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Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, I’m Johnny Mack, who with your Daily Comedy News today honestly weekend filler. Look, man, it was Christmas and I’ve had a couple of lists that I’ve just been holding on to for you. Now, this first list has been completely blocked by an ad for Brad Pitt’s f One the movie. Now I could just edit this out, but that’s not fun.
Hey guys, I’m trying to read the list here. How do you clear this ad? Oh? There it goes from Deadline Comics who Won twenty twenty five? The ad is back again.
I could edit this out, but wouldn’t you rather just hear me slowly lose my mind as I tried to do this? Where was I? Comics who won twenty twenty five? A look at fourteen? Who leveled up with explosive professional Growth?
Why fourteen? What a weird number? This is by Matt Grobar in Deadline, as I like to do with most of these lists. I haven’t looked at it yet, but I am going to hit command plus plus to make the font bigger. Somebody’s scatt and old.
You can’t see anymore Deadline rights. We’ve honed in on fourteen comedic performers who achieved explosive professional growth in twenty twenty five, whether by substantially boosting their ticket sales or social media following, landing a coveted roll or development opportunity, or elevating to a new tier of venue as a headliner. It should be noticed this list isn’t all encompassing. You won’t find Jim Gaffigan listed here, even if he did the unthinkable by putting together nearly forty five great minutes just on the topic of bourbon. I’ll push back on the word great.
There, I’m gonna use both hands to push back on the word great. You won’t find Nikki Glaser, who’s elevated to the A list with an array of starring vehicles lined up Nord Tom Sagora, who landed his first Emmy nominee for Bad Thoughts, and I’ll point out play at the reON Comedy Festival. Deadline says, we generally try to avoid arena tier comedians, though a couple’s not through. Let’s look number one, Max Amini. Now I’m already fascinated by this list.
Max Amini. You know how many times I’ve mentioned Maxsimini. This year prior to today’s episode, none, and I can see I suck at this. I’m the worst. I don’t know anything about comedy, and I’m terrible at hosting a podcast.
But I can tell you almost every day I google the word comedy, and I also google the word comedian, and I also read several entertainment websites, including Deadline and I’m sitting here right now going Maximini, who Deadline tells us this year he has performed one hundred and fifty sold out shows in nineteen countries, selling over two hundred thousand tickets. In March, Amani released his latest special, Randomly Selected, seeing it pull out a whopping sixteen million views on YouTube Deadline rights. Remarkably, this special is not only the top performing special of the year across all platforms per Nielsen numbers, it’s also the ninth and most viewed on YouTube of all time. Now again, I’m terrible with this. I suck, But I did read other people’s lists.
No one mentioned this. The La Times didn’t mention this. Vulture didn’t mention this. The YouTube algorithm hasn’t put this in in front of me. What is going on here?
Did I move to like a parallel universe where this guy’s the top comedian, described by Jerry Seinfeld as one of the hottest comedians to watch in the next generation of comedy. As of this month, he’s Instagram’s number two creator period, behind only mister beast a Meani, generating two point seven seven billion views on the platform this year and has now surpassed six billion all time. I know somebody out there is screaming, okay boomer at me right now. I get it. I totally get it.
I see these numbers and I’m like wow. And I’m not saying anything negative about him. I’m just saying, wow, how is all this happening without hitting the mainstream media at all? Like zero? I listen to podcasts about comedy.
Haven’t heard the name. I read Deadline, I read Vulture, I read Variety, I read the Hollywood Reporter. I haven’t seen the name. Am I insane? Am I losing my mind?
All right? I guess we got to pay attention to Max Amini. Respect and fine, I’m an old man. Call me whatever you want. I’m just I’m stunned right now, which is why I don’t read these articles in advance.
I’m just done, Okay, Number two Leanne Morgan, Leanne, I’ve heard of She’s in the news all the time. Number three Josh Johnson again makes sense. Is Josh in the mainstream press every day? No? But is he in the comedy press a lot?
