20
Marc Maron
Michael Schwartz/WireImage
In 2009, it looked like Maron's career was circling the drain. A
cranky presence who veered between political stuff and open-wound
personal drama, Maron, a fixture in the 1990s alt-comedy scene, had
never broken big. (He'd had various Air America shows cancelled three
times.) Then he launched the twice-weekly interview podcast WTF with Marc Maron from his garage and stumbled into a Travolta-in-Pulp Fiction-type comeback. Originally focusing on fellow comics, but now including everyone from Jakob Dylan to Jon Hamm, Maron's WTF
is a must-listen for anyone interested in the art, craft and history of
comedy. He blends his own armchair-shrink neediness with a knack for
getting his guests to sound awfully relaxed and open, which makes for
riveting listening. This stuff should be in the Library of Congress.
19
David Cross
Eugene Gologursky/WireImage
Cross has been busy in recent years: He created and starred in his own IFC series, The movies, and is currently reprising his most famous role, as "analrapist" Dr. Tobias Funke on Arrested Development. And he continues to kill as a stand-up, releasing three comedy albums in the last decade. The most recent, 2010's Bigger and Blackerer,
reminds you that he's got supreme skills as a political comedian and a
Carlin-esque gift for skewering American absurdity, with excellent bits
about Mormons, gimmicky Coors Light cans, and the root of his lifelong
depression: "Very recently I discovered that, the entire time, I had a
rock in my shoe."
18
Howard Stern
Mark Seliger/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Age has mellowed Howard Stern in the best way possible. At 59, he
knows he doesn't need to waste time lashing out at perceived rivals or
proving his shock-jock credentials by interviewing an endless parade of
porn stars and freaks. Now in his seventh year on Sirius XM, he does
revealing and hilarious interviews with guests ranging from Revenge of the Nerds
star Robert Carradine to Lady Gaga to J.B. Smoove. More importantly,
he's painfully honest about his own life, sharing everything from his
failed attempt to push his parents into a rest home to his newfound
interest in babysitter-themed pornography. Can you imagine Letterman or
Leno going there?
17
Jimmy Kimmel
Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Images
It's been a bang-up year for the eternal man-boy of late night
comedy. Last April, he hosted the White House correspondents dinner, at
which he called Kim Kardashian "the greatest threat to America" and got a
high five from President Obama, and on January 8th, Jimmy Kimmel Live
made the big move to the 11:35 time slot. Naturally, he's doing it with
the same laidback arrogance that's been his calling card since his days
on The Man Show; Kimmel recently called Jay Leno "a master chef who opened a Burger King" in a Rolling Stone
cover story, and put his money where his mouth is by beating David
Letterman in the ratings on the first night of his new time slot.
16
Ricky Gervais
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
"It's not my job to worry what people are thinking of me. That's a
job for a politician," Gervais said a couple years ago. Indeed, Bill
Clinton he is not. From his scorched-earth turns hosting the Golden
Globes or his stand-up deconstruction of religious ignorance, Gervais'
comedy has always been about no-holds-barred bullshit-calling. Yet, he's
still cuddly-schlub likeable enough to star in the forthcoming Muppets sequel. Gervais' next BBC series, Derek, in which he plays an autistic-seeming guy who works in an old-folks home, returns to the fishbowl realism he perfected on The Office, with fascinating results.
15
Kevin Hart
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
32-year-old Hart has become one of the biggest stand-ups in the
world by tapping into the raw and autobiographical raw tradition of
leather-suit-era Eddie Murphy. The Philly native's excellent 2011
concert film/album Laugh At My Pain features vivid bits about his father's cocaine addiction and his mother's funeral, and his most recent set, Let Me Explain, goes into detail about his recent divorce (he
jokes that it wasn't cheating that got him in trouble, it was lying about cheating). Unsurprisingly, he's huge with rappers; while hosting the VMA's last year he even made pulled off the difficult task of making
Drake laugh.
jokes that it wasn't cheating that got him in trouble, it was lying about cheating). Unsurprisingly, he's huge with rappers; while hosting the VMA's last year he even made pulled off the difficult task of making
Drake laugh.
14
Will Ferrell
Michael Kovac/Getty Images for AmeriCares
From his classic George W. Bush impersonation to his portrayal of Ron Burgundy in Anchorman,
Will Ferrell's career has been a long-running commentary on a
quintessentially American species of contemporary male: the Alpha Doof.
Ferrell's also been a masterful enabler of other A.D.s (producing Eastbound & Down, for instance), while becoming so emblematic of white-guy self-parody that rappers love sampling him (see Kanye and Jay-Z's "Niggas In Paris"). Later this year, he'll be dusting off his jazz flute for the long-awaited Anchorman
sequel. "Hey America,"Ron says with mustache-tingling, soft-rock
smoothness in the trailer. "Did you miss my hot breath in your ear?" Um:
yeah.
