1. John Oliver

Points: 1083

Ballots: 13

Highest Vote: 1^st (Russel & Krissy)

HANNAH: I haven’t been on FaceBook in the last 6 months without seeing that someone has posted a Last Week Tonight clip. John Oliver took the Colbert-Stewart conventions and somehow made them new again? Don’t ask me how…I literally have no idea. But he did. So kudos.

John Oliver has had a fabulous year and I think we’re gonna see his popularity rise even more when lost Colbert fans look to fill the void that the end of his show will leave. I’ll be honest I was a little hesitant at first but J.O. won me over this year with his Real pets, fake paws Senate segment and footage that he posted to Youtube. It kills me.

“What can I say about John Oliver that Rolling Stone already hasn't? 

 Wait... what? Yes, the Fake News that Oliver learned at the desk of Jon Stewart and the Daily Show has taken him so far in his first season at HBO, it's put him on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. Don't worry he's made fun of it in the wonderful long form podcast that he does with his best mate across the pond, called The Bugle, but over the summer John Oliver also made fun of the Supreme Court, Food labels, FIFA, and net neutrality, to name just a few. 

 On HBO's Last Week Tonight, John Oliver has taken the familiar format created by the Daily Show and perfected by the Colbert Report and reformed it for the Internet. Making use of HBO's lack of commercials (and therefore commercial sponsors), lax on language, and free reign on its allotted time, he has created the most watched show that so few people have likely watched a full episode of. 

 With the next day delivery of Oliver's long form segments in HD, Last Week Tonight has taken 15 to 20 minutes monologues (more or less) that tackle hard subjects and made them viral videos. Keep up the good word.”

Ladies and gentlemen, our first Trivia Club Comedy 100 has come to an end! It's been a celebrating the best and the funniest. Again, share and talk alike about the entire list! You can talk about it here on the blog, or on our Facebook page and Twitter, as well!

TCC100 #2 - Chris Pratt
TCC100 #3 - Amy Poehler
TCC100 #4 - Louis C.K.
TCC100 #5 - Aziz Ansari
TCC100 #6 to #10
TCC100 #11 to #25
TCC100 #26 to #50
TCC100 #51 to #75
TCC100 #76 to #100

Russel Harder hosts Trivia Club at Cardinal Rule (5 Roncesvalles Ave) every WEDNESDAY, at Hitch (1216 Queen St East) every other MONDAY of the month, and Lou Dawg's near Ryerson (76 Gerrard St E) every TUESDAY!

2. Chris Pratt

Points: 1005

Ballots: 13

Highest Vote: 4^th (Sam)

ROB: Even more so than his scripted and edited performances, it’s his raw charm and persona in live appearances that have made him the runaway star of 2014.

SARAH: Over the last year Chris Pratt has been turning on the charm like a fire hose. While I think Guardians of the Galaxy is a little overrated, his charisma as a leading man is undeniable. Great comedic instincts and responsible for some of the best improvisation on  Parks and Rec.

SAM: Pratt was on fire this year! He's always been solidly funny as Andy Dwyer and Parks and Rec, but now he's permanently in the pop culture pantheon as Star-Lord in the biggest-grossing movie of the year. Pratt is definitely solidly funny in the movie - check out his dance moves when trying to distract the big bad from blowing up a planet!

And the opening sequence alone (in which he dances to Redbone) immediately establishes the movie as a crowd-pleasing comedy. Pratt sold the movie almost single-handedly on his charm and breeziness, which is immense.

JOHNNY: He lost the weight and remained funny!

No one ever pulls that off! Ask Seth Rogen, ask Jonah Hill, ask Drew Carey -- the list goes on. Regardless, Pratt crossed (the galaxy) into the mainstream consciousness as Starlord (c'mon you don't know Starlord?), leading man in the funniest (and arguably best) super hero flick yet. While those watching Pratt quietly work his way into hearts on Parks & Recreation know this already, Pratt is the perfect everyman: He's flawed, honest, goofy, and charming.

