Comedians are the people who entertain audiences and make them laugh through jokes, acting foolishly, employing prop comedy, or amusing situations.

Aristophanes is a humorous author and playwright who wrote early comedic plays when comedians first appeared on the scene about 425 BC. Since he wrote 40 comedies, 11 are still being performed today. Aristophanes' comedic flair was expressed in the form of satyric plays.

William Shakespeare, a popular English poet, wrote many comedies. Williams's comedies have happy endings that involve marriages between the single characters and have a lighter tone and style than his other plays.

Modern comedians have adapted to the new media, sometimes switching to new forms as they are presented, since technology has developed new kinds of mass communication media.

A list of 20 richest male comics stand-up comedians are:

1. Matthew Perry

Matthew Perry in a night show with Elezabeth Vargas.
Matthew Perry in a night show with Elezabeth Vargas.( Source : instagram )

Matthew Langford Perry is an American-Canadian actor and comedian. Perry is also a producer who was born on August 19 in 1969.

The most well-known performance of Matthew was as Chandler Bing on the NBC comedy Friends.

Perry has worked in several movies that includes Fools Rush In, Almost Heroes, The Whole Nine Yards, 17 Again, and The Ron Clark Story as well as on the brief-lived television series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Langford voiced Benny in the video game Fallout and worked as a voice-over and video game actor in New Vegas in 2010. Perry co-created, co-wrote, executive produced, and starred in the ABC sitcom Mr. Sunshine from February to April 2011.

Perry co-created and played Oscar Madison in the CBS sitcom The Odd Couple from 2015 to 2017.

The networth of Metthew is estimated to be around $120 million as of 2023.

2. Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart is an American comedian and filmmaker was born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz on 28th November 1962. Jon is also a film maker and television host.

 Jon Stewart became well-known after building a highly successful stand-up comedy career and made his stand-up debut at The Bitter End. From 1999 until 2015, jon was the anchor of Comedy Central's satirical news program The Daily Show. 

Now Jon presents The Problem with Jon Stewart, which debuted on Apple TV+ in September 2021 and the Batman is Jon Stewart.

Stewart is choosen as a host and interviewer for George Carlin's teeth HBO special, George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy in 1997.

The networth of Jon Stewart is assumed to be around $120 million.

3. Steve Martin

Steve Martin Performing Late for School on Good Morning America.
Steve Martin Performing Late for School on Good Morning America.( Source : facebook )

Steve Martin is an American actor and comedian born on 14th August 1945. The real name of Steve Martin is Stephen Glenn Martin.

Martin created frequent appearances as a stand-up comedian on The Tonighr Show Starring Johnny Carson, and on The Gong Show, HBO's On Location, The Muppet Show and NBC's Saturday Night Live.

Steve is also a writer, producer and musician and has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. 

Martin is also known for writing the book to the musical Bright Star and to the comedy Meteor Shower, both of them premiered on Broadway. Furthermore, he was nominated for two Tony Awards for his musical Bright Star in 2016.

Since late 60s, Steve has been impressing the people with his brand of intelligent humor. He won an Emmy Award at the age of 23 as a writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. 

The networth of Steve is considered to be $140 million as of 2023.

4. Bill Maher

Bill Maher is an American comedian and television host and was born on 20th January 1959. Bill is also an actor and producer.

Bill is well known for the HBO political talk show Real Time With Bill Maher from 2003-present and the similar late-night show called Politically Incorrect from 1993-2002, originally on Comedy Central and then on ABC. 

Maher started the podcast Club Randombin 2022. He is known for his political satire and sociopolitical commentary and targets many topics related to religion, political correctness and the mass media. 

The critical views of Bill towards religion were the basis for his 2008 documentary film Religulous and also a supporter of animal rights, having served on the board of PETA since 1997.

Bill is an advisory board member of Project Reason and supports the legalization of cannabis serving on the advisory board of NORML.

The networth of Bill Maher is estimated to be around $140 million. 

5. Ricky Gervais

An English comedian and actor, Ricky Gervias.
An English comedian and actor, Ricky Gervias.( Source : instagram )

Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian and actor and was born on 25th June 1961. Ricky earned most of his net worth for as the creator of the popular comedy.

