The 50 Stand-Up Comedians with the Largest Digital Footprints

Posted on July 18, 2012 by PeekYou Team

What is PeekScore?: PeekScore is a rank from 1 to 10, assigned to every person. The higher someone’s score, the “more important” they are on the web. In calculating your PeekScore and updating it often, PeekYou takes into account your known presence and activity on the Internet, including but not limited to; your blogging, participation in social networks, the number of your friends, followers, or readers, the amount of web content you create, and your prominence in the news. For first time visitors a more in-depth explanation of what the PeekScore is, and how to increase your own, can be found by clicking through here.

This is a survey we’ve been wanting to do for a long while, and the time just seemed right. We went through the hundreds and hundreds of stand-up comedians PeekYou has indexed, to determine which 50 are currently the most prominent and impactful here in cyberspace. This isn’t a gauge nor a comparison of their successes, and surely we are offering no commentary on the quality of their jokes. This is a look at the impressions each of these men and women have made and are making on the Web (their digital footprints, if you will, a concept explained in brief in the disclaimer above and more in-depth at the blog entry you can find by clicking through here).

We decided to keep it to active, performing stand-up comics, or at least those who have been active as stand-ups in more recent years. Some notable and important living stand-ups who are missing include Woody Allen, David Letterman, Jim Carrey, Albert Brooks, and more notably Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy – two of the most popular stand-ups who ever lived – as it seemed that once we started including those who hadn’t done stand-up in decades, we’d be forced to include every actor or performer who’d ever done stand-up at all (and those ranks number quite a few). We tried to keep it to those who are at least somewhat, or recently, active as live performers.

Any favorite comics you would have expected to see below? We have the full top 100 comics list compiled, and may be posting it in its entirety shortly. Many of those comics you believe missing from this list may just be bubbling under the top 50. Let us know if you want to see that 100.

Edited to add (8/12/12): Many commenters have come to the blog over the past day or so to make their assorted opinions on the list known (“lame list,” said one charming user, another asked if the list was compiled by a box of hair, which – while the meaning is not quite clear to us – we’re sure implies something bad). Two commenters, fairly enough, noted the absence of Joe Rogan from the list. He was surely involved in our original compiling, but simply at that time had a PeekScore which found him just out of the top 50. Upon receiving these comments, however, we checked again to see that Rogan’s score as of this writing – three weeks past when the list was initially compiled – finds him in the top 50. To minimize the quite possible wrath we might incur from additional readers, we’ve revised the list to now include Joe Rogan with his up-to-date PeekScore (no strangers to Internet commenters as we are, we’re already certain this will satisfy few if any).