Yes? Do the people I interact with regularly mentioned Josh Johnson, Yes, Maximini not so much. Again, I’m just confused, London writes. This year, Josh Johnson elevated into the rotating host schedule on The Daily Show. His tours kicked off in January and continues through February with three hundred shows and one hundred and eleven markets.
Is all more impressive that he’s done it with zero promoter marketing money. He’s gonna play four sold out shows at the Palladium in London at the end of January, and we’ll play five shows of the Beacon in New York City, then five sold out shows at the Chicago Theater on Valentine’s Day weekend. Yep. Massive. He’s known for taking the YouTube with his new long form topical stand up set on a weekly basis.
Forty nine of his last fifty videos have reached over a million views. Absolutely breakout Yearnumber four Ali Sidik again, a name that has come up a lot per Nielsen numbers reviewed by Deadline. My Two Sons was the third most viewed special on any platform in the last year. Sadiq is also on the twenty stand ups to keep an eye on in twenty twenty six. I’m saving that list for January first.
Haven’t looked at it yet, but now I just got spoiled by one of the names. Number five Jimmy O Yang. Johnny Mac loves Jimmy O Yang. Deadline deep dives here into Jimmy O Yang’s international success. Good call there.
Number six Nurse John. Now, Nurse John is someone who’s been on my radar, but not someone who I talk about on the show. A nurse turned viral creator and comedian who blew up online with relatable portrayals of life working in healthcare. Number seven Morgan Jay again, a name that has come up a couple times, which is why I’m just totally just bewildered by Maximini And again, maybe you’re all listening to the podcast hitting delete, going what is wrong with this Johnny Mack guy? But I’m just bewildered because the name did not come up this year.
Morgan Jay now has a full live band a company him at some of his larger shows. This year, Jay boosted his profile and film and TV with appearances on Apple TV’s Stick Opposite Owen Wilson and Mark Marin, and on NBC’s Saint Dennis Medical eight Osco at Cotska. You’ve heard me talk about her for the past few years. Good call there. Number nine Moe Ammer.
I’m a big fan. I’ve liked all of his specials and as I always say, he’s got something to say. I like him a lot. Ten three time guests. John Marco Soiresi still comes on the show, hasn’t.
Jim Gaffigan me cool guy. I’ve been a follower since I saw him at New Faces and he’s hilarious, and you watched his YouTube special, and I think we all love John Marco Siresi. Number eleven on Deadlines list. Robbie Hoffman, yep, like I said, once I saw Mulaney was producing her special, I was like, all right, I got a beef up on Robbie Hoffman and I became a big time believer, and I think a lot of you became big time believers when you watch that special. Robbie Hoffman is fantastic.
I mean the trivia guys have conversations with me about Robbie Hoffman at the Brewery. Umber twelve Caleb Hearn not my cup of tea, but sure. His top episode of his podcast reached over five million viewers on YouTube. That’s not how podcasts work, don’t get Johnny Max started on podcasts versus YouTube shows. You listen to a podcast, read my substack if you want to hear me rand about that.
On number thirteen, jeff Ercurrie.
All right, let’s see what they say here.
The other comic who won twenty twenty five, who was part of our twenty twenty four Comics to Watch the list is jeff Er Currie, who recently completed a nine sold out show residency at the Wilburn Boston with nine thousand tickets sold. Curry rescheduled a good chunk of this year’s tour to be by his wife’s side during her treatment, and pledged to donate one dollar for every ticket sold on the tour to breast cancer research. Recently, he taped a Netflix special during five shows at the Celebrity Theater. Number fourteen. Zakir Khan, India’s Zakir Khan leveled up from theaters to arenas, going from playing the theater at MSG to Madison Square Garden itself.
He did CON this year, became the first comedian performing in Hindi to play Madison Square Garden, New York, as well as Scotiabank Arena Toronto twice and the Coca Cola Arena in Dubai. He’s also the first Asian comedian in a headline and sold out Royal Albert Hall in London. Really really fantastic list by Deadline here, great job, and I think it’s just illustrative of just how much comedy is out there. I meane, a couple of those names, I imagine we’re off your radar, clearly, some of them off my radar. Really, really great job by Deadline.
