Comedy heroes

[Lucky Toma]

Seeing as though there is a Tommy Cooper thread on here who are your all-time comedy heroes?

This is the guvnor for me - Alistair Sim.

Magnificent in School for Scoundrels and majestic in An Inspector Calls but perhaps his greatest performance (in a truly brilliant under-rated film) was in The Green Man.
There is a scene where he is watching with utter disgust a group of old ladies singing.
When they look over he changes his expression to one of fake sheer joy.
In that few seconds alone there is a comedy masterclass.

Sim also took a young actor under his wing, took him in to his family home and turned him into a star. This guy -

 

[Anonymous]

My idol, a comic genius, and the funniest man to ever walk this earth.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdeym7xv_V4[/youtube]

 

[The Flash]

 

[mcfc2112]

Stan Laurel...and Oliver Hardy!

 

[Andy Dale]

Stan Laurel...and Oliver Hardy!

This . . without question , the greatest ever.

 

[tidyman]

Tony Hancock. His sketches, blood donors and radio ham
are the two that spring to mind but they're all genius.

Seen them on DVD but for some reason think they work better
just with the audio.

Also, Bob Newhart. Not his dodgy TV series but his
radio programme where he did one way telephone
conversations that he imagined might have happened
in history. The one with Walter Raleigh explaining that he's just
discovered tobacco has me chuckling, probably
30 years after I first heard it.

 

[Skashion]

I suppose I should also say the Monty Python guys as well because Matt and Trey are "Python freaks", and I don't know if we'd have Matt and Trey without them, but there's only a handful or two handfuls of Python sketches that make me laugh. The students have far far surpassed the teachers in my opinion.

 

[mindmyp's_n_q's]

Dave Allen.

 

[Lucky Toma]

Tony Hancock. His sketches, blood donors and radio ham
are the two that spring to mind but they're all genius.

Seen them on DVD but for some reason think they work better
just with the audio.

Also, Bob Newhart. Not his dodgy TV series but his
radio programme where he did one way telephone
conversations that he imagined might have happened
in history. The one with Walter Raleigh explaining that he's just
discovered tobacco has me chuckling, probably
30 years after I first heard it.

I never 'got' Hancock until my mid-twenties. Same with the Phil Silvers Show.

Now I watch both amazed at my youthful ignorance. Immense.

 

[Oohvonkyvonky]

Spike Milligan - Brilliant, one off mad man.