Is there a question?

Adi Ashkenazi, and theres no chance in hell you know her

Ahh... do they have to still be living?
'cos I'm gonna say Bill Hicks for American, and ermm... off the top of my head Dylan Moran for 'British'... though that may be revised after seeing other suggestions.

Russel Peters, no contest.

HEY! Be a man.

Michael MacIntyre is great for me.

elgringobandito:

Lukeje:
Ahh... do they have to still be living?
'cos I'm gonna say Bill Hicks for American, and ermm... off the top of my head Dylan Moran for 'British'... though that may be revised after seeing other suggestions.

Good call on Dylan Moran, I'm seeing him in November. He ain't British though, he's Irish.

Hence 'British'.

For me it's a tie between Demetri Martin and Jim Gaffigan.

Khell_Sennet:
Russel Peters, no contest.

HEY! Be a man.

and dane cook

George carlin ranks pretty highly up there in my opinion, but it would be difficult to define "best" given that peoples interests in humor vary greatly.

I for one, prefer dry, satirical humor and I bet many people here have strikingly different preferences.

I used to like Lewis Black a lot, but now he just yells and spits a lot. Brian Regan's pretty good, Jeff Ross is decent, I like Greg Norton, and Chris Rock has a couple of Comedy Hall of Fame performances that almost made me wet myself. Anybody who says Dane Cook shouldn't be allowed to talk anymore. He is terrible.

elgringobandito:

Lukeje:

elgringobandito:

Lukeje:
Ahh... do they have to still be living?
'cos I'm gonna say Bill Hicks for American, and ermm... off the top of my head Dylan Moran for 'British'... though that may be revised after seeing other suggestions.

Good call on Dylan Moran, I'm seeing him in November. He ain't British though, he's Irish.

Hence 'British'.

Ireland isn't part of Britain. I know. I'm Irish.

I understand that Southern Ireland is no longer part of Britain. This is why I used quotation marks to emphasise this ambiguity. I used it because you only stated 'English comedian' in your opening post, and jumping from 'English' to 'British' is less of a jump than from 'English' to 'Irish'.

I suppose what I should have said is 'My favourite comedian from the UK and the Republic of Ireland'.

Brian Regan and Eddie Izzard are two that I have enjoyed. I haven't listened to enough to make an educated decision as to who is the 'best' though.

George Carlin
Lewis Black
Christopher Titus

A Friend showed me Russell Peters, a cannadian commedian with indian herritage. I myself am german but since i'm not satisfied with the german Commedians i go international ;)
here is a sampel of his stand up and you don't have to be Cannadian to laugh about the issues he adresses http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=24Ryj1ywoqw

If someone can understand German well enugh for the the complexety that good commedy requires i would recommend
-Bodo Wartke -> Kabarettist am Klavier und großartiger Sänger
-Vince Ebert -> Physiker und dabei genial

Now for the crossing of both here is a commedian from germany going international and makes fun of us but since hes that awsome i wouldn't blame him for that :)
Henning Wehn "the german commedy ambassador"
Exampe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wJaCedLfdg

George Carlin

You are missed.

Dylan Moran is my favourite, got all his stand up DVDs and seen him live once too. He is closely followed by Frankie Boyle though. Not many people have the balls to make the jokes that he does and actually manage to get away with it without causing mass outrage.

Bill Bailey.

And that is unquestionable
*thread ends*

Khell_Sennet:
Russel Peters, no contest.

HEY! Be a man.

Do da right ting!

Anyway...

My favorite stand up comedian is Patton Oswalt followed by Steven Wright for a close second. As for British comedians, I don't know many of them, but Lee Evans and Ricky Gervais are quite good.

I'm really not a fan of most of the new up-and-coming comics. I prefer the classics and semi-classics, that is to say Carlin, Pryor, Rock in his prime, Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, and Drew Carey before they had sitcoms, and Jeff Dunham and his cast of puppets.

Lewis Black, Brian Regan, Jim Gaffigan, Steve Byrne, and Brian Posehn are all high up on my list.

Damn right
Bill Bailey is awesome
closely followed by Dylan Moran he was also amzing in Black books.

George Carlin mainly. I also enjoy Eddie Izzard at times :]

Since so many ppl have already mentioned George Carlin, i'm going to say Bill Cosby that man knows comedy and he rarely swears either

tho Bob Sagat is pretty darn funny too

Billy Connelly

Madrak the Red:
Bill Bailey.

And that is unquestionable
*thread ends*

Tim Minchin > Bailey.

That is unquestionable.

Favourite actual stand up who doesn't use music as a medium?

Ricky Gervais, or Russell Brand.

ellimist337:
I used to like Lewis Black a lot, but now he just yells and spits a lot.

I still like him in short bursts, like the 2-3 min sections he does on the Daily Show, but yeah, not as great as he used to be.

Carlin, Old eddy murphy and Pryor are my favorites.

Oh come on. No one has mentioned Dave Chappelle? Well, count me as the first.

Edit: Well, I guess Dave isn't necessarily known for his stand-up, but he is still a great comedian none-the-less.

Carlin. God must be laughing his head off, listening to "Religion is bullshit."!

Mike Birbiglia!