79 6 days 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 7 days ago
Wow not a very well researched quiz ... Laugh In was never on in the 1980s.
Marti67 BorisK 6 days ago
That's what I said. They were 60s 70s
CH65 14 days 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 22 days ago
Major error in this quiz. Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In was long gone by the 1980's.
GravediggerMark 6 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 8 months ago
I can't get a final tally because I can't answer #6 -- never heard of any of these "comedians."
bagandwallyfan52 8 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
Ready2go 8 months ago
Rowan and Martin was on in the 60's not 80's. Forgot Flip Wilson.
BorisK Ready2go 8 months ago
Yep. Can't believe they stuck Laugh-In in the 80s on this quiz.
bagandwallyfan52 8 months ago
If actors Skip Young and Neil J Schwartz had been nightclub comedians instead of actors I
Believe that they would have been
Excellent Comedians.
Neil J Schwartz was BAG on
Happy Days and Skip Young played
Wally Plumstead on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.
Donny Most (Ralph Malph) would
Have been a great comedian also.
bagandwallyfan52 8 months ago
Roy Stuart Cpl Boyle on GOMER Pyle USMC started out at a nightclub
Called The Horn.
bagandwallyfan52 8 months ago
Andy Griffith started out as a
Stand Up Comedian and he had
a record album with a funny comedy
Story about Football.
The Smothers Brothers had several
Record Albums on Mercury Records.
bagandwallyfan52 8 months ago
Paul Winchell was in the movie
Stop Look And Laugh with clips
Of The Three Stooges.
At the end of the movie Paul Winchell got a pie in the face
From The 3 Stooges Pie Throwing
Party!!
bagandwallyfan52 8 months ago
Soupy Sales and Paul Winchell.
BorisK bagandwallyfan52 8 months ago
Totally for Soupy.
vinman63 BorisK 7 months ago
When Soupy told his fans to take out the pictures of the dead presidents from their parents wallets and send them to him.
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