Rank	Name	Bio	Current PeekScore
1	Russell Brand	Arena headlineer in the UK, author of the best-selling My Booky-Wook, ex-husband of Katy Perry, star of numerous Hollywood flicks, and two time host of MTV’s VMAs.	9.73 / 10.00
2	Ellen Degeneres	Host of daytime talk show Ellen.	9.49 / 10.00
3	Bill Cosby	Creator and star of The Cosby Show, the first African American actor to be featured in a lead role on American TV (in I Spy), and legendary stand-up.	9.25 / 10.00
4	Chris Rock	The creative force behind such classic stand-up specials as Bring the Pain, and star of numerous films.	9.22 / 10.00
5	George Lopez	Host of the relatively recently canceled Lopez Tonight talk show on TBS.	9.16 / 10.00
6	Jay Leno	Host of NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and notoriously NBC’s failed The Jay Leno Show.	9.08 / 10.00
7	Robin Williams	Academy Award winning actor, and star of the 70s sitcom Mork & Mindy.	9.07 / 10.00
8	Kathy Griffin	Star of the Bravo reality series Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List.	9.07 / 10.00
9	Tracy Morgan	Sometimes controversial star of NBC’s 30 Rock and former Saturday Night Live castmember.	9.03 / 10.00
10	Jon Stewart	Long-time host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.	9.03 / 10.00
11	Ricky Gervais	Co-creator and star of BBC’s The Office, multiple-time host of the Golden Globes, podcasting giant, and the co-creator of HBO’s Life’s Too Short.	9.02 / 10.00
12	Dane Cook	Arena headlining comic.	8.88 / 10.00
13	Ray Romano	Star of the long-running and hugely high rated sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond.	8.71 / 10.00
14	Kevin Hart	Has done many highly successful stand-up specials for Comedy Central and was the creative force behind the short-lived 2004 sitcom The Big House.	8.69 / 10.00
15	Scott “Carrot Top” Thompson	Oft ridiculed Las Vegas prop comic stalwart. It’s worth noting that unlike other pseudonymous mega-comics (such as Larry the Cable Guy and Earthquake) Carrot Top’s celebrity is great enough to find him with this large a PeekScore even under his real name.	8.66 / 10.00
16	Louis C.K.	Very much “the comic of the moment,” he is the writer, producer, director, and star of FX’s critically praised Louie.	8.65 / 10.00
17	Sarah Silverman	Writer and star of the stand-up film Jesus is Magic and the co-creator and star of Comedy Central’s now cancelled The Sarah Silverman Program.	8.58 / 10.00
18	Joel McHale	Star of NBC’s Community and host of E!’s The Soup.	8.51 / 10.00
19	Katt Williams	Recently retired from a massively successful stand-up career, played Money Mike in the film Friday After Next, and is the father of 8 children (7 of whom are adopted).	8.50 / 10.00
20	Russell Peters	Indian-Canadian comic, currently one of the biggest comedy draws in the English speaking world.	8.47 / 10.00
21	Bill Maher	Former host of Politically Incorrect, current host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, and the main creative force behind the documentary Religulous.	8.46 / 10.00
22	Eddie Izzard	A rare arena headliner in both the UK and (at least parts of) the US, he’s also acted in such films as Ocean’s Twelve and Shadow of the Vampire.	8.42 / 10.00
23	Jerry Seinfeld	Co-creator and star of the legendary and widely beloved and quoted sitcom Seinfeld.	8.42 / 10.00
24	Joan Rivers	Groundbreaking, veteran comic and the subject of the recent, critically acclaimed documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.	8.39 / 10.00
25	Roseanne Barr	Currently a blogger, activist, and presidential candidate, she was the main creative force behind most of the run of the enormously successful sitcom Roseanne.	8.34 / 10.00
26	Chelsea Handler	Host of E! Entertainment Television’s Chelsea Lately.	8.34 / 10.00
27	Jim Gaffigan	Best known for such incredibly popular stand-up specials as Beyond the Pale, King Baby, and his most recent self-released special Mr. Universe.	8.32 / 10.00
28	Dave Chapelle	Famously exhibited nearly unheard of integrity by walking away from mega-stardom and his outrageously popular sketch program Chapelle’s Show. Briefly held the stand-up comedy endurance record after performing a 6 hour and 12 minute set in December of 2007.	8.30 / 10.00
29	Jimmy Carr	A hugely popular stand-up and television presenter in the UK, with a bit of a following in the states as well.	8.29 / 10.00
30	Lisa Lampanelli	Massively popular “insult comic.”	8.29 / 10.00
31	Daniel Tosh	Star of Comedy Central’s high rated Tosh.0.	8.28 / 10.00
32	Janeane Garofalo	Popular stand-up, political activist, and star of films such as Reality Bites and The Truth About Cats & Dogs.	8.28 / 10.00
33	Lewis Black	Popular stand-up and the personality behind the long-running “Back in Black” segments on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show	8.27 / 10.00
34	Patton Oswalt	Part of the cast of CBS’ The King of Queens and the voice of Remy in Pixar’s Ratatouille.	8.25 / 10.00
35	Aziz Ansari	Co-creator and castmember of MTV’s popular sketch show Human Giant and part of the cast of NBC’s Parks and Recreation.	8.24 / 10.00
36	Brian Regan	While never the subject of overt buzz, a hugely well respected and also quite popular veteran stand-up.	8.24 / 10.00
37	Kevin James	Star of the popular sitcom The King of Queens.	8.23 / 10.00
38	Joe Rogan	Former cast member of NewsRadio, host of Fear Factor, and UFC commentator.	8.21 / 10.00
39	Steve Harvey	Current host of Family Feud and former host of It’s Showtime at the Apollo, he’s one of the comics featured in Spike Lee’s 2000 concert film The Original Kings of Comedy.	8.16 / 10.00
40	Peter Kay	One of the most popular comics ever in the UK. During his 2010-2011 UK concert tour he did multiple night stands in nearly every major city’s arena, including a whopping 20 sold out nights at his hometown of Macnhecter’s Manchester Arena.	8.16 / 10.00
41	Tim Allen	Did the voice of Buzz Lightyear in Pixar’s Toy Story trilogy of flims, and was the star of the popular sitcom Home Improvement	8.16 / 10.00
42	Margaret Cho	Comic, actress, author, musician, she has appeared in such TV programs as Drop Dead Diva and her own 1994 starring vehicle, the short-lived All-American Girl.	8.15 / 10.00
43	Demetri Martin	Star of the Comedy Central show Important Things with Demetri Martin and the 2009 Ang Lee movie Taking Woodstock.	8.15 / 10.00
44	Donald Glover	Star of NBC’s Community, former writer for 30 Rock, popular rapper under the name Childish Gambino, and member of the Derrick Comedy sketch troupe behind numerous viral videos and the 2009 film Mystery Team.	8.14 / 10.00
45	David Cross	One half of the team behind HBO’s Mr. Show with Bob and David, and an actor in numerous TV shows and films.	8.14 / 10.00
46	Mindy Kaling	Writer and performer on NBC’s The Office and an avid and popular user of Twitter.	8.14 / 10.00
47	Artie Lange	Troubled former member of Howard Stern‘s on air crew, and the author of the book Too Fat to Fish.	8.09 / 10.00
48	Ken Jeong	Featured castmember of NBC’s Community.	8.09 / 10.00
49	Lee Evans	Massively popular, arena headlining comic in the UK, and featured in such Hollywood filims as There’s Something About Mary and Mouse Hunt.	8.08 / 10.00
50	Whitney Cummings	Creator and star of the NBC sitcom Whitney, and co-creator of the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls.	8.08 / 10.00
51	Marc Maron	Host of the popular, mostly stand-up-centric podcast WTF.	8.05 / 10.00

