re: Your Mt Rushmore of Comedians

Carlin - He had so much extremely good material and his delivery was one which no one else could really do and still do the material justice.

Eddie Murphy - He was even better in his standups than he was on SNL (and he was damned good on SNL).

Richard Pryor - Like Carlin, his stuff was hard for others to imitate and he doubled down on presenting his humor with numerous movies (writing and performing).

Robin Williams - Insanely high energy (even after he stopped doing coke) and his material was unique. His ability to hilariously adlib is still pretty much unparalleled.

If we have to pick only dead comedians, I would swap out Sam Kinison or Rodney Dangerfield for Eddie Murphy.

Kinison was a fricking monster of comedy. He was off-putting to many because of his yelling, but if you could get past that you would encounter some of the most creatively hilarious bits on things like marriage, drugs, foreigners, cunnlingus, etc. you've ever heard.


Honorable Mentions:

-Andrew "Dice" Clay - His early stuff was unbelievably funny, he sold out MSG back when the only two other comedians to do that were George Carlin and Eddie Murphy. He waned once he cried on Arsenio and got his own sitcom. He hasn't been able to recapture that prior level of fame.

Dave Chappelle - His standups pre and post Chappelle Show have been stellar and Chappelle Show became part of the cultural zeitgeist even years after it was off the air. His more recent standups have been good, but he seems to be getting angrier in his standups as he ages and that anger seems to be replacing the good-natured fun of earlier bits.

Chris Rock - Another SNL alum who was already known when on SNL but then skyrocketed once he left the show and did some movies and recorded standups. If he had done more standups (especially if they were on the level of Bigger & Blacker), he might be a contender for one of the main spots.