# List of comedians
A list of comedians is any compiled roster of professional performers who work in comedy, whether an alphabetical directory of working stand-ups, a curated ranking of the greatest performers, or a research dataset. No single canonical list exists; the major lists differ in scope, selection method, and composition, and the differences themselves reveal a good deal about the profession.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Largest working directories | Open Comedy lists 14,089+ working comedy performers worldwide, browsable A to Z; On The Mic holds an archive of 1,706 comedians[1](https://opencomedy.com/allcomedians) • [2](https://www.onthemic.co.uk/comedians/) |
| UK coverage | Chortle, the UK Comedy Guide, maintains a searchable database of stand-up comedians in Britain, Ireland and beyond; its "A" section alone returned 201 comedians[3](https://www.chortle.co.uk/comics/) |
| Peer-judged champion | Daniel Kitson was declared the funniest comic in the business by his contemporaries in a Dave survey of 112 British comics, gaining a quarter of the votes; he had earlier won the 2002 Perrier award[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/news/standout-standup-comedians-name-their-favourite-funnyman-2267459.html) |
| First modern stand-up | The Library of Congress identifies Mort Sahl as the first modern stand-up comedian, and his 1955 album *At Sunset* is a National Recording Registry selection[5](https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2015/05/collecting-comedy/) |
| Gender composition of lists | A 2010 Channel 4 poll's list of the 100 best comedians included only six women; *Rolling Stone*'s 2017 "50 Best Stand-Ups of All Time" placed nine men and Joan Rivers in its top ten[6](https://kar.kent.ac.uk/95155/1/195Ed_Wilson_thesis_metacomedy.pdf) |
| Commercial peak | Nate Bargatze was 2025's highest-grossing comedian[7](https://theweek.com/culture-life/comedians-touring-winter-2025-katt-williams-anjelah-johnson-reyes-josh-johnson-nate-bargatze) |
## Kinds of comedian lists
**Working directories.** The simplest lists are alphabetical rosters of practicing performers. Chortle sorts British and Irish stand-ups by first name and lets readers filter by comic status (circuit comic, star, writer, retired) and comic type (character, improviser, musical, one-liners, topical, and others)[3](https://www.chortle.co.uk/comics/). Open Comedy, a worldwide booking-oriented directory, hosts profiles managed by the comedians themselves, with clips, location, and direct contact for bookers[1](https://opencomedy.com/allcomedians). On The Mic, with 1,706 archived comedians, adds separate listings for double acts and sketch groups[2](https://www.onthemic.co.uk/comedians/). ComedyArena organizes stand-up comedians by birth decade, from the 1900s to the 1990s, and documents careers, specials, and comedy history as a reference database rather than a ticket marketplace[8](https://comedyarena.com/).
**Ranked lists.** Curated rankings apply explicit criteria. Comedyville's top-20 ranking of the greatest stand-up comedians of all time states that it judged only each comedian's stand-up career, considering originality, memorable performances, stagecraft, longevity, influence, and cross-generational connection; its picks run from [Richard Pryor](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-pryor) and [George Carlin](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-carlin) to [Dave Chappelle](https://www.edgepedia.org/dave-chappelle), Joan Rivers, and Robin Williams[9](https://www.comedyville.ca/greatest-stand-up-comedians-all-time/). Dead-Frog's "25 Greatest Living Comedians" derives its ordering from member ratings of writing and performing, averaged and compared on a Bayesian scale in which a lower raw average can outrank a higher one with fewer votes; Dave Chappelle leads at 4.90[10](https://www.dead-frog.com/comedians/greatest-living). Peer polls give a different measure: the Dave survey cited above asked working British comics rather than critics or fans[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/news/standout-standup-comedians-name-their-favourite-funnyman-2267459.html).
**Research datasets.** Academic studies compile their own lists under sampling rules. One analysis of stand-up humor and identity reviewed every comedian with a [Wikipedia](https://www.edgepedia.org/wikipedia) page and produced a dataset of 84 male comedians, 19 female comedians, and 1 non-binary comedian, the last removed from the analysis[11](https://johnnyma.info/dist/files/Stand-up%20Comedy%20-%20Quantifying%20Humor%20and%20Identity%201-27-20.pdf). A study of women comedians' professional image coded the performer profiles on Chortle, which categorizes comedians only as male or female[12](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gwao.70067). Such lists inherit the biases of their sources; the Edinburgh Fringe sampling used in one study carries selection bias from geography, since non-random factors affect who performs there[12](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gwao.70067).
## Who appears on the lists
**Early recording-era comics.** Harry Lauder recorded his routines from 1902 to 1940, making some of the most popular acoustic discs, and was the only comedian to appear on Victor Red Seal records[13](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/Encyclopedia-of-Recorded-Sound-Hoffman-Vol-1-1993.pdf). The category of comedy records did not appear at all in the catalogs of Columbia, Decca, and Victor during the 1940s, because 78 rpm discs limited a listener to a single "bit" rather than a routine; the long-playing record of 1948, with around 45 minutes of playing time, changed what a comedy release could be[13](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/Encyclopedia-of-Recorded-Sound-Hoffman-Vol-1-1993.pdf) • [14](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/makeemlaugh/comedys-evolution/history-comedy-lps/38/). [Mort Sahl](https://www.edgepedia.org/mort-sahl)'s records did very well, and the Library of Congress registry selection *At Sunset* (1955) marks him as the first modern stand-up comedian[14](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/makeemlaugh/comedys-evolution/history-comedy-lps/38/) • [5](https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2015/05/collecting-comedy/).
**Recording and chart milestones.** [Eddie Murphy](https://www.edgepedia.org/eddie-murphy)'s album *Comedian* (Columbia FC 39005, 1983) spent 42 weeks on the charts[13](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/Encyclopedia-of-Recorded-Sound-Hoffman-Vol-1-1993.pdf).
