Who Is The World’s Funniest Comedian? You May Be Shocked…
In my opinion, there is only one objective way to determine who the funniest comedian in the world may be, and that is…
By using the Comedy Evaluator Pro software and determining which comedian can produce the highest PAR Score over a sustained period of time.
Please review this article before passing judgement on the information and assessment provided below regarding who the world’s funniest comedian is and how that determination was made.
What I am about to share with you may create some controversy, but I don’t care.
Accurate numbers don’t lie and I have made a determination of who is the very first “World’s Funniest Comedian” (actual laughter generation for a particular audience–not subjective likes or dislikes of the content presented or “style”).
Now before I tell you who it is, please note that when I evaluate a comedian using Comedy Evaluator Pro, I’m NOT looking at:
- Popularity or size of fan club
- TV credits, movie appearances, etc.
- Years of performance
- Type of content delivered
- Any other subjective attribute
With my software, I evaluate as closely as possible how many seconds of laughter a comedian can generate for each minute that they are on stage. It’s actually based on simple math that any 5th grader can do.
Up to now, the highest PAR Score I have ever recorded was from super star comedian Bill Cosby with an incredible PAR Score of 58 – and over the years I have recorded dozens and dozens of the most popular comedians you know of today.
IMPORTANT: It is important to note that Bill Cosby doesn’t perform in 300 seat venues. He performs in 1500-5000 seat venues. You will see why this is significant in just a moment.
Now, drum roll please — the funniest comedian in world, based on their PAR Score is…
Native American comedian J. R. Redwater, who will be featured in a Showtime comedy special in November 2009.
J. R.’s PAR Score? An unbelievable 62 for a 9 minute evaluation period.
Click here to read my press release about this incredible laughter milestone.
Now here are the parts of the story the press release don’t reveal…
1. There were two individual minutes where J. R. Redwater’s PAR Score was ABOVE 70. Ka-Pow! Here’s the video:
2. There were only 300 people in the room for the video I reviewed. Had there been 1000 or more, I am convinced J. R.’s overall PAR Score would have been 70+.
3. Old school, “set-up/punchline” comedians will NEVER hit this kind of PAR Score mark I can assure you. Only the story tellers like Bill Cosby, Jeff Foxworthy, Eddie Izzard, etc. will ever be able to hit this sort of laughter milestone.
Note: J. R. Redwater has been a Killer Stand-up Comedy System comedian from the very beginning of his comedy career.
So now, in order for someone to take over the title of “World’s Funniest Comedian”, they must have a PAR Score of at least 63, sustained over at least a 9 minute, uncut and unedited performance period.
If you know of anyone who can meet that PAR Score criteria, please let me know using the comment box below.
But until then…
This talented comedian is hands down the current World’s Funniest Comedian based on PAR Score until I can verify otherwise.
Cheers,
Steve Roye
The Professor of Funny for Money
About the Author/Founder of The Stand-up Comedy Professional
Steve Roye is the author of the Killer Stand-up Comedy System and author of the content made available in the Comedy Pro Membership Program available on this site. Over the past decade, Steve has established himself as a leading, globally recognized expert in the field of stand-up comedy material development, delivery and entertainment business strategies for comedy entertainers as well as speaking professionals.
For more information about Steve, please check out the About The Author section on this site.
Hey Prof,
Bought your system a couple weeks ago and it’s already helped me. Just the writing instruction alone was worth the price. Thanks!
However, regarding this blog about J.R. Redwater… I think you proved something unexpectedly profound and quite possibly blasphemous according to your comedic paradigm: A comedian’s success cannot be wholly determined by an audience’s laughter. Yep, I told you there might be blasphemy.
Sure, laughter is immensely important, but it’s not everything. Just as the best paintings, poetry, and songs cannot be gauged by any kind of indicator or formula. Stand-up comedy is art. An artist’s success won’t be determined by the standards set forth by anyone – as those determining factors will always be arbitrary.
Case in point, I chuckled once during R.J.’s video. The rest was silence. I respect what he does and the success he has garnered throughout his stand-up career. But there are literally hundreds of comedians the world finds more “successful”. Again, laughs are extremely important but they aren’t everything. There are substantive and aesthetic qualities which should be taken into consideration as well. Levels of deep appreciation and understanding which may not be displayed as raw hilarity. One can’t usually hear a comedian’s poignancy reflected through audience noise.
