Vote early, vote often

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on January 4th, 2007

Comedy Central is having a Standup Showdown in which they serve up the top 100 comics– “100 COMICS. ONE TITLE. THIS TIME, IT’S FOR THE HONOR.” No word on what it was for the last time!– and exhort the site’s visitors to browse through them alphabetically and vote for a favorite.

They only list the top 20 on the front page, one must dig, click and scroll to find the other 80.

At blogtime, the top twenty were:

Cook
Hedberg
Caliendo
Benson
Mencia
LaPorte
Koplitz
Gaffigan
Reep
Black
Francisco
Galifianakis
Attell
Martin
Swardson
Sykes
Regan
Bailey
Arnez J.
Phan

It is a good thing that we are able to list them by last name only and be confident that, in most cases, most readers will know to whom we refer.

Just in case anyone wonders, The Male Half and the Female Half are not driving folks to the site for personal gain. We are not in this contest; as we are not among the top 100 comics in the business. (However, if we were, the Male Half would be sandwiched between Steve McGrew and Carlos Mencia. The Female Half would land between Jim Shubert and The Sklar Brothers. Do you think that Comedy Central would allow write-in candidates? Hardly likely.)

In keeping with the spirit of multiplatformicity, fans can text their votes in, via their mobile phones. (Ask your mommy and daddy if you can vote, as each vote costs $0.99!) And, just in case you’re 14 years old and you have all the time in the world, contest architects have restricted the voting– “Remember, you can only vote for one comedian a day!” they warn sternly! And, though it isn’t readily apparent, there is a deadline– Voters are advised to watch a marathon countdown “all day long” on Sunday, January 28, in which Comedy Central will present the top twenty vote-getters.