Comedy history timeline by decade
Comedy history decade by decade. Every line comes from one of our entries, where it is footnoted to two independent, reputable sources.
The 1890s
- 1894: Jack Benny. His life spanned the years 1894 to 1974.
- 1894: Jack Benny. Benny came into the world in Chicago, Illinois, on February 14, 1894, under the name Benjamin Kubelsky.
- 1894: Moms Mabley. Sources disagree on the year: one account gives her birth date as March 19, 1894, while others list 1897.
- 1896: George Burns. Born Nathan Birnbaum in 1896, he died on March 9, 1996.
- 1896: George Burns. Burns was born on January 20, 1896, in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City.
The 1900s
- 1903: Bob Hope. Hope was born Leslie Towns Hope in England on May 29, 1903.
- 1908: Milton Berle. He was born on July 12, 1908, in Harlem, Manhattan, in New York City, under the name Mendel Berlinger.
The 1910s
- 1911: Lucille Ball. Ball's birthday was August 6, 1911, and her birthplace was Jamestown, New York.
- 1917: Phyllis Diller. Diller's birth name was Phyllis Driver, and she was born in Lima, Ohio, on July 17, 1917.
The 1920s
- 1920: Milton Berle. His stage debut came in 1920 with Floradora in Atlantic City, and he went along when the production moved to New York.
- 1925: Johnny Carson. Corning, Iowa, is where Carson was born, on October 23, 1925.
- 1925: Jonathan Winters. On November 11, 1925, Jonathan Harshman Winters III, later known as Winters, came into the world in Dayton, Ohio.
- 1926: Mel Brooks. Mel Brooks, born Melvin James Kaminsky in 1926 in Brooklyn, New York, is a World War II veteran and comedy writer whose career grew to include acting, directing and producing.
- 1929: Bob Newhart. Newhart was born on September 5, 1929.
The 1930s
- 1931: Milton Berle. In 1931 he performed at New York's Palace Theater and became the youngest master of ceremonies on Broadway.
- 1931: Moms Mabley. In 1931, she worked with the writer Zora Neale Hurston on the Broadway revue Fast and Furious.
- 1932: Dick Gregory. Dick Gregory, a St. Louis, Missouri native who entered the world on October 12, 1932, built a career in comedy and writing while advocating for civil rights, and he later died in Washington, D.C.
- 1933: Joan Rivers. Joan Rivers was a comedienne who at one time served as guest host of The Tonight Show, and she lived from 1933 to 2014.
- 1933: Joan Rivers. Rivers was born Joan Alexandra Molinsky in Brooklyn, New York, on June 8, 1933.
- 1937: George Carlin. George Carlin, whose full name was George Denis Patrick Carlin, was a comedian born on May 12, 1937.
- 1939: George Burns. The final film the pair made together was Honolulu, released in 1939.
- 1939: Moms Mabley. Her first Apollo appearance came in 1939, and she later performed at Carnegie Hall.
The 1940s
- 1944: Mel Brooks. He was shipped to Europe in late 1944, and his first assignment there was as a forward artillery observer.
- 1945: Moms Mabley. Mabley acted in The Big Timers in 1945, and in 1948 she appeared in both Boarding House Blues and Killer Diller.
- 1947: David Letterman. David Michael Letterman, his full given name, came into the world in Indianapolis on April 12, 1947.
- 1948: Milton Berle. Berle starred in the Texaco Star Theater, which premiered on NBC in 1948 and soon gained popularity.
- 1949: Andy Kaufman. Andy Kaufman was a comedian whose life spanned 1949 to 1984.
The 1950s
- 1950: Bob Hope. His television specials started in 1950.
- 1950: Jay Leno. Jay Leno, born on April 28, 1950, is a comedian and a former host of NBC's The Tonight Show.
- 1951: Lenny Bruce. In 1951 Bruce wed Honey Harlow.
- 1951: Lucille Ball. A native of Jamestown, New York, she played a key part in bringing the show into being in 1951.
- 1951: Lucille Ball. The series premiered on television in October 1951.
- 1952: Bob Newhart. He earned a degree in business and commerce from Loyola University Chicago in 1952.
- 1954: Freddie Prinze. Freddie Prinze was a comedian. Born in New York in 1954, he had Puerto Rican and Hungarian roots.