**Contemporary touring names.** Lists of current touring comedians include [Jerry Seinfeld](https://www.edgepedia.org/jerry-seinfeld), described as one of the defining voices of observational comedy; [Maria Bamford](https://www.edgepedia.org/maria-bamford), a longtime mainstay with a 2026 US stand-up tour; [Margaret Cho](https://www.edgepedia.org/margaret-cho); Tracy Morgan; Gabriel Iglesias, whose "1976" tour marked his 50th birthday; and Nate Bargatze, whose "Big Dumb Eyes" world tour followed his 2025 status as the highest-grossing comedian[15](https://theweek.com/culture-life/spring-comedians-touring-2026-seinfeld-maria-bamford-margaret-cho-tracy-morgan-gabriel-iglesias) • [7](https://theweek.com/culture-life/comedians-touring-winter-2025-katt-williams-anjelah-johnson-reyes-josh-johnson-nate-bargatze). Industry showcases add rising names: the 2026 Netflix Is a Joke Festival's Shortlist brought together ten nationally touring comedians, including Comedian CP, Maddie Wiener, and Peter Revello[16](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/netflix-is-a-joke-fest-2026-the-short-lineup-dates).
## Gender in comedian lists
Male performers dominate most informal rankings. On the [Channel 4](https://www.edgepedia.org/channel-4) list of the 100 best comedians compiled from a 2010 poll, only six performers were women; *Rolling Stone*'s 2017 "50 Best Stand-Ups of All Time" placed nine men and one woman, [Joan Rivers](https://www.edgepedia.org/joan-rivers), in its top ten[6](https://kar.kent.ac.uk/95155/1/195Ed_Wilson_thesis_metacomedy.pdf). The imbalance appears in datasets as well: one humor-study sample contained 84 male and 19 female comedians[11](https://johnnyma.info/dist/files/Stand-up%20Comedy%20-%20Quantifying%20Humor%20and%20Identity%201-27-20.pdf). Research on British stand-up attributes part of the gap to the informal canonization of stand-up, shaped by fan culture and media exposure, and to expectations about gender in booking decisions such as comedy panel shows[6](https://kar.kent.ac.uk/95155/1/195Ed_Wilson_thesis_metacomedy.pdf).
A study of women comedians over a seven-year period spanning the midpoint of the #[MeToo movement](https://www.edgepedia.org/metoo-movement) found that in comedy, unlike other performing arts genres, aesthetic labor appears directed toward a different end, driven by the male norm of the industry[12](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gwao.70067).
## Limits of any list
List-making itself is contested ground. Stand-up's processes of canonization have been informal, the product of vernacular fan culture rather than institutional judgment, so rankings compiled by popular media reflect the biases of their method: who was polled, what was counted as a comedian, and how fame was weighted[6](https://kar.kent.ac.uk/95155/1/195Ed_Wilson_thesis_metacomedy.pdf). The working directories answer part of the problem by omitting judgment altogether, simply cataloging everyone active; the ranked lists answer it differently, by stating their criteria openly, as Comedyville and Dead-Frog both do[9](https://www.comedyville.ca/greatest-stand-up-comedians-all-time/) • [10](https://www.dead-frog.com/comedians/greatest-living).
## References
1. [List of Working Stand-Up Comedians A-Z, Open Comedy](https://opencomedy.com/allcomedians)
2. [Comedians, On The Mic](https://www.onthemic.co.uk/comedians/)
3. [Comedian search, Chortle: The UK Comedy Guide](https://www.chortle.co.uk/comics/)
4. [Stand-out stand-up: comedians name their favourite funnyman, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/news/standout-standup-comedians-name-their-favourite-funnyman-2267459.html)
5. [Collecting Comedy, Library of Congress Timeless](https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2015/05/collecting-comedy/)
6. [Ed Wilson, metacomedy thesis, University of Kent](https://kar.kent.ac.uk/95155/1/195Ed_Wilson_thesis_metacomedy.pdf)
7. [Let these comedians help you laugh your way through winter, The Week](https://theweek.com/culture-life/comedians-touring-winter-2025-katt-williams-anjelah-johnson-reyes-josh-johnson-nate-bargatze)
8. [ComedyArena, The Stand-Up Comedian Database](https://comedyarena.com/)
9. [Greatest Stand-Up Comedians of All Time, Comedyville](https://www.comedyville.ca/greatest-stand-up-comedians-all-time/)
10. [The 25 Greatest Living Comedians, Dead-Frog](https://www.dead-frog.com/comedians/greatest-living)
11. [Stand-up Comedy: Quantifying Humor and Identity](https://johnnyma.info/dist/files/Stand-up%20Comedy%20-%20Quantifying%20Humor%20and%20Identity%201-27-20.pdf)
12. [In Search of a Professional Image: How Women Comedians Engage Gender in Their Work, Gender, Work & Organization](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gwao.70067)
13. [Comedy Recordings, Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/Encyclopedia-of-Recorded-Sound-Hoffman-Vol-1-1993.pdf)
14. [History: Comedy LPs, Make 'Em Laugh, PBS](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/makeemlaugh/comedys-evolution/history-comedy-lps/38/)
15. [Chuckle your way through spring with these comedians, The Week](https://theweek.com/culture-life/spring-comedians-touring-2026-seinfeld-maria-bamford-margaret-cho-tracy-morgan-gabriel-iglesias)
16. [The Shortlist: Meet the 10 Featured Comedians, Netflix Tudum](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/netflix-is-a-joke-fest-2026-the-short-lineup-dates)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Theater and dance › Stand-up comedy and comedians*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license