He is part of a great trend in funny right now where the people succeeding the most is the most real; the funniest friend you (wish you'd) have. Pratt, Louis CK, Fallon, are all near or at the top of their game and still somehow manage to feel like you could hang out with them and have it not be weird. At all.


Speaking of the top of their game. The very top of the Trivia Club Comedy 100 is only THREE DAYS away! So enjoy that Pratt Pratt Pratt, in all his gif'd glory before we return in short order to celebrate this wild project that is the #TCC100, as a whole!

3. Amy Poehler

Points: 924

Ballots: 11

Highest Vote: 3^rd (Megan)

BRIAN: Leslie Knope is one of the all-time greatest characters in television and it's no small part due to Amy Poehler. This year, aside from her amazing work in "Parks & Recreation", Amy also released her first book "Yes Please" and continues to work to inspire young girls with projects like the "Smart Girls At the Party" website. Amy is just effortlessly charming. Meeting her at a book signing earlier this year, re-enforces that you can't not love and respect her the second you hear that fantastic laugh and see her speak so eloquently about women in comedy.

Amy freestyle raps about Butter in one of the funniest things. Period. 

It's perfect.

RUSSEL: Amy Poehler is magic, in the last couple of years especially she’s grown into a powerhouse of the comedy world that has even eclipsed her former running mate at the Update Desk, and Golden Globes co-host Tina Fey.

But this isn’t a competition, so what am I saying? It’s just this kind of girl on girl business that Poehler would shake her head at. With her website “Smart Girls At the Party”, her inspiring and insightful book “Yes Please”, and support of such amazing female comedians as the Broad City duo, Poehler’s impact raises everyone around her up, as opposed to keep them down.

If not for breakout years by the TCC100 top two, Poehler would be number one and that would be a fitting end to a continuing great year for Amy Poehler in which Parks & Recreation came to an end while spotlighting the power of positivity.


Patron Saint of waffles, and the danger of making an effort! Speaking of which, our top two are not only a couple of funny guys that have a staggering number of things not in common, but they ALSO had likely the biggest years bar none for a number of different reason! Our TOP TWO, blew-up in 2014! And with that in your minds, we'll see you in THREE DAYS for the celebration of number two!

I'm not even going to bother introducing number four on the #TCC100, because you're no doubt already working on your best argument against this list and will therefore justifiably be skipping the intro to better manage your rage-mail.

4. Louis C.K.

Points: 898

Ballots: 10

Highest Vote: 1^st (Johnny, Leah, Kevin)

PATRICK: Earlier this year Louis C.K. was named GQ's Funniest Person Alive. The pop culture intelligentsia of Trivia Club, on the other hand, stopped short of bestowing Mr. C.K. with the same honour when it came to ranking the funniest entertainers of the past year. Nevertheless, this prolific stand up entertainer turned sitcom star turned internationally renowned comedic powerhouse has made 2014 a year to remember in the world of comedy.

RUSSEL: This has to be the most controversial result on the TCC100. Not because it’s fourth out of 100, Mark Forward would no doubt do some pretty outrageous things to get into the top five of the TCC100 (and yes, just specifically Mark Forward) no, the controvery is that LOUIS C.K. is fourth. No one got more first place votes this year then Louis C.K., and even I ranked him fourth, but I do under stand why he isn’t first.

Popular opinion has put C.K. as the funniest person alive since at LEAST 2010, because since he’s started releasing comedy specials at a yearly rate he’s been on a tear! An hour annually that has blown away the competition. Something shifted in 2014 though. And since this is a list to celebrate those in the comedy world who perform at the funniest of their capacity, let’s not dwell on the negative angle. If this was ANYONE else, I wouldn’t even be talking about it still, but it’s the elephant in the room. Or the Louis C.K. not even in the top three of the Comedy 100.

