I don't know why I'm so interested in this since it's just a semi-arbitrary list compiled by unknown folks using unknown criteria. Still, I'm following Comedy Central's countdown of The 100 Greatest Standups of All Time. Tonight, they gave us #21-40 which they have as Dennis Miller, Robert Klein, Stephen Wright, Redd Foxx, Bob Hope, Ray Romano, Jay Leno, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Garry Shandling, George Burns, Albert Brooks, Andy Kaufman, Buddy Hackett, Phyllis Diller, Jim Carrey, Martin Lawrence, Bill Maher, Billy Crystal and Mort Sahl. In that order, with Sahl at #40.
You'll note that when I predicted the Top Forty, I didn't have Lawrence, Crystal, Berle, Burns, Benny, Romano or Wright. I haven't seen enough of Lawrence or Romano for them to register on my radar, and I didn't think they'd include guys like Berle, Burns and Benny. (As they revealed the list from the bottom up, there wasn't a single deceased comic in the bottom fifty.) I somehow don't think of Crystal as a stand-up, but Mr. Wright's name should have occurred to me. He's quite wonderful.
So who's in their Top Twenty, which will get revealed tomorrow night? A teaser at the end of tonight's show flashed shots of Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Bob Newhart, Jonathan Winters, Robin Williams, George Carlin, Ellen DeGeneres, Roseanne Barr, Sam Kinison, Jerry Seinfeld, Don Rickles, Eddie Murphy, Woody Allen, Rodney Dangerfield, Chris Rock, Lenny Bruce, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor. (That's not the order in which they were presented, nor does it probably relate to their order on the final list.)
That's eighteen names. I'm going to guess the other two are Bill Hicks and Lord Buckley, and that they didn't make the promo because most people wouldn't have recognized them on sight.
No matter how they arrange the Top Twenty, this isn't a bad list. As I said, I think Shelley Berman and Jackie Mason are way too low. So are Robert Klein and Mort Sahl, who are among the most imitated folks on the roster. I don't quite get the placement of Roseanne Barr or Ellen DeGeneres…and I wonder if anyone considered Danny Thomas, Godfrey Cambridge, Lily Tomlin, George Gobel, Myron Cohen, Martin Mull, Jack E. Leonard, Moms Mabley, Norm Crosby, Rich Little, Dick Shawn, Margaret Cho, Gabe Kaplan, Whoopi Goldberg, Pat Buttram, John Byner, Andy Griffith, Pete Barbutti or Jackie Vernon. I can't recall laughing more than I did the time I saw Jackie Vernon at the old Marina Hotel in Las Vegas. Are these folks not on the list because someone didn't think of them? Or did they not fit the judges' definition of standup comedians? Or did someone really think Godfrey Cambridge didn't blaze trails and make people laugh?
Anyway, like I said: Not a bad list. I was expecting to disagree a lot more than this.