Stand-up is my absolute favorite medium of… well, "art" I guess. It's truly the ultimate bastion of freedom of speech, because that's literally all it is- some person going up saying whatever the fuck they damn well please; the purpose, to make a randomly assembled group of folks, and whoever else may choose to listen in after the fact, trigger a mysterious automated response. The very concept of it is, I believe, one of the greatest illustration of human ingenuity. It's also one of the things I hope to do with my life, but we'll just wait and see how that idea turns out, because I'm pretty confident that my shit luck will somehow get in the way.
But enough of my blabbering. Let's get this show on the road.
George Carlin is simply one of the most brilliant men who ever lived. In my opinion, not only is he the greatest comedian-cum-philosopher, an idea he arguably pioneered, but perhaps also the the greatest entertainer of all time period. (Also, I cannot recommended his trilogy of books enough.)
For the pure purpose of getting a good laugh without worrying about any… eh… "higher thoughts", I turn to my dear old friend Patton Oswald. It's just a shame that he hasn't put out that much material, because he's fucking hi-larious.
(Yes, I do eat these, and yes, I do not even give a single shit about my body.)
And for the title of "Most Underrated", I'll go with Doug Stanhope. It seems that pretty much no one knows about this guy, which is a damn shame because he is the man. He goes about as dark and disgusting as anyone in the business will dare to, and if you know anything about stand-up, you know that's code for "a whole fucking lot".
Honorable Mentions: Louis Black and Jim Jefferies