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Top 50 Funniest Black Stand Up Comedians in History

A definitive ranking of the 50 funniest Black stand-up comedians spanning from the Chitlin' Circuit to stadium tours, with awards and career milestones.

By Written Facts StaffJune 2, 2023Updated October 8, 20267 min read

You've probably heard someone at a family cookout yell "You big dummy!" and gotten the joke without anyone explaining it. That line comes from Redd Foxx on Sanford and Son, and plenty of Black stand-up gets passed around the same way. People quote it, imitate it and still argue about it decades later. So who are the funniest? My top four are Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock. All 50 are below, grouped by era, with the record behind the biggest names. Comedy is subjective, so the picks are my opinion. The awards and records are facts.

How this list was built

Taste decided who made the list. For the biggest names, I also looked at four things you can check:

The Grammy for Best Comedy Album
The Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
Comedy Central's 2004 ranking of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time
The stages that launched careers: the Chitlin' Circuit, HBO's Def Comedy Jam, and the Kings and Queens of Comedy tours and films

The history runs in that order, so the list does too.

The pioneers (1920s–1960s)

Richard Pryor (1940–2005) Pryor grew up in his grandmother's brothel in Peoria, Illinois. Early on, he copied Bill Cosby's clean style. In 1967 he walked off a stage at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, and afterward he rebuilt his act around profanity and social commentary. His 1974 album That Nigger's Crazy was the first of five Best Comedy Album Grammy wins. The others were ...Is It Something I Said?, Bicentennial Nigger, Rev. Du Rite and Live on the Sunset Strip. Comedy Central ranked him the greatest stand-up of all time. In 1998 he received the first Mark Twain Prize. Jerry Seinfeld called him "the Picasso of our profession."

Redd Foxx (1922–1991) Foxx was born John Elroy Sanford in St. Louis and grew up on Chicago's South Side. He became known as the "King of the Party Records" and performed on more than 50 comedy albums. He was also one of the first Black comedians to play to white audiences on the Las Vegas Strip. Sanford and Son (1972–1977) made him a household name. He influenced both Pryor and Chris Rock, and Jamie Foxx took his stage surname as a tribute. Comedy Central ranked Redd Foxx 24th.

Moms Mabley (1897–1975) Mabley was born Loretta Mary Aiken in Brevard, North Carolina. She became one of the most successful performers on the Chitlin' Circuit, the network of Black vaudeville theaters, even though discrimination kept her pay low. In April 1939 she became the first female comic to perform at Harlem's Apollo Theater. She came out as a lesbian in 1921 and was one of the first openly gay comedians. Her 1969 recording of a civil rights–era song reached No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Dick Gregory (1932–2017) In 1961, Hugh Hefner saw Gregory at Chicago's Roberts Show Bar and hired him to fill in at the Playboy Club. The booking was meant to last one night and ran six weeks. Gregory moved away from the minstrel tradition and joked about race head-on. His 1964 autobiography, Nigger, sold more than a million copies. Later he ran for mayor of Chicago in 1967 and for president in 1968, went on hunger strikes and protested the Vietnam War. Comedy Central ranked him No. 82.

Flip Wilson Wilson won the 1971 Best Comedy Album Grammy for The Devil Made Me Buy This Dress.

A note on Bill Cosby

Cosby won the Best Comedy Album Grammy six years in a row (1965–1970) and again in 1987. Pryor began his career imitating him. Cosby received the Mark Twain Prize in 2009, and the Kennedy Center took it back in 2018 over his sexual assault case. He is part of this history, but he is not on this list.

The superstars (1980s–2000s)

The pioneers proved Black comedians could fill a room. The next generation filled arenas.

Eddie Murphy Murphy won the 1984 Best Comedy Album Grammy for Comedian and received the Mark Twain Prize in 2015.

Whoopi Goldberg She won the 1986 Best Comedy Album Grammy for her Broadway show recording, and in 2001 she became the second Black recipient of the Mark Twain Prize.

Chris Rock Rock got his break when Eddie Murphy saw him at a New York comedy club, and he joined Saturday Night Live in 1990. He won the Best Comedy Album Grammy three times: Roll with the New (1998), Bigger & Blacker (2000) and Never Scared (2006).

The Def Comedy Jam generation (1990s)

HBO premiered Def Comedy Jam on March 6, 1992. It was produced by Russell Simmons and Stan Lathan and ran eight seasons through 1997. It returned in 2006, and Netflix released Def Comedy Jam 25 in 2017. The show helped launch these careers:

Dave Chappelle Chappelle was a Def Comedy Jam alumnus, and he has now won the Best Comedy Album Grammy six times: in 2018, 2019 and 2020, and for The Closer (2023), What's in a Name? (2024) and The Dreamer (2025). He received the Mark Twain Prize in 2019.

Martin Lawrence Lawrence co-hosted the show's first six seasons with Joe Torry.

Jamie Foxx, Chris Tucker, Eddie Griffin, Katt Williams and Mike Epps All five are among the comedians whose careers Def Comedy Jam helped launch.

The Kings and Queens of Comedy (2000–2001)

The Def Comedy Jam era led straight into the Kings of Comedy tour. Spike Lee filmed its last two nights, February 26–27, 2000, at the Charlotte Coliseum. The film, The Original Kings of Comedy, earned $38.2 million in U.S. theaters.

Bernie Mac A Def Comedy Jam veteran and one of the four Kings.

Steve Harvey He hosted Def Comedy Jam's seventh season and was one of the Kings.

Cedric the Entertainer One of the four Kings.

D.L. Hughley He hosted Def Comedy Jam's eighth season and was one of the Kings.

The spin-off film The Queens of Comedy (2001) was shot at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis. It starred:

Mo'Nique, who joked about body positivity
Sommore, who covered relationships and parenting
Adele Givens, who celebrated her own flaws
Laura Hayes, who hosted and opened the show with family stories

The stadium era (2010s–today)

Kevin Hart Hart started out as "Lil Kev" at Philadelphia's Laff House, where his early sets went badly. He built his name with I'm a Grown Little Man (2009), Laugh at My Pain (2011) and Let Me Explain (2013). The Laugh at My Pain tour grossed more than $15 million. On August 30, 2015, he performed for about 53,000 people at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field, a stadium show filmed for his What Now? tour. He received the Mark Twain Prize in 2024.

Tiffany Haddish Haddish won the 2021 Best Comedy Album Grammy for Black Mitzvah.

The rest of the 50

These picks are based purely on my taste, listed in no particular order. Each of these comedians has a body of work worth finding:

Wanda Sykes
Patrice O'Neal
Paul Mooney
Robin Harris
Tracy Morgan
Bill Bellamy
John Witherspoon
Sheryl Underwood
Earthquake
Bruce Bruce
Corey Holcomb
Lavell Crawford
Aries Spears
Tommy Davidson
Damon Wayans
Godfrey
Deon Cole
Hannibal Buress
Jerrod Carmichael
Roy Wood Jr.
Michael Che
Lil Rel Howery
Leslie Jones
Tony Rock

Why the line keeps going

The path is easy to trace. Mabley and Foxx built audiences on the Chitlin' Circuit and on party records. Gregory showed that racism could be the subject of the joke instead of the setup. Pryor started out copying Cosby and then walked off a Vegas stage to find his own voice. Def Comedy Jam turned a generation of club comics into stars, and the Kings and Queens tours showed they could fill arenas. Hart then filled a football stadium in his hometown. When someone at your next cookout yells "You big dummy!", they're quoting part of that history.

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