13
Aziz Ansari
Michael Kovac/Getty Images for AmeriCares
Is the world's greatest hip-hop comedian an Indian-American from
South Carolina? Whether dishing uproariously about his close encounters
with Kanye West, or strutting through Parks and Recreation
as Tom Haverford, the most swagged-out government bureaucrat in the
history of Pawnee, Indiana, Ansari has captured the rhythms, and the
silliness, of hip-hop culture like almost no one else. His most
ingenious bit: Raaaaaaaandy, his "baller" fratboy meta-stand-up
alter-ego, invented for the Judd Apatow's "Funny People", and perfected
in his stage show ("Hit me up on Myspace.com slash Randy, with eight
a's").
12
Larry David
HBO
In Larry David's uncivil, everything-falls-apart universe, the bad news comes first, so here it is: Curb Your Enthusiasm,
television's leanest, meanest, and most original satire, probably won't
deliver a ninth season until at least 2014. But there's good news, too:
David's been at work on Clear History, an HBO movie in which
he plays a ruined marketing exec plotting revenge on a former boss
(played by John Hamm). David, who oversaw Seinfeld in the Nineties, lampooned himself in Curb throughout the '00s, and starred in Woody Allen's Whatever Works in 2009, is already stepping out from behind "Larry David." Now 65, he's the retirement-age anti-hero to watch.
11
Zach Galifianakis
Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic
The king of all things uncomfortable, embarrassing, troubling and
inappropriate, Galifianakis has become the least likely mega-star of his
generation. The Hangover 3 will be out later this year, and last year's The Campaign,
with Will Ferrell, was a surprisingly trenchant comment on political
corruption. But the Galifianakis magic is often best experienced in
situations where his languidly absurdist genius is undiluted – like his
appearance as a standup comedian from 1778 ("Is this thing on? What is
this thing?") or the web series Between Two Ferns, his
now-legendary masterclass in celebrity discomfort. His ability be at
once totally unacceptable and utterly lovable is a comedic wonder: "I
want to combine the NAACP with Mothers Against Drunk Driving," he once
joked. "It's called Mothers Against the Advancement of Colored People."
Editor's Picks
10
Kristen Wiig
Michael Kovac/WireImage
There was Betty Boop. And Rosalind Russell. And Lucille Ball. And
now, Kristen Wiig. She's an old-fashioned screwball comedienne, a master
of woman-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown madcap. But she's also a
definitively 21st century talent, a sketch comedy genius whose indelible
Saturday Night Live impressions (Judy Garland, Nancy Pelosi,
Taylor swift) and creations (the Target Lady, the folk singer Kat) mark
her as one of show's greatest performers. And as Bridesmaids proved, she can command the big screen like a proper movie star, and write a pitch-perfect script.
9
Bill Hader
Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank
In his own understated way, Hader has become one of America's best comic actors. On Saturday Night Live,
he's infinitely versatile and a master impressionist: His Alan Alda is
dead on, his versions of Al Pacino and Keith Morrison (of NBC's Dateline)
are howlingly funny, and his over-the-top take on Democratic strategist
James Carville is so good that no one else should ever attempt an
imitation of the Ragin' Cajun. Then there's Stefon, the flamboyantly gay Weekend Update
"city correspondent" who hypes increasingly bizarre New York nightclubs
(one features "DJ Baby Bok Choy" a giant 300-pound Chinese baby who
wears tinted aviator glasses and spins records with his little ravioli
hands"). It's SNL's weirdest and greatest character in years.
8
Lena Dunham
HBO
Dunham has cornered the market on skewering white girl problems. Girls
just began its second season on HBO, and Dunham, 26, knows how to turn
the most embarrassing parts of being young and adrift into essential TV.
She's sly enough to know she's not speaking for everyone ("I may be the
voice of my generation. Or at least a voice, of a generation," her
character Hannah says in Girls' first episode), but for those who've escaped their twenties intact, the bad sex, flighty friends, and dead-end jobs on Girls are too painful to do anything but laugh at.
7
Chris Rock
Christopher Polk/Getty Images
Rock is one of the few comics to remain not just funny but relevant for his entire career. These days, he exec-produces Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, acts on Broadway (The Motherfucker with the Hat) and shows up in movies (uh, Grown Ups). He is the missing link between Woody Allen and Barack Obama. And yes, there are those of us who saw Pootie Tang in the theater and will never stop quoting it. But what we really want from the God MC is more stand-up, please.