At the University of London Union, Ricky Gervais worked as an assistant events manager and was the head of speech at the alternative radio station Xfm.

Ricky also co-created, co-write and acted in the British television sitcoms The Office, Extras, An Idiot Abroas and Life's Too Short. Ricky starred in Derek and After Life and won Seven BAFTA Awards, five British Comedy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and the Rose d'Or twice.

Gervais was mentioned in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest performers in British Comedy in 2003 and was ranked at number 1 on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups and at number 3 in their 2010 list.

The networth of Ricky is estimated to be around $140 million as of 2023.

6. Martin Lawrence

Stand-up comedian and actor Martin Lawrence.
Stand-up comedian and actor Martin Lawrence.( Source : instagram )

Martin Fitzgerald Lawrence is an actor and stand-up comedian who was born in the United States on April 16, 1965.

Martin Lawrence chose a career in comedy after attending a performing arts high school and winning the Golden Gloves boxing championship.

Lawrence advanced to the "Star Search" stand-up comedy finals, which resulted in television work. Martin became popular in the 1990s and had a successful acting career in Hollywood. Lawrence made his acting debut in What's Happening Now as Maurice Warfield.

Lawrence played as a leading actor in the Bad Boys series, House Party, Boomerang, and the Fox television sitcom Martin. Martin is well-known for his own television series called Martin. 

The networth of Martin is estimated to be $140 million as of 2023.

7. Rowan Atkinson

Rowan Atkinson is an English actor and comedian best known for playing the comical character Mr. Bean on television for many years. 

Atkinson was born on the 6th January 1955, in County Durham, England and is the youngest of four brothers, moreover, his oldest brother Paul passed away when he was an infant.

Atkinson gained fame on the BBC sketch comedy program Not the Nine O'Clock News, for which he won the British Academy Television Award in 1981 for Best Entertainment Performance.

Eventhough Mr. Bean became popular in the 1980s, for whom Atkinson is most known, made his debut in 1990. The program for which Rowan Atkinson is most known is Mr. Bean and went on to enjoy great popularity.

The networth of Rowan is considered to be around $150 million as of 2023.

8. Terry Fator

Terry Fator in America's Got Talent show.
Terry Fator in America's Got Talent show.( Source : facebook )

Terry Fator also known as Terry Wayne Fator is an American Ventriloquist and stand-up comedian. Fator was born in Dallas in the state of Texas.

Terry has an interest in ventriloquism from a young age and developed a talent of singing. Fator conducted solo performances, combining Ventriloquism and singing with comedy. 

Fator gained national recognition for his talent when he won the second season of America's Got Talent and helped him to boost his career.

Terry landed a headliner contract for his own show in Las Vegas and performes regularly in New York-New York Hotel and Casino since 2021 and is one of the highest-paid comedians in Las Vegas every year.

The networth of Terry Fator is estimated to be around $160 million as of 2023.

9. Steve Harvey

Steve Harvey is an American television host and comedian was born on 17th January 1957. The real name of Steve is Broderick Stephen Harvey Sr. 

Harvey started his career as a comedian and performed stand-up comedy in the early 80s and hosted Showtime at the Apollo and The Steve Harvey Show on the WB. 

Steve last startup show was in 2012 and later featured in The Original Kings of Comedy after starring in the Kings of Comedy Tour.

Harvey is also a producer and actor who hosted in several shows including The Steve Harvey Morning Show, Family Feud, Celebrity Family Feud, Family Feud Africa, the arbitration-based court comedy Judge Steve Harvey and formally hosted the Miss Universe competition.

Harvey is a seven-time Daytime Emmy Award winner, two-time Marconi Award winner and a 14-time NAACP Image Award winner in Varioud categories.

The networth of Steve is considered to be around $200 million as of 2023.

10. Seth MacFarlane

Seth MacFarlane is an American actor and comedian and was born on 26th October 1973. Seth is also an cartoonist and animator.

Family Guy, The Orville, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show were created by and starred in by MacFarlane and also co-created them. Ted, Ted 2, and A Million Ways to Die in the West are three other movies which are co-wrote, directed, and starred by Seth.