The Digital Footprints of 11 Famously Elusive Celebrities

Posted on June 8, 2011 by PeekYou Team

What is PeekScore?: PeekScore is a rank from 1 to 10, assigned to every person. The higher someone’s score, the “more important” they are on the web. In calculating your PeekScore and updating it often, PeekYou takes into account your known presence and activity on the Internet, including but not limited to; your blogging, participation in social networks, the number of your friends, followers, or readers, the amount of web content you create, and your prominence in the news.

Don’t call them recluses, although some in the media will portray them as such. They are mostly just men and women who are content to let their works speak for themselves. Below is a list of 11 artists, all of whom work (or have worked) in popular media, and all of whom have achieved incredible success in their chosen fields. They are also men and women who have little interest in living their lives in a constant state of exposure and self-promotion, contrary to the prevailing mentality of our culture’s popular artists. Some have retired, some have sadly gone a little off the deep end, but for the most part these are men and women who have not shunned success, and who, to this day, are continuing to create and work hard at their crafts. They have simply chosen to live their lives on their own terms.

There are no Twitters, Facebooks, or blogs to be found among the individuals on this list (although there are some personal websites, mostly set up by corporate partners, or – as is the case with Ms. Bardot’s site – affiliated with charity work). And yet, so admired are their works, and/or so enduring are their iconic statuses that each of them has still made a significant mark here in the world wide web. The PeekScore measures the “digital footprint” of an individual, meaning it quantifies the full breadth and scope of his or her impact on the web. The score is based largely on a given individual’s own activity on the web, but as the above disclaimer states, it also factors in an individual’s “prominence in the news.” The works of the men and women on this list are so celebrated, written about, discussed, and enduring that each of them has left a large digital footprint without even directly contributing to it themselves. We felt that this phenomenon was worthy of notice. Here we are, after all, writing about these people.

