I was forced to watch yet another Jim Carrey movie with my wife yesterday and that got me to thinking about who are the least funny comedians in the world, um, ever. Carrey does, of course, feature quite highly.
So, in reverse order, I give you the top ten least funny comedians in the world.
10) Will Ferrell
Pulling stupid faces and SHOUTING VERY LOUDLY is not inherently funny. This seems to be the limit of Ferrell’s abilities. Hopeless and thankfully he’ll wear out his welcome very soon if he keeps putting out tripe like ‘Semi-Pro’.
9) Andrew ‘Dice’ Clay
This man is a moron. His audience consist of sub-normal rednecks to whom his reworked nursery rhymes are the equivalent of the complete works of Oscar Wilde.
Once again, shouting very loudly isn’t actually funny and his witless comments and use of swearing in place of actual humour place him on this list. The Day The Laughter Died? Too right.
If you have managed to avoid this idiot, here’s an example of his oeuvre. If you laugh, feel free to check yourself into the nearest institution :
Bernard Manning
Bernard Manning was, for a time, one of Britain’s most successful comedians. Until that is, someone noticed that he was a racist, sexist, homophobe and that all his material revolved around these things.
Manning was soon relegated to his own club just outside of Manchester and good riddance too.
7) Jim Davidson
Somehow this guy managed to sustain an extremely successful 25 year in the UK, making misogynistic jokes about women and racist jokes about ‘chalky’ (I kid you not).
Luckily, this deeply unpleasant individual has fallen from favour and now is mainly seen as a TV talking head moaning about ‘political correctness’. He isn’t and wasn’t ever funny and here’s a YouTube video to prove it:
6) Cannon and Ball
In the UK, Cannon and Ball were hugely successful in the ’80s – prime time television, millions of viewers. The only thing that was missing was any discernable comedic talent whatsoever.
Apparently, they used to be welders, which is somehow appropriate, because their ‘comedy’ was like being hit over the head with a steel pipe. ‘Rock On, Tommy’, indeed.
5) David Baddiel
David Baddiel must be the luckiest man in comedy. He seems a smart, engaging and likeable chap, which could explain why he has managed to work with some of alternative comedy’s brightest and best (The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Rob Newman and Frank Skinner).
The only problem is that Baddiel just isn’t funny. Think of him as the Ringo Starr of the comedy world. A man who was in the right place at the right time.
4) Rowan Atkinson
Atkinson is famous worldwide for Mr Bean and in Britain for Blackadder.
Blackadder appealed to teenagers, mainly because it consisted of only two jokes, so they could repeat them back to each other at school. The show mainly consisted of Atkinson and his alternative comedy friends messing around like a bunch of self-indulgent kids. It was awful.
Mr Bean, likewise, is lowest common denominator stuff. If you find slipping on bananas skins funny, then it’s probably the funniest thing you’ve ever seen. Otherwise, you’ll see that Rowan Atkinson is a one-trick pony and not remotely amusing.
3) Lee Evans
Falling over like a second-rate Michael Crawford (back when he was a comic actor in Some Mother’s Do ‘Ave ‘Em) and a third-rate Norman Wisdom and sweating A LOT just isn’t funny. What more need be said.
2) Andy Kaufman
Being deliberately unfunny is not, at any point, actually funny. Getting other people to perform as you is not funny either. Behaving like a spoilt brat – whether part of an act or not – nope, still not funny.
Andy Kaufman was not funny. The end.
1) Jim Carrey
Gurning like a loon, saying ‘alrighty now’ and overacting like it is going out of fashion does not a good comedian make.
The scale of Carrey’s success makes me want to weep. He has been doing the same schtick over and over again for years and each time, it’s just a bit more desperate and humourless.
There are a lot of bad comedians who didn’t make this list (Tom Green, Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown and others…we salute you), but I’ll end this post on an upnote with a couple of clips of what I consider real comedy genius.
I give you all Bill Bailey :