As I said in the beginning of my comment, you proved my argument with your “laugh meter”. I had never heard of Redwater a month ago. How could that be if he is, in any possible way, the world’s funniest comedian? Odds are, I won’t see or hear anything more from J.R. Redwater in my lifetime.
Patton Oswalt, Louis C.K., and Zach Galifianakis (to name but three) may not be in the 60′s according to your evaluator, but in my estimation (and I’m far from alone on this), those three are way more successful at stand-up comedy.
VS
It is not I that requires a paradigm shift when it comes to stand-up comedy — from ANY perspective, including laughter generation or how videos are perceived when it comes to “funny”:
Please review these three articles:
http://realfirststeps.com/standupcomedysecrets/?p=1409
http://realfirststeps.com/standupcomedysecrets/?p=1463
http://www.realfirststeps.com/?p=1029
But you are certainly welcome to follow “the world is flat” crowd. That’s 100% your decision, not mine.
If you can find ANY documentaion from ANY reliable source (preferably a college text book) to support your opinion, please send it my way.
I am anxious to review that material because I haven’t been able to find it. I can only find references on basic time science, group reaction dynamics and body language related references to support my “paradigm”.
The Prof
Acting goofy is being a clown, not a comedian. J. R. Redwater may be the World’s Funniest Clown but he tells very few jokes. If you read his act, would it still be funny?
In theory, Charlie Chaplin could beat Redwater’s score by taking 70 shots to the nuts in 60 seconds. Yes, 62% of Redwater’s time is consumed by laughter but a pure clown can achieve 100% without saying a word.
Most stand-ups are some blend of clown and comedian. Bill Cosby and Jim Carrey are mostly clowns. Jeff Foxworthy and Steven Wright are mostly comedians. One of my favorite comedians is Bob Zany. Try measuring the PAR of this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb6UOBTGzVE
I just signed up for your free trial and then used Comedy Evaluator Pro to measure Zany’s 3 minute bit from YouTube. It was my first time using the software but I track him around 55. Zany does minimal clowning although I noticed that he tells a joke, gets the laugh and then throws in about 3-4 zingers to keep the laughs rolling. That technique is probably what keeps his PAR high.
Here’s the deal with the Bob Zany video (I know Bob and have worked with him a number of times)…
I can assure you that there were more than 300 people in that room that Zany is performing in.
Bob is an old school joke teller – a modern version of Henny Youngman. That “style” is not only old, but joke tellers won’t ever reach the highest PAR Scores because they are dependent on sentence structure as opped to delivery.
The Prof
You know, using your criteria Carrot Top should probably be classified as a clown too. But I am not sure if your characterizations are helpful in any way.
Here’s what I do know:
I haven’t had a single person send me a video of any kind of comedian that can produce more laughter than J.R. and not in a room of just 300 people.
The Prof
I consider myself a comedy fan more so than the average Jane….I was looking for more of a random comic a day software that would show a different comedy clip I could start my days off with… I googled comedy software and found yours fascinating… There IS a comedian that I consider my FAVORITE that everyone I bump into has NEVER heard of but once I turn them on to his work, they agree that they’ve NEVER seen his equal…. His name is “CHINAMAN” and he’s not been on television since the early nineties! If you are at his show, the laughs roll so quickly into the next laugh that I barely have time to catch my breath…. I’d be curious how he ranks with your software, because I believe he is the funniest unseen comic currently touring… He has video from 2006 posted on youtube… If you ever get a chance to catch any and rank it, would you let me know?
Thanks for your time! And best of luck to you and your amazingly unique ideas!
Lindsay Roberson
You’re wrong.
Jesus Christ you are wrong.
Show me a video of another comedian whose laughter takes up 62% of the time on stage with laughter for almost 9 minutes…
I’ll be more than happy to name a new funniest comedian.
The Prof
This whole concept of a par score really fascinates me. Stand-up comedy is a very intangible art form and has had countless conversations with people about who is funny and who is not. They usually end with no real resolution beyond, “well I think he’s funny even if you don’t.” It’s really cool that this par concept allows there to be some objective measuring point within the discussion.
Unfortunately I don’t think you can ever take the subjectivity around what is funny out of the discussion completely. Case in point, I don’t find JR funny. He just isn’t my cup of tea, I would rather listen to someone like Louis CK.
Just to be clear though I’m not saying that JR isn’t funny. What I’m saying is he isn’t funny to me. Obviously the guy is a pro and can kill. I could never achieve a 62 par score and I’m not trying to bash him I’m just trying to point out that even with the objective results of the audience response there still is some level of subjectivity involved when discussing who is the “funniest” comedian.
