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POLL: Peter Kay - Best Comedian or Over-Rated Comedian?

Basq

Last year, a poll was taken at the Chortle Comedy Awards naming Peter Kay as the most over-rated comedian ever!

See here: http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/feb04/rate.html

However, earlier this week, a poll organised at Jongleur's Comedy Club named him the nation's best comedian!!

See here: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds19890.html

Somewhat confusing, i know!

So, what do you think? Is the man funny or over-rated?

Personally, i think the man is definantly one of the funniest comedian's out there! His two live DVD's are amazing, along with 'Phoenix Nights' being one of the best comedies to come out of the UK in years (along with 'The Office'). 'Max & Paddy..' wasn't near as good as 'Phoenix Nights' but was still great viewing!

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fade2black

I judge comedians on how loudly I laugh and how much I cry with laughter. Connolly and Kay are geniuses at hitting the comedy nerve of what we all know best. I say are, but that really only applies to Kay, poor billy has slipped into oblivion. Watching that comedians's top 100 comedians over Christmas would have been tough viewing for Billy because his peers simply lamented his past glories and bitched about his present misgivings. I used to be a huge connolly fan, I have every DVD and video he's made and I've been to see him live (dissappointing) his charm has left him and been replaced by smugness and this was his downfall. There was a time when "Oh I have loads of money" was charming and he got away with it because he was a loveable rogue, working class hero etc..He didnt stop though and soon every bit of material he had contained references to being loaded. The biography, by his wife, part one and two are just sickening..."Oh it was so hard setting up his 60th birthday party....was good to see Sean Connorry and all again though, they are such good friends"....The thought of asking people to pay for this boastfull ****e was ludicrous (I got them as presents). He then goes and makes an ad for the national lottery. I'll happily look at all his old material and laugh just as much as ever, but then, i'm laughing at a different person.

I don't see this happening to Peter Kay because he's so rooted in family that he'll never lose that local boy done good tag. My only worry about him is that he works off a foundation of material that although hilarious is being recycled into two different shows and also appears in phoenix nights. He is naturally funny though with the most infectious laugh I have ever heard.

My top ten would be as follows:

1. Billy Connolly (Of old)
2. Peter Kay
3. Andy Kauffman
4. Richord Pryor
5. Eddie Izzard (his dressed to kill vid was genius in my opinion)
6. Colin Murphy
7. Ryan Stiles
8. Tommy Tiernan
9. Deirdre O Kane.. (ooohhh..contentious eh...I think she's funny and surviving a helluva lot better than some others in a man's world)
10. Take away that dreadful Ballinascully or whatever it was called and Pat Shortt is quite funny..

PullMyFinger!

sinecurea wrote:

Bill Bailey should definately be in the top ten, ahead of Jimmy Carr anyways.

Agreed. His humour is definitely to my liking

John Cleese has never done standup AFAIK.

theCzar

i have no idea what lee evans and jimmy carr are doing in the list.

personally, i think Peter Kay's standup is a bit crap, phoenix nights is class though.

1) Dave O'Doherty aka Mother****in' D O D
2) Eddie Izzard
3) Billy Connolly
4) Bill Bailey
5) Richard Pryor
6) Tommy Tiernan
etc.

LFCFan

Tommy Tiernan for me is the best at the mo. I'd have Kay at second. Overall though, Billy Connolly at his peak was the best comedian ever.

Megatron

Bill Baily is on of my favs alright ...

however i read the whole thread and i'm sad

very very sad

only 1 mention of Ben Elton , and not 1 mention of Lenny henry, who for me is one of the best comics going.

but sayign that i'd still have auld mister connely up at number 1 , but your right in saying that his more recent stuff is drivel

rubadub

PullMyFinger! wrote:

John Cleese has never done standup AFAIK.

The poll didnt mention stand-up at all. Unless you consider a comedian to be stand-up and what cleese does as "comic acting". I'd call him a comedian though.

Basq

Megatron wrote:

..and not 1 mention of Lenny henry, who for me is one of the best comics going...

Dear God NO!

If you saw him at Comic Relief as Condoleezza Rice... you'l quickly change your mind! TERRIBLE!!

theCzar

Megatron wrote:

only 1 mention of Ben Elton , and not 1 mention of Lenny henry, who for me is one of the best comics going.