6
Amy Poehler
Chris Haston/NBC
"Leslie Knope should ask VP Biden if he supports my Urban Parks
bill," North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan tweeted when the Vice President
made a cameo on Parks and Recreation. Sadly, Parks and Rec
is a scripted fictional sitcom and not a choose-your-adventure story,
but it's an easy mistake to make. The world of Pawnee, Indiana is as
fully realized as anything on TV – a multi-textured Mayberry for Obama's
America. As Leslie Knope, Poehler has been putting on a masterclass in
sitcom virtuosity: She's got brilliant timing, she's great at physical
comedy and she¹s able to play it heartwarmingly straight. Poehler wasn't
given nearly enough stage time when she co-hosted this year's Golden
Globes with Tina Fey, but she still had the best line of the night
anyway: "We're going home with Jodie Foster!"
5
Trey Parker and Matt Stone
Steve Granitz/WireImage
Fifteen years ago, South Park was seen as a Beavis and Butt-Head
clone – minus the social satire, and with worse animation. Gradually,
Trey Parker and Matt Stone's humble creation became the smartest (and
most subversive) show on television, finding humor in everything from
Scientology to the Special Olympics. Parker and Stone's initial non-South Park projects (Orgazmo, Team America) were mixed bags, but in 2011 their Broadway debut The Book of Mormon
became the best reviewed musical in recent memory. The pair just formed
a new production company, but Parker and Stone aren't slacking on their
day job, either: The most recent season of South Park was as hilarious and batshit-crazy as ever.
4
Jon Stewart
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Now entering his fifteenth year behind The Daily Show's
anchor desk, Stewart is approaching Carson-Letterman territory as a
late-night institution. In the early Bush years, he single-handedly
obliterated the cliche that liberals couldn't be funny, skewering
politicians and the pundits who cover them while effortlessly merging
satire with substantive interviews, like a cross between Tim Russert and
Mort Sahl. He's made an art of vaporizing cable news blowhards like
Bill O'Reilly and Jim Cramer, but he's never been afraid to take on
respected public figures at the height of their popularity and power. He
recently called out fellow New Jerseyan Chris Christie for attacking
Barack Obama's leadership skills on the campaign trail, then praising
them when his state needed help after Hurricane Sandy: "I see," Stewart
said. "So he wasn't a leader until you needed leadership." He remains
the most trusted name in news for people who don't trust the news.
3
Tina Fey
Ali Goldstein/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
"Remember the beginning of the story where I was the underdog? No? Me neither," Fey wrote in her bestselling memoir Bossypants.
That line pretty much nails Tina Fey¹s mystique: The
writer-producer-actor-author has become a do-it-all icon and a
trailblazer for similarly versatile female comedians like Amy Poehler
and Mindy Kaling. As 30 Rock winds up its final season this
year, she can move on to the next phase of her victory-lap filled career
safe in the knowledge that she¹s infused prime time TV with new levels
of absurdist wit and cultural sophistication. Word has it the season
finale will feature an appearances by Ice-T and former Speaker of the
House Nancy Pelosi ("I would do almost anything Tina Fey asks me to do,"
Pelosi said), proving that Fey can make pretty much anyone funny.
2
Stephen Colbert
Paul Morigi/WireImage
Colbert is so well known for his political humor that his chops as a
pure comedian are often overlooked. But he's one of comedy's quickest
wits, not to mention an old fashioned physical comedian – a world-class
mugger and slapstick artist, donning ridiculous outfits and wolfing down
dubious foodstuffs on Colbert Report sketches. As for
politics: He sets himself apart not just as a satirist, but as an
activist, breaking the fourth wall with ingenious conceptual art stunts –
testifying before congress about his brief tenure as a migrant worker,
founding his own Super PAC to expose post-Citizens United money-swamped
political campaigns, and in his most celebrated coup de theatre,
spit-roasting President Bush, and the complacent press corps, in his
appearance at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2006.
1
Louis C.K.
FX
In 2013, Louis C.K. is the Great American Comedian: our chubby,
schlubby, ginger-haired conscience, id, and jester-in-chief. He's a poet
of existential malaise, but his signature standup bit, "Everything is
Amazing and Nobody's Happy," extols the beauty of life and the magic of
modern technology. He's a devoted single father who quips, hilariously,
about child-rape. He's relentlessly politically incorrect, and one of
the most politically trenchant comedians going, whose jokes stake out a
savagely smart left-of-center perspective on class, race, and American
history. He's a crusty old-school stand-up's-stand up and a
groundbreaking internet entrepreneur. His TV show is a new kind of
high-low pop-art, a little bit Jackie Gleason, a little bit Jean-Luc
Godard. He can make you laugh, and cry, just by eating ice cream, a
whole pint of it, straight out of the carton, while lying in bed. A
funny man who contains multitudes.