Maybe when discussing par scores it would be better to say this comedian destroys a room at a higher level then this comedian. I guess that is an awkward way to put it but at least it would take away the preconceived baggage that involves the word funny which is a much more metaphysical concept then just plain destroying a crowd. From a business stand point though funny is clearly the better term because it will generate much more controversy because of the subjective nature of people’s sense of humor.
Anyways I’m kind of rambling. I hope I haven’t come off as some sort of comedy snob. This type of discussion just really interests me. I hope the concept of a par score becomes standard practice in the comedy industry because it would be nice for there to be some hard tangible evidence to lay claim to during this type of discussion. Keep up the good work Steve.
This is a great comment. And if you will pay close attention…
You are about to discover the stand-up comedy secrets which Hollywood and all it’s money and fame cannot grasp—even in the 21st century.
If you are evaluating a comedian from a video on a computer or on the TV by yourself at home…
What happens as far as audience response in the live performing environment NEVER carries over to a single individual like it does in a live event. Why? Because laughter is a shared response. With no one to share laughter with…
You are left with the intangible part—that subjective “feeling” that focuses on the topics or content present by the comedian as opposed what is actually happening in the performing environment. You are not influenced by a group of people around you who are laughing uncontrollably.
There are people who don’t care for Bill Cosby. And I will promise you this…
That subjective evaluation was NOT made after attending and experiencing a Bill Cosby event. The same can be said of any comedian.
But one thing is undeniable…
It IS possible to accurately measure the response that a comedian can or cannot command from an audience they are performing in front of.
But let’s flip the script…
Use my Comedy Evaluator Pro for a performance where a comedian is bombing. Little or minimal laughter means a little or minimum PAR Score—even if it is your mom performing on stage.
If you are striving to be a professional comedian, it doesn’t matter what your content is, whether it is blue or green, or what political or religious views you want to express or you want to be clean (which is where the real money is) on stage.
PAR Score doesn’t lie—it’s a measurement of actual results generated by that comedian for that audience. And I don’t have to be in the room or even like a comedian or his/her content to know if they can truly slay a room or not.
And I will absolutely stick by my guns and say yes—there are comedians that are funnier than others and yes, there are comedians that just aren’t near as funny as others. And there’s where the monkey is in the wrench, because…
You really have to have your act at the highest level to move forward in this reality show concept—no matter how funny you think you are.
Funny has always been determined by audience response. Now, it’s just nailed down just that much further.
Will this concept cause controversy? I guarantee it. At the same time…
It will raise the bar because—if you can’t hit 35 or 40 PAR consistently, you shouldn’t be headlining.
Again, great comment!
The Prof
huh, who woulda’ thunk it?
how do you calculate someone’s par score? by like seconds?
All I can say is read the blog. Look at the info in the Comedy Evaluator Pro software. Your comment doesn’t put you in the most favorable light, trust me. The Prof
It is funny how it takes someone to set something and then it all starts to move. My highest ever PAR so far has been a 48. What J.R. has done, Steve is set a benchmark that we can all shoot for. Wow, 62 – who would have thunk it. Now let’s see Killer Stand Up comics begin something akin to what happened after Bannister broke the 4-minute Mile: we’re all going to go for it and keep pushing the envelope. Before you know it, the bar will be set high and only the truly funny will be makin’ it. Thanks J.R. and thanks Steve. Love it!
Mark G
http://www.markgladman.com
Hey Mark — Thanks for your comments. I was actually think about using the Roger Bannister analogy myself.
But make no mistake — 48 PAR is exceptional as well, a milestone most comedians will NEVER make. Keep charging, growing and getting better!
The Prof
The link to the video doesn’t seem to work. And I’m really curious.
Here’s the direct link to the page with the embedded video…
http://realfirststeps.com/standupcomedysecrets/killer-stand-up-comedy-stars/killer-standup-comedian-jr-redwater-rocks-showtime-comedy-special
Cheers,
The Prof
Tim Hawkins is the funniest comedian ever with a par score of stupid crazy.
I have monitored Tim Hawkins PAR Score live and it was at 50 for a 10 minute set. Tim is one of the funniest people I have ever seen live. I have an email into Tim now but haven’t gotten a replay yet. Tim is a Killer Stand-up Comedy System guy — the first that I know of to really “blow it out” using my system.
Thanks for your comments!
The Prof