All right, let’s take the break and then I’ve got a different list for you. I’ve been sitting on this one, and this list came out well well before the murder of Rob Reiner. This from the Boston Globe. They were ranking the top ten network sitcoms of all time, and their headline was All the Family Seinfeld ranking the top ten networks it comes of all time. So I’m just pointing out the timeline there to show it.
Whatever is to come here was not influenced by the Reiner Murders’s see what the Boston Globe says. Here are the criteria rules. Network only thirty minutes strictly comedy. I love Freaks and Geeks, but it was one show. I also love kerb but it was part of HBO, which, as the old catchphrase told us, wasn’t even TV.
All right. The Globe says they’ve tried to avoid recently bias, and here is their list. Number ten Good Time CBS nineteen seventy four to seventy nine. It’s easy and not unfair to dismiss Jimmy Walker’s dyno mites antics as a modern da appendage to minstrelsy. But consider how radical it was to put on a show about life in the Chicago projects, created by two black men on a primetime network in nineteen seventy four, and that gospel funk theme song.
Hard to front any of that, all right. Number nine The Office NBC twenty five to twenty thirteen. I imagine if you listen to this podcast every day, you are familiar with the Office, so I won’t bog down on that. But it’s crazy to have the office behind Abbot Elementary ABC, twenty twenty one to the present. The Globe Rights, but Abbot moves towards the top of the class, largely through the easeful, good humored way.
It addresses the perils facing public education. So were you saying the office walk so Abbot could run? On? Number seven The Honeymoons, CBS nineteen fifty five to fifty six, So they’re including the classic Honeymooners. There there’s a if you deep dive on the Honeymooners.
There’s a lot of later episodes and like TV movies and weird stuff. Number six Cheers, NBC, nineteen eighty two to nineteen ninety three. The Globe Rights. Yes, I’d get run out of Boston if I didn’t include Sam Alone and his beloved bar. Number five The Simpsons.
Is The Simpsons a sitcom? Interesting? I guess we could argue that I don’t feel like The Simpsons is a sitcom. I feel like it’s a cartoon. I feel like that’s its own thing.
Number four All in the Family, CBS from nineteen seventy one to seventy nine. Debates raged over where the series was lampooning a bigot or celebrating him all in the family matter and known a way that few, if any other sitcoms have. Number three The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Now, if you ever go back and watch that, that has aged really well. They point out that Ted Knights Ted Baxter was Ron Burgundy before Ron Burgundy really really well said, I’m gonna steal that line next time.
I’m about my love of Will Ferrell movies. Boy, that that is a great, great, great, great great point about Will Ferrell. Wow, Yes, okay, love it. Number two Seinfeld NBC from nineteen eighty nine to nineteen ninety eight. And I was going to sit here and wonder and speculate what they would have at number one, and then my eyes went down and I accidentally spoiled myself.
So I know the answer. But how about you? What do you think? What haven’t we mentioned yet? I’m just trying to rack my brain here, Happy Days mash.
What else do people like? People like Parks and rec people like thirty Rock Raymond, people like that one. Nope, they have as number one. I Love Lucy from CBS from nineteen fifty one to nineteen fifty seven. Again can’t argue with the pick.
But on the other hand, we’ve been doing TV now for another seventy years and no one’s been able to do better than I Love Lucy. That in itself says something they write. It’s the fountain head of the sho genre. Not the first sitcom, but the one that showed how it’s done. It still helps that it’s still very, very funny.
Okay. I won’t lose my mind about that list. That list is not awful. I’m sure if I sat here and thought about it and made a list out of a different list, but not crazy. Okay, And as weekend filler goes, I enjoyed today’s episode.
I hope you did too. Tomorrow a look at the top twenty five stand up comedians of the twenty first century so far. I’ve got some thoughts. Meet you back here tomorrow.