I haven't voted in one of these polls since I didn't care one iota about any of the top 16, but I am so voting for Michael Headburger...Muhammad Hassan...whoever has the initials MH. He gets my vote.

You coulda just said the word. When quoting, I don't think anyone would have gotten upset about it.

That made me laugh out loud for real. Well done, sir.

I'm torn, and here's why. There was a time, a long time ago, when Richard Pryor was the funniest man on the planet. That being so, his jokes became ingrained to the point that every person you knew telling a joke or a story was basically telling a Pryor joke. It may not be exactly the same but pretty much. And I'm not talking about comics. I'm talking about kids on the playground, then guys in class, then jackasses at parties, then people in bars. Pretty much every unfunny person you ever met over the years was doing Pryor, and they probably didn't even realize it. His jokes became old and standby for unfunny people. This is probably a testament to what he meant to comedy. But his jokes now come off as stale to me.

Izzard will probably never be widely regarded as the funniest person on the planet. But at least it's fresh and it makes me laugh RIGHT NOW. So, when I watch these clips I enjoy Izzard's more. His jokes are thoughtful and genuinely funny.

That said, I will still probably vote Pryor. I was around back then and remember when all of his jokes were new and funny as hell.

So that wasn't stand-up? Or even if it was, maybe it wasn't representative of his best work?

Maybe not. Let me try to be clear here. I'm not trying to make a case against Chappelle. Chappelle's awesome. I'm only explaining why I chose Rock over Chappelle. It was very close, but the fact that most of my liking for Chappelle was not based on his stand-up just barely gave Rock the edge for me.

No shit? What a great response then

Hopefully not.

Kinison is alive in the Marvel Universe

Does that make him a Skrull?

Yeah, I absolutely agree. Its where he loses you. He's SO fucking full of energy he can't help but wear you down after awhile unless you too are hopped up on something. Which is probably why I loved his stuff when I was a teenager all hopped up on soda playing video games all night.

Which in fairness is probably a negative to his standup. If he can't keep you for the length of time he tries to, that's probably a pretty clear flaw. But I think his rep takes a hit and his great stuff is lost in the basic exhaustion people have and the "SHUT THE FUCK UP AND SOMEONE TRANQ HIM ALREADY!" reaction it creates.

Two guys that I really like. Bad draw for me. I've liked Leary longer so that is where I went.

Tell you what, I like Black... but I heard a bit by David Cross on one of his comedy specials... it was about someone who got gold foil in the icing on their cake. If one of you Cross supporters is able to find that somewhere for me, I'll switch my vote to Cross. :-)

completely disagree. It's staring straight into the stereotypes and showing them for what they are and morseo, doing a very intelligent and funny analysis on it. The clip TarHeel put up is a great example of that.

Wright for me. I like me some observational/critical humour.

I really do like Whitr and I think he's one of the best modern-day comedians. His set-ups and then his delivery are just top-notch.

But come on, it's Richard fucking Pryor. If the finals aren't Carlin/Pryor, then there is something wrong here.