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Who makes you laugh

Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
in Heaven
We have a series on movies.
We have a series on small screen shows.
We have a number of series on different sports.
How about a series on comedians, those who make you laugh?
It can be people of old.
Like Monte Python
or Mel Brooks
or Red Skelton.
But it can also be more recent.
I recently came across Mike Birbiglia.
Watch his routine The Good Life on Netflix.
Wickedly funny without swearing.
Open for other suggestions.

Comments

  • SpikeSpike Ecclesiantics & MW Host, Admin Emeritus
    I find Dave Gorman hilarious. I saw him live a few years ago and was laughing so much I couldn’t breathe
  • betjemaniacbetjemaniac Shipmate
    Spike Milligan is still the greatest. I also love Eric Sykes, Les Dawson… if we’re including the not actually dead then Jasper Carrott, Jack Dee, Milton Jones.

    And then there was Jeremy Hardy singing…
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    Bob Mortimer - whacky and hilarious.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    The Two Ronnies - Fork Handles is still imho one of the funniest sketches ever written.
  • SarasaSarasa All Saints Host
    The Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton are two of my favourites.
  • Stercus TauriStercus Tauri Shipmate
    Rikki Fulton.
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
    Trae Crowder makes me laugh a lot, as does Randy Rainbow!
  • betjemaniacbetjemaniac Shipmate
    Piglet wrote: »
    The Two Ronnies - Fork Handles is still imho one of the funniest sketches ever written.

    Or learning Swedish -

    F U N E X?

    S, V F X
  • betjemaniacbetjemaniac Shipmate
    Boogie wrote: »
    Bob Mortimer - whacky and hilarious.

    Have you seen Shooting Stars doing Roxy Music? Easily found on YouTube…
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Dave Gorman, John Finnemore, Jack Dee (his impression of a toddler raiding his mum's handbag and mistaking a tampon for a sweet - "the amazing expanding sweetie" had me nearly needing oxygen). Those of a certain age will also remember Dave Allen who still cracks me up.
  • betjemaniacbetjemaniac Shipmate
    Can’t believe I forgot John Finnemore - though mostly as a writer. Roger Allam was born to deliver his lines…
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    betjemaniac wrote: »
    Can’t believe I forgot John Finnemore - though mostly as a writer. Roger Allam was born to deliver his lines…

    The Souvenir Programme gives the lie to that. Except season 9 which my brain is too small to follow.
  • DoublethinkDoublethink Admin, 8th Day Host
    The souvenir programme was just awesome.
  • RuthRuth Shipmate
    jedijudy wrote: »
    Trae Crowder makes me laugh a lot, as does Randy Rainbow!

    Trae Crowder's takes on California are especially funny to me, as you might imagine!
  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited June 15
    Another fan of John Finnemore, and I’ve also seen Dave Gorman live. I like Andy Hamilton and the late Linda Smith and Victoria Wood.
  • jrwjrw Shipmate
    I don't find very much funny these days (which may say more about me than anything else), but Armstrong and Miller crack me up, like this sketch.

    In a strange way, I can sympathise with both characters in the sketch, but that's another story.
  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    I'm sorry I haven't a clue is a reliable source of laughs - the pure joy of "One Song to the tune of another" can lift me out of the deepest gloom. And when it comes to musical humour Victor Borge was in a class of his own.

    As for individual comedians, Dave Allen, Rod Gilbert, Jack Dee and Victoria Wood hit my comic sweet-spot.

    But there are a few I really can't stand - Jo Brand, Ben Elton and Jimmy Carr topping that list.
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    I tend to catch a YouTube short of Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias every day. He is a Mexican American comic who shares anecdotes from his life along with sound effects and voices and accents. He has gotten very *big* (snicker) in the US and he is just so much fun. I highly recommend "The Racist Gift Basket". It sounds worst than it is. And "Fluffy Goes to Saudi Arabia".
  • RockyRogerRockyRoger Shipmate
    I don't care for Ben Elton in stand up, but his sitcoms - The Young ones, Blackadder, Thin Blue line and Especially Upstart Crow make me laugh. A lot.
  • betjemaniacbetjemaniac Shipmate
    TheOrganist wrote: »
    I'm sorry I haven't a clue is a reliable source of laughs - the pure joy of "One Song to the tune of another" can lift me out of the deepest gloom. And when it comes to musical humour Victor Borge was in a class of his own.

    As for individual comedians, Dave Allen, Rod Gilbert, Jack Dee and Victoria Wood hit my comic sweet-spot.