Ben Elton, fair enough, decent comedian but *cough* lenny henry! It's like the opposite of humour, it drains the mirth from the room. The only reason i can see for his contined presence on the comic relief line up is that he, makes the audience feel bad, so they donate to make themselves feel better. watching Lenny Henry is probably slightly worse than living in the 3rd world.

smoocher

im a big peter kay fan his 2 live dvds had me in stitches ive watched them so many times i could nearly tell the jokes myself.
phoenix nights is legend aswell...watch the outtakes ther gas!

limerick_man

Chris Rock
Dara O Brain
Jimmy Carr
Billy Connelly
Ed Burn (not his tv promos)

I just wanna say how much i hate Lee Evans

theCzar

Ed burn had a funny 15 minutes of material that launched his career ages back, i haven't laughed since unfortunately.

Chris Rock is funny though, i love the sketch about the really expensive bullets (that was him wasn't it)

gandalf

Well my top comedians would be as follows

Billy Connolly
Richard Pryor
Emo Philips
Jack Dee
Lee Evans
Chris Rock
Robin Williams
Ben Elton
Gregor Fisher for Rab C. Nesbitt alone

The Two Ronnies

Peter Kay makes me switch channels rapidally !!

limerick_man

theCzar wrote:

Chris Rock is funny though, i love the sketch about the really expensive bullets (that was him wasn't it)

Ya its in his show 'Bigger and Blacker' filmed back in 1999. I have it on DVD.

A lot of the jokes etc. are also in the movie he wrote, directed, starred in and produced 'Head of State' which is so brilliant!

But i wonder why he doubled up his comedy, comedains dont usually do the same matieral do they???

But i guess 'head of state' was all his best in one movie!!

And what a kick ass movie!

joe316

cant believe no one has mentioned the late, great dermot morgan, he practically transformed the comedy scene in this country with fr trendy skits

eirebhoy

Tommy Tiernan is great at writing jokes but I don't even class him as a funny person anymore. Its very good to judge people by their appearances on talk shows.
The likes of Billy Connolly doesn't think he has to make people laugh. His trips around Ireland and England on that BBC show are a great example of this.
Johnny Vegas is just completely funny and I have never heard him speak a serious sentance in my life.
Tommy Tiernan goes onto the likes of the Late Late and has his show written before he goes on. I can honestly say that I have heard the same 10 minute cameo on the Late Late show, the Dunphy show, Des and Mel and bits and pieces of it in standup. He has really gone to the bottom of my list because of this.

LFCFan

eirebhoy wrote:

Tommy Tiernan is great at writing jokes but I don't even class him as a funny person anymore. Its very good to judge people by their appearances on talk shows.
The likes of Billy Connolly doesn't think he has to make people laugh. His trips around Ireland and England on that BBC show are a great example of this.
Johnny Vegas is just completely funny and I have never heard him speak a serious sentance in my life.
Tommy Tiernan goes onto the likes of the Late Late and has his show written before he goes on. I can honestly say that I have heard the same 10 minute cameo on the Late Late show, the Dunphy show, Des and Mel and bits and pieces of it in standup. He has really gone to the bottom of my list because of this.

have you been to his live shows? All of Billy Connolly's stand up is pre written. Doesn't mean it's not good. There's not a comedien on the planet who will go onto stage without a pretty good idea of what his material is going to be. I've seen Tommy being interviewed when it was off the cuff and he's very funny.

Capt'n Midnight

joe316 wrote:

cant believe no one has mentioned the late, great dermot morgan, he practically transformed the comedy scene in this country with fr trendy skits

not to mention scrap saturday

eirebhoy

LFCFan wrote:

have you been to his live shows? All of Billy Connolly's stand up is pre written. Doesn't mean it's not good. There's not a comedien on the planet who will go onto stage without a pretty good idea of what his material is going to be. I've seen Tommy being interviewed when it was off the cuff and he's very funny.

First of all everyone's stand up is pre-written.

Connolly doesn't go onto 3 or 4 talk shows (all viewable to the same country) and spend the whole 10 minutes saying the exact same words he has said on the other ones. In fact, Connolly doesn't have to write a 10 minute cameo when going onto a talk show. He would probably have a couple of jokes to say but he doesn't change every quesion asked around so that he can fit his joke in.

If he's, as you said, funny without pre-rehearsed lines, why can't he go onto a talk show and just act himself? Surely if he's naturally funny he'd make people laugh anyway.