Comedians (1 Viewer)

[Saintamaniac]

Shirley? You can't be serious.

He is serious and don't call him Shirley.

 

[sonicboom]

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Agree Murphy #1. But I thought Nielson wrote most of the Airplane-type stuff he did? If so that would make him #2 for me. That deadpan style evolved into This is Spinal Tap and The Office.

He wrote a fake autobiography called ‘the naked truth’ but I don’t think he wrote any of the scripts

 

[0rion]

In order for fairness you have to have Richard Pryor in there to go up against Eddie Murphy.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Jack Benny can’t hold Milton berle’s jock

if the rumors are true who could?

 

[Optimus Prime]

Carlin should be at the top of any list.

You spelled Richard Pryor wrong

Carlin is great but I much prefer his 70s clever word play humor to later angry old man ranting humor

 

[Optimus Prime]

Nielson's change from dramatic actor to comedic is not that much different from Liam Neeson's from dramatic actor to action star

Once he did Naked Gun did he ever had a dramatic role again?

 

[tenordas]

Going to have to go against the grain and say Candy is top of the four because he continued to be funny right up until he passed away all too soon. Phenomenal from SCTV right on to the end, even being the lone funny character in some films that were terrible.

The problem for me with Eddie Murphy is that he stopped being funny and seemed to forget how to be. Once you get past "Coming to America" in 1988 there isn't another film he made that's funny except "Shrek." Saw him try to do a monologue at a SNL reunion show about 10 or 15 years ago and he looked like he was lost. Didn't say a single funny thing and looked like he would rather have been anywhere else than in front of an audience.

Ditto with Chevy Chase. As mentioned by others, he had a limited range, largely based on mugging for the camera. Did some amazingly funny things that most people have never heard while with The National Lampoon Radio Hour, did more great stuff on SNL and a few films in the late 70s/early 80s, then the shtick was just too old to be funny anymore. I think the second Fletch film was the thing that spelled the end. The sad part of that is, if Chevy had tried to play the character from the book instead of just doing the "Chevy Chase mugging act," he would have had a string of hits because those books are gold. I read somewhere that once upon a time, he was a fine colleague, but when his career started going south, he became a bitter, angry person who started treated everyone badly. No idea if that's true or not.

Leslie Nielsen, yes. One trick pony. "Airplane," "Police Squad!," and "The Naked Gun" were hilarious, but the shtick got old because there's only so much to write for that until you're just repeating the same joke over and over.

Now if we're judging solely on "heyday," then Murphy wins easily, but for longevity of continued hilarity over a career, Candy wins hands down.