Richard Pryor is at the top as the most popular stand-up comic of all time.

With 19 stand-up movies and albums, of which five of those albums won Grammy awards and sold-out attendance at most of his live shows, he will always be one of the names associated with stand-up comedy.

Not only did he have an incredible stand-up career, he also used his comedic genius in movies and TV shows, including "Silver Streak" and "Sanford and Son"

George Carlin was popular, too, but no where near Richard Pryor.
Source(s):
Various web sites, including http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pryor.
News stories during the time Richard Pryor was active, proclaiming his popularity.

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Without a doubt in my mind Red Foxx .

He also did stand up in NY in his hay day.
Source(s):
My Opinion

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If the question is of all time it would have to be one of the earlier comics.

Probably Groucho Marx

or perhaps Abbot and Costello

I fyou are keeping it strictly to stan-up then let's not forget about how popular Bob Hope was (not that I ever found him funny)

George burns probably had the longest career of them all.

If we are going to go with all time you would have to include Charlie Chaplin as the original comedian as far as movies go.
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I will submit that Whoopi Goldberg is the most popular stand up comic of all time.

She has won awards at the highest levels being one of a small group of people to win Academy, Grammy, Tony, and Emmy Awards and as well, a couple of Golden Globes for good measure.(1)



I think her career speaks for itself but from stand up comedy to The Color Purple to Star Trek to The View etc she really has done it all.(2)

The sheer numbers of viewers of Comic Relief must be staggering after 20+ years. (Robin Williams and Billy Chrystal are right up there as well)(3)



To go from Citizen in 1982 to trouncing Glenn Beck on The View in 2009 with the help of Barbara Walters is good enough for me.
Source(s):
(1)http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Whoopi_Goldberg#encyclopedia
(2)http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000155/
(3)http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20059906,00.html

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Easy. Zach Galifianakis

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5043958564827525972&ei=iNbySoOiG5_arQLNm71E&hl=en#
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I would estimate Jack Benny. You have asked about biggest audience, and he had the biggest audiences for the most years. Radio, and then early TV, had much larger audiences than individual movies, let alone comedy albums or live shows. In particular, there were only the three national networks that almost everyone listened to or watched for a couple of generations. Jack Benny was the comic star who spanned that time, and he was primarily a stand up comedian.
Source(s):
http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=bennyjack
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Benny

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Many stand-up comics have used the stand-up medium as a transitional phase into other areas such as radio, movies or television.

Many of the most popular stand-up comics left a larger footprint in those other fields. Some of the comics mentioned in earlier responses fit that mold. Some others, such as Woody Allen, Bob Hope, and Billy Crystal can also be added. But since all of these, successful comedians as they were, obtained their largest portion of their success outside of stand-up, having used stand-up as a stepping stone towards this end, their legacy popularity is often defined outside of stand-up.

The first stand-up comic to obtain near rock star status, and take stand-up out of the small venues of comedy clubs and college auditoriums was Steve Martin in the mid an late seventies. His stand-up act became so popular, fueled by the release of successful comedy albums, appearances on the Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live, that he began to perform in venues, until then the domain of rock bands. His performances were measured in audiences not of hundreds or even thousands, but rather tens of thousands.

In that sense, in shear single performance audience draw, Steve Martin would be the leader.

If we look at your question from a point of view of durability and sustainability, then one would have to award that to insult comic Don Rickles. He has had roles in 29 films, starred with Clint Eastwood and even with the legendary Clark Gable. His TV appearances as a guest on talk shows, guest starring roles in sit-coms and a few attempts at his own shows, alone have exposed him to millions of people across the decades of the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and into today. Often proclaimed as the best at the art of stand-up by the likes of Chris Rock and Robin Williams, whether one likes or hates his "offend everyone spare no one" approach, it has lasted him nearly 6 decades and that has allowed him to amass an aggregate audience larger than other comics of shorter duration.
Source(s):
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/theatre-listings/Steve+Martin+Van...
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0725543/
http://www.hbo.com/events/don-rickles/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Rickles

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Dane Cook
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That's a really hard question as I grew up with Eddie Murphy.
However, I'm thinking, considering the success of his show which came from his stand up, I'd have to say Jerry Seinfeld. I think he's pretty awesome, however, like I said, I still think Eddie's stuff is the best!


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Best stand-up comic ever? Damn thats a hard one, there are so many. Here are 3 that I think deserves top honours:

* Richard Pryor
* Steve Martin
* George Carlin

I personally like Howie Mandel though, I've seen him live a couple of times and its always been a good time :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyVW95t6oJE
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