Steve Coogan at No.2

Tina Fey has been named the funniest comedian of the 21st century.

She heads a run-down compiled by The Guardian, beating Steve Coogan into second place. 

The newspaper is running a series of retrospective cultural lists. Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black was named best album of the century and Jez Butterworth’s Jersualem the best play.

In their citation, the Guardian charts how Fey went from being  Saturday Night Live’s first female head writer, to writing Mean Girls, creating 30 Rock, co-creating Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and more. 

Her next project is a sitcom starring Ted Danson as an obnoxious mayor of Los Angeles, prompting the newspaper to declare: ‘She remains precisely as exacting, hilarious and influential as she’s ever been… A true legend’

The top 20 are

1. Tina Fey
2. Steve Coogan
3. Chris Rock
4. James Acaster
5. Flight Of The Conchords
6. Tiffany Haddish
7. Julia Davis
8. Larry David
9. Tim Key
10. Sharon Horgan
11. Kristen Wiig
12. Amy Poehler
13. Sarah Silverman
14. Maria Bamford
15. Dave Chappelle
16. Mighty Boosh
17. Romesh Ranganathan
18. Bridget Christie
19. Ricky Gervais
20. Issa Rae

In what may or may not be a coincidence, Stewart Lee came 41st – the same ranking he achieved in a previous TV poll that became the title of his 2007 stand-up show.

Of the top 50, 16 are women. Nineteen are American, one South African (Trevor Noah) one New Zealand act (Conchords), one Australian (Hannah Gadsby) and one Irish (Sharon Horgan). The rest are British.

Click here for the full list and reasoning.

Published: 18 Sep 2019