Yes, Louis has been unseated as the Funniest Person Alive. But that’s not to say that he hasn’t been exceptionally funny, he’s just mixed a much more personal and at times uncomfortable or tragic edge to his otherwise aggressively on point perspective. Oh My God blew us all away, in early 2013, and then Louis took something of a sabbatical, before returning with a season of Louie that was in turns both revelatory for C.K.’s narrative choices as a filmmaker and controversial for his choices as a storyteller. Which is all well and good, but not as traditionally HAHA as he was in years past. It’s complicated. This year he worked with Woody Allen along side Oscar nominees, was the literal butt of Bradley Cooper’s jokes in yet another Oscar nominated film, and lost his hold on the top of the comedy mountain. Can’t have everything.

LEAH: Is there anything more to say about C.K. than he is the closest our generation is ever going to get as far as a philosopher? I don’t think so… but i will elaborate anyway.  His comic genius lies in the way he honestly depicts the awkwardness and painful moments in life that we have all experienced.  The root of so many of our insecurities, that we don’t want to acknowledge or admit to, he has never been afraid to turn a spotlight on it and explore those dark places with genuine thought and comedy.

Russel Harder hosts Trivia Club at Cardinal Rule (5 Roncesvalles Ave) every WEDNESDAY, at Hitch (1216 Queen St East) every other MONDAY of the month, and Lou Dawg's near Ryerson (76 Gerrard St E) every TUESDAY!

We've come so far, and now we've finally reached the TOP FIVE of our inaugural Trivia Club Comedy 100! So now we're going to do things a little differently, and reveal each of the top five separately  because there is nothing about the TCC100 that hasn't been increasingly strung out. Kinda like Justin Beiber (BOOM, ROASTED)... number five is someone you can go and enjoy brand-new comedy from RIGHT NOW on Netflix, so go and enjoy his Live from Madison Square Garden special!

5. Aziz Ansari

Points: 890

Ballots: 11

Highest Vote: 1^st (Hannah)

HANNAH: Dude sold out Madison Square Garden this year. That’s a good year! Only six comics have ever done that, Eddie Murphy, Andrew Dice Clay, Dane Cook, Chris Rock, Russell Peters and Kevin Hart. To be fair I only find two of those six comics to be all that funny, but still, not a bad crew to be rolling with.

Aziz is my boy. He’s so much my boy that one time I used one of his bits to deal with a gross dude post-break up. Aziz has this amazing bit where he talks about sending a dick pic to one of his female friends from an unknown number to see how she would react. When the conversation turns south he sends this string of texts: “I’m gonna save you in my phone as liquid nitrogen…because that’s how cold you are” “If you were in a barrel and someone dipped a banana in you and then dropped that banana on the ground it would shatter…That’s how cold you are” “If you were in a truck and that truck flipped over and spilled all over the T100 from terminator 2 he would harden …that’s how cold you are” I texted this exact same progression to a young man who I had felt particularly jilted by, he got really pissy with me, but it was totally worth it! Aziz vindicated me!

Check out this article from splitsider about the top six MSG sell outs! 

SARAH: Parks and Rec is truly a fount of charm. Aziz’s stand-up is consistently tight. While not my favourite comedian, I really respect his ambition and drive. (How often do you think Paul Schneider looks at the other Parks and Rec men’s careers and sighs really, really heavily to himself? Like every single day? Hourly?)

LEAH: Can’t lie. It took me years to come around to Aziz.  I had only seen him in those bit parts in bad comedies, were in my opinion, he was intolerable. Begrudgingly, I watched his stand up special Dangerously Delicious, and all was forgiven. All of a sudden I got it.  For anyone who knows what it is to want to be cool, and just know you are not. Aziz is your guy. You have no romantic game what so ever? Aziz feels you. Your proudest moments are shaming your preteen nephew? Aziz has been there. You try way to hard to seem like you are friends with Kanye. Aziz wrote the book on it. I think he is a great stand up, with energy in his delivery that is hard to match. Plus, the dude can order apps and zerts like nobodies business.