Seth won several awards for his work on Family Guy that includes five Primetime Emmy Awards and an Annie Award and also won the Webby Award for Film and Video Person of the year. He was admitted to the Television Hall of Fame in 2020.

MacFarlane was nominated for Best Original Song for Ted's "Everybody Needs a Best Friend" when he hosted the 85th Academy Awards in 2013.

The networth of Seth is assumed to be around $300 million as of 2023.

11. David Letterman

An American television host and comedian,
An American television host and comedian,( Source : instagram )

David Letterman is an American television host and comedian and was born on 12th April 1947. David was born in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Letterman moved on to stand-up comedy, appearing in Los Angeles in 1975 and he also joined the staff of "The Paul Lynde Comedy Hour" and wrote for other comics. 

David continued to be simply another young journeyman in a suit performing on game programs like "The 20,000 Pyramid," "Rock Concert," and "The Gong Show" in 1977. David hosted 6,080 episodes of Late Night and Late Show in total. 

Letterman hosted late night television talk shows for 33 years starting from February 1, 1982 and debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC and ending with the May 20,2015, broadcast of Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. 

The networth of David is estimated to be around $400 million as of 2023.

12. Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby is an American comedian and media personality.
Bill Cosby is an American comedian and media personality.( Source : newyorker )

William Henry Cosby Jr is an American comedian and media personality  was born on 12th July 1937. Cosby is from the United States.

Henry significantly influenced African-American and American culture, and his depiction of Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show earned him the title "America's Dad."

Cosby started his career as a stand-up comedian at the hungry i nightclub in San Francisco during the 1960s.

Henry released serveral stand-up comedy albums throughout the course of the decade and helped him win the Grammy for Best Comedy Album from 1965 to 1970. In the 1965–1968 television crime drama I Spy, he costarred with Robert Culp.

Cosby made history when he became the first African American to win an acting Emmy Award in 1966 when he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

The networth of Bill Cosby is estimated to be around $400 as of 2023.

13. Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler performing at Fox Theater.
Adam Sandler performing at Fox Theater.( Source : instagram )

Adam Richard Sandler is an American comedian and musician and was born on 9th September 1966. Adam is also an actor and singer.

Sandler has won numerous honors and got nominations for three Grammy Awards, five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. He is popular for his humorous leading roles in movies and television.

Sandler's comedic roles are Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer, Big Daddy, Mr Deeds, 50 First Dates, The Longest Yard, Click, Grown Ups and so on.

Adam also gave his Voice in Davey, Whitey and Eleanore in Eight Crazy Nights and Dracula in the first three films of the Hotel Tansylvania Franchise.

The networth of Adam Sandler is estimated to be $420 million.

 

14. Kevin Dannel Hart

Kevin Darnell Hart is an American comedian and actor was born on 6th July 1979. Harth began his career as a stand-up comedian.

Kevin has been in Hollywood movies and on television and has put out a number of well-liked comedy albums.

Hart's first big break came after winning several stand-up comedy contests when Judd Apatow hired him for a regular part on the television program Undeclared.

 Since then, hart has appeared in movies like Little Fockers, Think Like a Man, Soul Plane, In the Mix, Paper Soldiers, Scary Movie 3, Get Hard, About Last Night, Get Hard, Central Intelligence, The Secret Life of Pets film franchise, Ride Along 2, and Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie.

The networth of Harth is assumed to be around $450 million as of 2023.

15. Jay Leno

Jay Leno is a comedian and television personality from the United States. Jay was born on 28th April 1950 in New Rochelle, New York.

Jay spent many years performing stand-up comedy before hosting NBC's The Tonight Show from 1992 until 2009, when Conan O'Brien took over. The Jay Leno Show, Leno's primetime talk show, debuted in September 2009 and aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET on NBC.

Leno returned to hosting The Tonight Program on March 1, 2010, after O'Brien declined NBC's invitation to have him host a half-hour monologue show before the show to increase ratings amid reports that viewership was declining.