    But there are a few I really can't stand - Jo Brand, Ben Elton and Jimmy Carr topping that list.

    I lost an entire evening years ago at an ISIHAC recording - Jack Dee, Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer and David Mitchell at the New Theatre Oxford. Wonderful.
  • betjemaniacbetjemaniac Shipmate
    Basically they did about 3 hours of different rounds then (I assume) edited together the best 30 minutes.

    I was really a fan of Humph, Willie Rushton and Peter Jones though. But who now remembers the original team captains were John Cleese and Bill Oddie? 85-odd series ago…
  • Stercus TauriStercus Tauri Shipmate
    The first time in my life that I laughed until I cried was probably on hearing Gerard Hoffnung's bricklayer story. His Advice for Foreign Tourists is just as good.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    'Have you tried the famous echo in the British Museum Reading Room?'

    'All brothels are marked with a blue lamp'.
  • RockyRogerRockyRoger Shipmate
    Firenze wrote: »
    'Have you tried the famous echo in the British Museum Reading Room?'

    'All brothels are marked with a blue lamp'.

    'There is a french widow in every bedroom, affording delightful prospect ...'
  • HedgehogHedgehog Shipmate
    edited June 15
    Tim Conway & Harvey Korman on the Carol Burnett Show would reduce me to tears laughing. But, to be fair, Conway could reduce Korman to tears laughing as well.

    Other than that, Honorable Mention to the Great Stoneface, Buster Keaton. "The General" (1926) is one of the few comedies I can watch and re-watch multiple times with the same enjoyment. Most comedies fade. That one persists.
  • SpikeSpike Ecclesiantics & MW Host, Admin Emeritus
    edited June 16
    TheOrganist wrote: »
    And when it comes to musical humour Victor Borge was in a class of his own.

    I agree that he was very clever and talented, but from what I could see, he only had one routine that he performed for around 40 years
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    TheOrganist wrote: »
    And when it comes to musical humour Victor Borge was in a class of his own.
    He was funny, though I'd tend to agree with @Spike. But I’d say Anna Russell was in a class above Victor Borge.


  • CaissaCaissa Shipmate
    Love The Big Bang Theory and all of its spin-offs for a good laugh.
  • MrsBeakyMrsBeaky Shipmate
    When I was growing up my parents introduced to the glorious parody work of Allan Sherman- I found the songs so funny that I learned several of them off by heart and would (when not feeling anxious) perform them as a party piece.
    Favourites that I can immediately recall are Beautiful Teamsters, Hello Muddah hello Fadduh and Crazy Downtown. Happy memeories!
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Spike wrote: »
    TheOrganist wrote: »
    And when it comes to musical humour Victor Borge was in a class of his own.

    I agree that he was very clever and talented, but from what I could see, he only had one routine that he performed for around 40 years

    On a vaguely related note, Tom Lehrer still raises a laugh with me. As do Flanders and Swann, despite my knowing the routines backwards now.

    "Olé! 'E 'as made an 'ole!"

    "Before the gutted olive can hit the floor it is caught by the matador, on his mat!"
  • Jane RJane R Shipmate
    I like Flanders and Swann too. And Anna Russell. And Weird Al Yankovic.

    Jokes are funnier when set to music.
  • agingjbagingjb Shipmate
    Bill Bailey.
  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    I was just about to mention Bill Bailey - I've been a fan for about 20 years now 🤯 Another teenage favourite was Harry Hill's TV Burp.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited June 16
    I have to confess I find Harry Hill unbearably annoying. I keep on waiting for one of the kids to poke him in the eye with a wooden spoon on Junior Bakeoff.

    Anyone seen Bill Bailey's "everything sounds better done as heavy metal" thing?*

    Expanding the brief a little, anyone familiar with Friday Night Dinner? It starts a little MoTR IMO but as the series progress it just gets more and more surreal. The premise should for all the world yield a gentle and horribly nice Terry and June middle class sitcom but that just adds to the way it absolutely and completely doesn't.

    *it's true, as well. Honest. Crank up the gain, scoop the middle out and play everything as power chords. Works for absolutely everything.
  • TurquoiseTasticTurquoiseTastic Kerygmania Host
    Hahaha I am very fond of Harry Hill. Possibly because I am very silly. I was shocked to find that not everyone felt the same way!
  • TelfordTelford Shipmate
    Comedian....Frank Skinner
    Sitcom....Early Doors
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