10. Sarah Silverman

Points: 818

Ballots: 10

Highest Vote: 1st (Laura)

BRIAN: "Jesus Is Magic" was in my early 'comedy nerd' days and was a revelation. She's dark, funny, fearless bad smart. Seeing her headline at JFL42, reading/listening to her book "The Bedwetter" and seeing her various talk show, podcast and sketch appearances have only made me love her even more. She hosted SNL earlier this season and immediately won the night when her opening monologue featured clips of her form when she was in the cast asking questions in various A&As. Brilliant. HBO recently picked up a new series from her and I can't wait to see what she does with it.

Sarah Silverman is "offensive" on Letterman: 

9. Jordan Peele

Points: 832

Ballots: 10

Highest Vote: 3rd (Patrick)

PATRICK: The Comedy 100 is committed to ranking this year's most notable comedians in their proper place even if it means driving a stake between the wildly successful tandem of Key and Peele. One half of the eponymous sketch duo and reigning Barack Obama impersonation champion, Jordan Peele has shown himself more than capable of stepping into a wide range of characters and quite adept at commandeering your online leisure time.

ROB: Though I’m more of a Key man, Peele’s gift is his insane commitment to characters entirely unlike himself. He single-handedly made a 3-minute sketch entirely about a screaming man air-humping on top of various store mattresses work.

8. Scott Auckerman

Points: 837

Ballots: 10

Highest Vote: 1st (Matt)

BRIAN: Hosts the "Comedy Bang! Bang!" TV series and podcast and is just the master of being the ring leader juggling the 'regular guests' with the parade of insane characters who 'storm' the studio each week. He not only plays the straight man to the insanity but adds a hilarious edge to it, unafraid to drop references that the guests may not get but that just amuse him. His catchphrases/references are so ingrained to fans of both shows that we can't help but break them out, unwittingly at times, in real life. He also raised the bar with the 'it's so funny you won't care if you hate the band' podcast "U Talkin' U2 To Me?". I couldn't tell you a thing about the 'lads from Liverpool' (see 'catchphrase/reference note above) but I freaking love this show. His perfect chemistry with co-host Adam Scott and the infectious, unironic love of the band combine so perfectly with their comedic style that you'll want U2 to release a new album every month.

An off-hand comment from Scott becomes one of the most beloved recurring bits on Comedy Bang! Bang!: 

ROB: Even in a weak year for the Comedy Bang Bang podcast, the genius dynamic of U Talkin U2 To Me makes it a banner year for Aukerman. A podcast fueled almost entirely by in-jokes and anti-comedy, recorded late at night when the hosts are frequently cranky at one another, should not work. What part of it Aukerman brings versus what part is Adam Scott is indecipherable, so to the top of the list with both of them.

SAM: Aukerman is good at being very strange and silly but somehow also managing to be the straight man in a room full of even stranger, sillier people. His great talent is knowing when to hang back and let someone else run the room and when to reign someone in. It's a great fit for the Comedy Bang Bang TV show, but an even greater fit for the podcast format, which can often get sidetracked or meander and would be worse without his careful management of the proceedings.

7. Kate McKinnon

Points: 873

Ballots: 12

Highest Vote: 5th (Andrew)

ANDREW: It’d be easy to include Kate McKinnon on a list such as this simply for her spot-on impersonations on Saturday Night Live. Her Bieber got international attention. She’s appeared on “Ellen” as Ellen with even the host admitting that there are some eerie nuances and accuracies in capturing her essence. And her Angela Merkel is so good, it makes the Chancellor want to take off her man’s blazer, put on a man’s Hawaiian shirt, and let her German bowl cut blow in the wind.

But the true brilliance of Kate McKinnon is when we see her at her quirkiest. “Whiskers R We” is a case study in the perfect SNL sketch. As Barbara DeDrew, McKinnon commits to a socially-awkward, mom-jean clad pet rescue employee as a foil to the admiring Cat Muller played by Charlize Theron. The duo introduce “eligible CAT-chelors” up for adoption such as the multi-lingual “Shanghai”, “Pabst”, a cat she entered an unhealthy co-dependent relationship with, and “Damian”, a “feline sociopath.” The McKinnon-penned sketch is simple, but the subtle interactions, glances, and bizarre dialogue get some of the biggest laughs of the season.