Are there any famously press-shy/media-hostile artists who you think we should have included below? Are there any we shouldn’t have? Let us know.

Rank	Name	Bio	PeekScore
1	Terrence Malick	There’s little doubt that the hubbub surrounding his most recent film, The Tree of Life, is why he’s topping our list today. Our media-shy friend here has been making films for nearly 40 years, and thus far he’s managed to make only five. In his defense, though, they are all pretty good.	8.30 / 10
2	Thomas Pynchon	“My belief is that recluse is a code word generated by journalists meaning he doesn’t like to talk to reporters”, the brilliant author of Gravity’s Rainbow, and The Crying of Lot 49 once said. He lives openly in a city of over 8 million people, he’s done voices for The Simpsons, has made other appearances over the years, and apparently leads a quite normal life. He just doesn’t court the media and its adjacent brouhaha.	8.08 / 10
3	Bill Watterson	The creator of the extraordinary, and extraordinarily popular, Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. After drawing the strip for ten years, he walked away to “work at a more thoughtful pace, with fewer artistic compromises.” Notoriously unwilling to give autographs, a few years back he would occasionally sneak autographed copies of his books onto the shelves of a small bookshop in his Ohio hometown, just for fun.	8.03 / 10
4	Lana Wachowski (representing both Wachowskis)	Lana (formerly Larry/Laurence) is one half – along with her brother Andy – of The Wachowskis, the writing/directing team responsible for the sprawling The Matrix franchise, and the (ahem, frankly underrated) Speed Racer film. While their press-shyness has contributed to their carrying about them something of a mystique, many who have worked with the pair have described them as extremely approachable and fun people. They just don’t have much interest in publicly talking about themselves or their lives.	8.01 / 10
5	Steve Ditko	Some find religion and withdraw from the limelight, Ditko – the co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange (and a man whose artwork is positively worshiped by hardcore comic geeks) – instead found Ayn Rand. His story is worth investigating, if you have the time.	7.71/ 10
6	Dave Chapelle	As is well known, he admirably abandoned his wildly popular Chappelle’s Show for a number of reasons both personal and artistic. “I want to be well rounded and the industry is a place of extremes. I want to be well balanced.” He still works as a stand-up comedian, which is his true craft and first love.	7.53 / 10
7	Daniel Day-Lewis	“How can you be a recluse in a house full of children, even if you had the inclination to be, which I don’t?” While he shuns the publicity machine, for all the reasons any sane man would, he leads what he insists is an entirely normal life; only with the boatloads of cash you have on-hand when you’re a big, fancy movie star.	7.52 / 10
8	Brigitte Bardot	She retired from entertainment in 1973, but what an iconic legacy she left behind. She has dedicated herself to animal rights causes in the subsequent decades, and in more recent years made headlines for expressing political opinions viewed by some as controversial.	7.49 / 10
9	Harper Lee	After writing the inconceivably celebrated To Kill a Mockingbird, she then assisted Truman Capote in his researching In Cold Blood, and soon thereafter all but vanished from public view. Next to the now deceased J. D. Salinger, she may very well be modern times’ most famously media-shy author.	7.35 / 10
10	Sly Stone	A pop musician of nearly incalculable importance and brilliance, during the 70s he apparently developed numerous drug and personal problems, which precipitated a decline and recession from public view. He has only emerged from hiding sporadically in the decades since, and never to much commercial or artistic avail. Of all the individuals on this list, he is the only one whose story has a tragic undercurrent. We couldn’t see compiling a list of this nature without including him, but let’s move on.	7.24 / 10
11	Cormac McCarthy	He appeared on Oprah, and has popped up here and there in more recent years, but the author of No Country for Old Men, The Road, and All the Pretty Horses is as famous for shunning celebrity and its hassles as any artist you can name.	7.19 / 10