The 30 Funniest Stand-Up Comedians of All-Time

14. Don Rickles

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Don Rickles was a rare comic who found his voice by actually ignoring his material. In the late ’40s, Rickles discovered that his audiences connected more to the ad-libs he used to shut down hecklers rather than the jokes he’d written. For more than half a century, Mr. Rickles made outrageously derisive comments about people’s looks, their spouses, their jobs or anything else he could think of. His hilarious unpleasantness was aimed even at the biggest stars in show business (Frank Sinatra was a favorite target).