As proof of her success, McKinnon was the only SNL cast member in Season 39 to be nominated for an acting Emmy and she won the 2014 American Comedy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Perhaps her relevance and importance to modern comedy can be best underscored by a performance on an episode of SNL’s current season: it takes a special kind of genius to steal a physical comedy sketch from Jim Carrey, but as an office worker dressed as the child dancer from Sia’s “Chandelier” video, even her SNL cast mate Taran Killam said that in that one sketch, McKinnon “steal[s] the show.” And she continues to do so in virtually everything she appears in.

LEAH: There are few people who delight me in the way Kate Mckinnon does on screen.  She is fun and versatile, in a way that you really just don’t see very often at all.  I feel that she has so many different levels and characters, and what is more surprising…. not a single one annoys me! That is saying something folks! Especially as an SNL cast member, it is really hard to differentiate the numerous characters every week.  She is by far one of the best I have seen at accomplishing this.  My hat is off to Kate, and I look forward to seeing her branch out from the SNL team.

6. Keegan-Michael Key

Points: 879

Ballots: 10

Highest Vote: 3rd (Johnny)

HANNAH: When I was in elementary school I wasn’t allowed to stay up late enough to watch SNL But, I was allowed to stay up until 11:30 to start taping it on an old warn out VHS tape to watch the next morning. Which meant I could pass the time by watching half of a MADTV episode. That is where I first met Keegan Michael Key. We all remember Coach Hines right? And so, for sentimental reasons, I have ranked Keegan Michael Key higher than his partner Jordan Peele.

Key and Peele has had such viral success in the last year! These two have been very smart in negotiating the changing face of TV sketch comedy (If it’s not on youtube, the kids aren’t watching!) and they create good content. What more do you people want! 

An SNL Fantasy League #1 pick, a stand-up all-star having the best year of her career, the podcast godfather, and Comedy Central's Dynamic Duo (our highest ranked pair of comedians) start our Top Ten! Who is #5? This Park's & Rec cast member recently had a big stand-up special released! You'll see THEM, tomorrow!

25. Nick Kroll

Points: 613

Ballots: 8

Highest Vote: 4^th (Saad)

24. Kumail Nanjiani

Points: 616

Ballots: 8

Highest Vote: 16^th (Leah)

LEAH: I really adore Kumail for one reason and one reason only. I buy his boyish awkwardness. It makes me happy in a way I can’t begin to describe.  Yes, he is genuinely witty and makes amazing observations and can dead pan a delivery with the best of them. But all I really care about is that he always seems slightly nervous saying anything, this is highly endearing to me. Another way to describe it: he is the kind of guy that would be really into me, which makes me really into him….does that make sense?

23. Mike Birbiglia

Points: 630

Ballots: 8

Highest Vote: 3^rd (Sarah)

SARAH: Mike Birbiglia is a remarkable storyteller. He is a master of the long-form. Everything he puts out continues to affirm that. Bravo.

22. Chelsea Peretti

Points: 631

Ballots: 9

Highest Vote: 9^th (Robb)

21. Bill Hader

Points: 634

Ballots: 9

Highest Vote: 6^th (Saad & Megan)

RUSSEL: Hader broke out this year. Not necessarily into the stratosphere, ala Wiig with Bridesmaids… but he DID prove, speaking of Wiig, that leaving SNL was the best of all the choices! In Skeleton Twins he showed a dimension of heart-rending that propelled forward and supported the strange funny that we had come to known and love from Hader.

His return home to SNL, to host early in Season 40 cemented WHY we loved that strange funny and just how much it’s influenced this current crop of the cast from McKinnon to Mooney.

20. Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Points: 639

Ballots: 8

Highest Vote: 4^th (Rob)

ROB: This may come off wrong, but when Seinfeld was serving as the prototype for the no-hugging sitcom of unlikeable characters, she perfected it even with the burden of being the only female lead on the show, in a medium where female characters seem to have extra pressure to be cute and delightful. Years later, everyone talks about Lena Dunham playing with the boundaries of unlikeable female characters, but it’s Louis-Dreyfus on HBO stablemate Veep who can say things like this and you still root for her.

19. John Mulaney

Points: 669

Ballots: 10

Highest Vote: 3^rd (Saad & Hannah)

RUSSEL: Here’s the big secret of this list, most people voted in advance of the Mulaney sitcom debuting on FOX. This shouldn’t take away from John being an honestly funny guy, buuuuut that may have changed his ranking. Still, it’s not like we have Bill Cosby on this list or anything (spoilers), so you should be happy to know that Mulaney is still a funny, warm hearted, and weird individual. His appearances on the Kroll Show for instance shows that he CAN perform, and New In Town proved without a doubt that he is funny.

Also, that he is a proud Asian-American woman!

18. Mindy Kaling

Points: 672

Ballots: 9

Highest Vote: 2^nd (Krissy)

KRISSY: I love Mindy Kaling. 

In fact, I love Mindy Kaling so much I can't even write this paragraph about her.  You know that feeling like nothing you can say will be good enough?  That's how I feel about having to convince you how funny and clever Mindy is.  And so, just like when her character, Mindy Lahiri,  feels down and out and overwhelmed she takes to the floor, I'm doing the same.  In a manner of speaking.

ANDREW: So I’ll admit it. I’ve never watched the American version of The Office. As an anglophile, I felt as though I’d be cheating on the UK so I never got around to it. Because of this, I had no idea who Mindy Kaling was until The Mindy Project.

As Mindy Lahiri, Kaling plays an OB-GYN who is trying to negotiate her way through life—both professionally and personally—in New York City. What’s brilliant about Kaling is her ability to play an obviously smart professional who has graduated medical school as an incredibly approachable and unassuming character. If anything, she seems better read in popular culture, and this proves to be incredibly frustrating for everyone else in her life. What I like about the character than anything else is the fascinatingly hilarious contrast between who she portrays herself to be and who she really is. An example of this is when she tries to “do the club right” by saying, “Let’s talk to the DJ and see if he’ll tell us the Wifi password to this place.”

Kaling plays Lahiri with incredible confidence, even when everything seems to be going wrong in the character’s life, and this is what endears the character to the audience. She has the perfect balance of physical humour and sardonic wit which makes her one of the most humourous characters on television right now. And Kaling plays her with total perfection.

Beyond her work on TMP, Kaling is an excellent writer/performer, even in more unusual settings. Check out her commencement address at Harvard’s Law School to see her in her element. 

Elle Woods who?

16. Abbi Jacobson

Points: 679

Ballots: 9

Highest Vote: 8^th (Sarah & Rob)

SARAH: Abbi Jacobson is relatable as shit. She’s the girl next door for the Millennial generation. She’s the type of friend you’d want to plan your bachelorette party. She’s the better half of Broad City.

16. Amy Schumer

Points: 679

Ballots: 8

Highest Vote: 4^th (Laura)

SAM: What's amazing about what Schumer has been able to do is that she's done it so sneakily. Like Sarah Silverman, only if anything more political, she's a drive-by feminist. She sucks you in with hilarious sketches about a world where men's balls are as objectified as women's breasts and seems like one of the guys only to leave behind an important message about women's role in comedy and society. And on the network that gave the world Tosh.0 no less! Given the rampant mysogyny online and some of the cultural debate around women in men's spaces going on right now, that's downright brave on top of being riotously funny.

15. Andy Samberg

Points: 713

Ballots: 9

Highest Vote: 10^th (Hannah)

HANNAH: I’m continually surprised by the staying power of Andy Samberg. Aren’t you?  For someone reason I feel some sort of ownership over Samberg. Perhaps it’s because I will never forget the first time I saw episodes of “The ‘bu” on Channel 101 when I was in like grade 8 and thinking he was the funniest little weirdo in the world. That opened up all the Lonely Island videos (I’m talking pre-Dick in a Box Lonely Island) Like Awesometown, and Just 2 guys and KaBlamo filmed on like a handy cam in their apartment…it was genius! I hate being a comedy hipster but Lonely Island was the first time I felt like I had found this little hidden gem that was all mine.