Jay hosted the final episode of his second stint on February 6, 2014 and was admitted to the Television Hall of Fame that year.  He hosted Jay Leno's Garage from 2014 until 2022 and You Bet Your Life again starting in 2021.

The networth of Jay is assumed to be around $450 million.

16. Trey Parker

Trey Parker and Matt Stone for their deepfake VFX Studio.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone for their deepfake VFX Studio.( Source : variety )

Trey Parker is a comedian and animator from the United States. He is well-known for co-creating The Book of Mormon and South Park, both of which he did with Matt Stone.

 When Parker was young and attending the University of Colorado Boulder and met Stone. Parker developed an interest in both music and movies. They worked together on several short films.

Furthermore, they co-wrote Cannibal! The Musical, a full-length musical, and shared the lead roles in it. In Los Angeles, Parker and Stone wrote their second movie, Orgazmo in 1997.

 In August 1997, South Park debuted on Comedy Central before the movie's premiere. The duo has created music and video games based on the show. South Park, a 1999 film based on the series, was well-received by both critics and viewers.

The networth of Trey Parker is estimsted to be around $600 million as of 2023.

17. Matt Groening

Matt Groening in The Simpson's Apu row.
Matt Groening in The Simpson's Apu row.( Source : theguardian )

 Matthew Abram Groening is an American comedian and cartoonist and animator. Matt was born on 15th February 1954 in Portland, Oregon.

Matthew is the author of the television shows The Simpsons, Futurama, and Disenchantment and also created the comic strip Life in Hell. The Simpsons is both the longest-running animated sitcom and primetime television series in the history of the United States.

In addition to a 2004 British Humor Award for "excellent contribution to comedy," Groening has won 13 Primetime Emmy Awards—11 for The Simpsons and two for Futurama.

Matt received the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award For his work on Life in Hell in 2002. On February 14, 2012, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The networth of Matt Groening is assumed to be around $600 million as of 2023.

18. Matt Stone

Popular comedian and animator, Matt Stone
Popular comedian and animator, Matt Stone( Source : pitchfork )

Matt Stone is an animator and comedian from the United States. Matt was born on 26th May 1971 in Houston in the state of Texas.

 Matt is popular for co-creating The Book of Mormon and South Park, both of which he did with Trey Parker. When Stone was young and in high school, he was interested in both music and movies.

Stone later enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he met Parker. The two worked together on several short films, and they starred in the musical drama Cannibal! The Musical in 1993.

Over the course of his career, Stone has won several honors that includes three Tony Awards, one Grammy Award, and five Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on The Simpsons and South Park, respectively.

The networth of Stone is considered to be around $700 million as of 2023.

19. Bryon Allen

A comedian and philanthropy, Bryon Allen
A comedian and philanthropy, Bryon Allen( Source : nbcnews )

Bryon Allen is comedian and philanthropy. Allen was born on 22nd April 1961in Detroit.

Allen is the leader of Entertainment Studios, one of the leading entertainment businesses in the United States. When comedian Jimmie Walker watched his stand-up performance when he was just about 14 years old,

Jimmie encouraged him to join his comedy writing team alongside Jay Leno and David Letterman, two other promising young comics.

There are several honors have been given in his honor that includes the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award, the 16th Annual Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards presented by NATPE, and the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs award given at the 2018 Goldman Sachs Builders & Innovators Summit.

The networth of Bryon is estimated to be around $800 million as of 2023.

20. Jerry Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian and producer and was born on 29th April 1954. Jerry is also an actor and producer.

Jerry is popular for his role as a fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom Seinfeld, which he and Larry David co-created and scripted.

One of the most celebrated and appreciated sitcoms, the program aired on NBC from 1989 through 1998.  Seinfeld is a stand-up comic who specializes in observational humor. He was ranked as the 12th best stand-up comic of all time by Comedy Central in 2004.

The 2007 animated feature movie, Bee Movie was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film was co-created and co-produced by Jerry.

Jerry launched The Marriage Ref, a reality show that ran on NBC for two seasons, in 2010. Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is a web series that was created and hosts by Seinfeld.

The networth of Jerry is estimated to be around $1 Billion as of 2023.