Photo: HEX (Getty)
Stand-up comedians have always left their mark on the era in which they performed. With the advent of television, they could for the first time be transported from a smokey comedy club right into our living rooms. But it was the introduction of cable television in the ’80s where their not-appropriate-for-prime-time jokes and routines could be left unvarnished and uncensored for our entertainment. So many funny men and women came out of this decade, made us laugh over and over, and influenced a generation of comics to follow. Here is our ranking of the 10 Best Stand-Up Comedians from the ’80s.
Photo: Mike Windle (Getty)
Prop comics don’t get many … props from stand-up comedians, but it was hard for anyone to dislike Howie Mandel. A whirling dervish of madcap energy and silliness, Mandel made playing the fool serious business. No one could blow a rubber glove atop their head with their own nose quite like him. Nor turn annoying voices into high art. As his popularity soared, Mandel mostly left the props and voices behind. What was left was a smart, insanely likable comedian, but in no way any less the showman.
Photo: Michael Tran (Getty)
The Diceman was the emblem of foul-mouthed ’80s cool. Looking like a cross between Elvis and Fonzi with a slick pompadour, flashy leather jacket, and a Dr. Strangelovian approach to smoking cigarettes, Dice was known for his R-rated nursery rhymes and unapologetic sexism. No female was spared his offensive denigration, not even Mother Goose herself. As controversy built around him and his filthy routines, his star only grew brighter. While the proponents of political correctness piled on, loyal audiences instead elected to reward the comedian with one sold out show after the next.
Photo: Nick Valinote (Getty)
Lewis was a neurotic’s neurotic. Wild, gesticulating, constantly moving, he approached each performance as if he were just roused off his therapist’s couch by an earthquake. Long hair and black attire was his uniform of choice and in it he would bemoan just about everything he ever came into contact with. Self-conscious and paranoid, most of his laughs came at his own expense, which for the audience, paid off in dividends.
Photo: Handout (Getty)
What’s most impressive about Ellen Degeneres is how relevant she still is decades after she first broke out as a stand-up comedian. Though her performance style was calm and matter-of-fact, she was a true force of nature on stage, particularly in a profession dominated by men. Female comedians proliferated in the ’80s and Ellen was the leader of the pack. If you really killed doing stand-up on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show,” he would invite you to sit down with him afterwards. Degeneres was the first female comedian to ever be granted that honor.
Photo: Paul Natkin (Getty)
While everyone on this list burst onto the scene in the ’80s, Steve Wright came in like a warm breeze. Though his delivery was sleepy and deadpan, the laughs they generated were anything but. He brought a wicked intellect to the stage, delivered in an endless supply of nonsensical statements and one-liners that were both fresh and hilarious. If “The Far Side” comic strip was a comedian, he would be Steven Wright.
Photo: Trodler (Getty)
Bill Hicks is a name you may have never heard that is indeed synonymous with comedy. His overbearing religious upbringing formed a foaming distrust of the theological in him that inevitably spilled out into his comedy routines. Politics, consumerism and the benefits of recreational drugs also rounded out his dark, hysterical take on society at large. Big ideas were his brand, and though very influential to fellow comedians here, his most eager audiences were found in the U.K. But he definitely left his imprint as a stand-up comedian in the US as well and, had he not died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 32, would surely have been a household name today.
Photo: Charley Gallay (Getty)
What Roseanne Barr brought to the mic was the story of her working class life, marriage and motherhood. A truly personal routine, warts and all, spun into high end humor for receptive ’80s audiences. Her “Domestic Goddess” persona not only appealed to the everyday woman and mother walking in her shoes, but the population at large who appreciated this bulldozer of a woman who was just flat-out, fall-down funny. Home life had always been a recipe for a standup comic’s material and Roseanne took hers, piping hot, straight from the oven, laundry room or children’s bedside like no other father could.
Photo: Time & Life Pictures (Getty)
Kinison exploded onto the comedy scene like a Category 5 Hurricane, leveling audiences with his deafening torrents of hilarity. Literally the son of a preacher man, he funneled the anger brought on by a broken childhood home, personal marital woes, and, like Bill Hicks, religious doubts into electrifying comedy routines. His screaming sets were unleashed upon unsuspecting ’80s audiences gaining both their devotion and the respect and admiration of his peers. A young drunk driver cut Kinison’s life short at the age of 38. A shocking death for a man who jolted new life into the perception of what comedy actually was.
Photo: Manny Carabel (Getty)
The king of observational humor, way before he was ever on TV, Seinfeld was weaving tales of cereal and Superman into gold. He twisted everyday activities from our normal daily lives into brilliantly absurd moments of hilarity. Under his watch, any mundane action was fodder for a joke that would leave audiences rolling with laughter. Sure, Seinfeld conquered the sitcom like no one else, but the stand-up stage was his first victory, blazing a trail of influence for future young comic observers to follow.
Photo: Donaldson Collection (Getty)
Though all the men and women on this list were hugely successful stand-ups, Murphy was simply in a league of his own. He didn’t just take the mic, he set it on fire, and audiences watched this wildly confident storyteller burn up the stage from the edge of their seats. His 69-minute “Delirious” was a proud compliment to any VHS collection and was soon followed up with “Raw” — perhaps the “Godfather” of comedy concert films, if not the “Citizen Kane.” Whoever Murphy is today, back in the ’80s he was our most exciting, outrageous, hysterical comedian lifting stand-up to a level only few have been able to reach before or since.