So, this year when Andy won the Emmy for his role as Jake on “Brooklyn 99” I was so weirdly proud of him! Like my little toothy pal in a hoodie had won an Emmy! High fives for Andy, am I right you guys? Dude has been on an almost textbook rise in his career, internet famous, SNL Famous, Making bad movies with Adam Sandler famous and now a starring role on a hit TV show. We’re gonna call that a win!

Also if you haven’t seen some of the original Lonely Island stuff, or if you just haven’t revisited it in a while, Watch this. Grade 8 Hannah thought there was nothing funnier in the world!

14. Stephen Colbert

Points: 759

Ballots: 10

Highest Vote: 3^rd (Russel)

13. Nathan Fielder

Points: 764

Ballots: 9

Highest Vote: 2^nd (Rob)

ROB: He gave us the gift of keeping a straight face when that realtor casually revealed, seemingly weeks into filming a segment about selling haunted houses, that she’d been “choked by a ghost in Switzerland.” He is a better man than any of you or I.

12. Paul F. Tompkins

Points: 765

Ballots: 9

Highest Vote: 3^rd (Brian)

SAM: Tompkins appears in so many things that he’s amazing in! But if I had to pick one performance, his portrayal of one half of the boozy Beyond Belief medium couple  in Thrilling Adventure Hour takes it. Although, his many impressions of people like Cake Boss, Werner Herzog and Andrew Lloyd Webber are always delightful.

BRIAN: What can you say about PFT? Start with his incredible stand-up (I saw the exact same show twice at this year's JFL42 and I have no regrets), his Speakeasy webseries shows what a fantastic host he is; as does his puppet panel show on Fusion "No, You Shut Up". His appearances on @midnight are always brilliant. But it's his INCREDIBLE character improv work on various podcasts (most notably Comedy Bang! Bang! and Superego which he joined as a full-time castmember this season) that blows me away the most. The bizarre mix of characters from pseudo impressions like Ice T, Cake Boss (cake boss), Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, Werner Herzog, Garry Marshall, and Alan Thicke to original creations like Reverend Parsimony, JW Stillwater and Cake Boss's arch nemesis the Pie Minister show an incredible range and unparalleled comedic genius. Buy his stand up, see him live and listen to any podcast he's on.

Paul "turns" on the audience during this @midnight outtake:

11. Jenny Slate

Points: 783

Ballots: 9

Highest Vote: 1^st (Sarah)

SARAH: Obvious Child is my favourite rom-com. Jenny Slate’s performance in it is without flaw. She is a singular talent. I propose that we replace Lena Dunham with Jenny Slate in the popular consciousness.

RUSSEL: Why deny Jenny Slate? Obvious Child proved to me that an errant f-bomb (which, I know, I can’t stop talking about) stole Slate from SNL and negatively affected the show for the last five years but not Slate's career. Even with a great cast, look at what they could have done with Slate… but then, without that freedom, especially in 2015, would she have been able to surprise us all with a THIRD Marcel the Shell video.

It’s a strangely endearing concept that shows the weird dimensions of Slate’s sketch comedy prowess, and something that the Kroll Show, and her appearances on Parks & Rec helps drive home. Obvious Child not only enabled Slate to be a funny stand-up, delivering some RAW material, but also gives her an excellent chance to be so honestly funny. It's why I had her at number two. No one this year was so blunt and entertaining with the funny this year, not as much as Jenny Slate. Well, except maybe my number one.

Russel Harder hosts Trivia Club at Cardinal Rule (5 Roncesvalles Ave) every WEDNESDAY, at Hitch (1216 Queen St East) every other MONDAY of the month, and Lou Dawg's near Ryerson (76 Gerrard St E) every TUESDAY!