Curated playlist
American stand-up comedians
- Woody AllenWoody Allen failed a film production course at New York University, then went on to direct Annie Hall.
- Adam SandlerAdam Sandler once made a Western comedy that critics almost universally panned. On the 6th of January 2016, Netflix announced that the film, The Ridiculous 6, had been watched more times in thirty days than any other movie in the service's…
- Dean MartinDean Martin, born Dino Paul Crocetti, delivered one of his sharpest hometown jokes in a 1967 spy spoof. In The Ambushers, his secret agent Matt Helm is about to be executed and is offered a last cigarette. Helm tells the man who hands it…
- Johnny CarsonUri Geller failed on Johnny Carson's show, and it made him famous. Carson had asked James Randi for help.
- David LettermanDavid Letterman got fired from campus radio for treating classical music irreverently.
- Bill CosbyBill Cosby holds the record for the most Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album, with seven wins. To a vast television audience, he was also Cliff Huxtable, the father at the center of The Cosby Show. That role earned him a reputation as…
- Eddie MurphyEddie Murphy opened Saturday Night Live on the 11th of December 1982 with a boast: "Live from New York, it's the Eddie Murphy Show!" The host booked for that Christmas episode, Nick Nolte, had become too ill to appear. Murphy stepped in.…
- Robin WilliamsRobin Williams was voted "Most Likely Not to Succeed" by his high school classmates in 1969.
- Donald GloverDonald Glover was voted most likely to write for The Simpsons. At 23 he landed a writing job on 30 Rock instead.
- Nick CannonNick Cannon is an American comedian, actor and rapper who once hosted a stunt in which a human cannonball was fired into slime. It happened at Nickelodeon's 2005 Kids' Choice Awards, and the ceremony called it the slime stunt. The moment…
- Kelsey GrammerKelsey Grammer was meant to play Frasier Crane for only six episodes. He kept the role for 20 years across two shows.