- 1954: Freddie Prinze. Prinze's birth took place in New York on June 22, 1954.
- 1954: Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld's birth date is April 29, 1954.
- 1955: Whoopi Goldberg. Goldberg was born Caryn Elaine Johnson in New York City on November 13, 1955.
- 1957: Lenny Bruce. They had a daughter named Kitty, and the marriage ended in separation in 1957.
- 1958: Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen DeGeneres is a comedian, born in 1958 in Metairie, Louisiana.
- 1959: Mort Sahl. In 1959 Sahl hosted the inaugural Grammy Awards.
- 1959: The Second City. The Second City is a theater company and comedy enterprise that began in Chicago in December 1959.
The 1960s
- 1960: Lucille Ball. Ball and Arnaz divorced in 1960.
- 1961: Bill Hicks. A Georgia native born in 1961, he succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 1994, aged 32.
- 1961: Bill Hicks. His full name was William Melvin Hicks, and he was born on December 16, 1961, in Valdosta, Georgia.
- 1961: Bob Newhart. Newhart's variety show from 1961 ran for a single season.
- 1961: Dick Gregory. Hugh Hefner hired Gregory in 1961 for an engagement at the Playboy Club in Chicago.
- 1962: Bob Newhart. His early movie work included Hell Is for Heroes in 1962, Hot Millions in 1968, and Catch-22.
- 1962: Carol Burnett. In 1962, she and Garry Moore each received an Emmy Award for that program.
- 1962: George Carlin. He and Burns ended their partnership in 1962, and Carlin then worked as a solo comedian.
- 1962: Johnny Carson. Johnny Carson was a television host who hosted NBC's The Tonight Show from 1962 until he left television in 1992.
- 1962: Johnny Carson. Carson took over hosting duties on NBC's The Tonight Show on October 1, 1962, following Jack Paar in the role.
- 1962: Phyllis Diller. In 1962 she gave a performance at Carnegie Hall.
- 1962: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Johnny Carson hosted his own edition of The Tonight Show, known as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, for thirty years, spanning 1962 to 1992.
- 1962: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Carson's tenure as host began on October 1, 1962.
- 1963: Dick Gregory. Gregory was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.
- 1963: Rodney Dangerfield. In 1963, at 42, he went back to comedy and started to attract notice.
- 1964: Dick Gregory. Gregory's autobiography, titled Nigger: An Autobiography, appeared in 1964.
- 1965: Chris Rock. Rock's birthplace is Andrews, South Carolina, and his birth date is February 7, 1965.
- 1965: Joan Rivers. Her breakthrough came with a 1965 appearance on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, and in 1983 she became Carson's permanent guest host.
- 1965: Milton Berle. He renegotiated the agreement in 1965, which allowed him to work for any network.
- 1966: Dick Gregory. Gregory challenged Richard J. Daley for the office of mayor of Chicago; sources date that race to either 1966 or 1967.
- 1966: Phyllis Diller. She owned roughly 300 hats, and a photo dated March 18, 1966, shows her modeling one of them.
- 1967: Carol Burnett. CBS launched The Carol Burnett Show on September 11, 1967.
- 1967: George Carlin. In 1967, his first solo record, Take-Offs and Put-Ons, was released by RCA Victor.
- 1968: Dick Gregory. In 1968, he sought the presidency as a write-in contender representing the Freedom and Peace Party.
- 1968: Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Hawn was a regular performer on the program between 1968 and 1970.
- 1969: David Letterman. He earned a telecommunications degree from Ball State University in 1969.
- 1969: Richard Pryor. During a 1969 performance at the Aladdin in Las Vegas, Pryor left the stage partway through the show.
The 1970s
- 1970: Don Rickles. In 1970 he worked alongside Clint Eastwood in Kelly's Heroes.
- 1970: Phyllis Diller. In 1970, during the show's original 1964-1970 Broadway run, she took over the title role in Hello, Dolly!, following earlier stars in the part.
- 1971: Dick Gregory. With Mark Lane, he co-wrote Code Name Zorro, a 1971 book concerning the assassination of Martin Luther King.
- 1971: Rodney Dangerfield. His first film was The Projectionist, released in 1971.
- 1972: Jonathan Winters. The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters aired in syndication between 1972 and 1974.
- 1972: Phyllis Diller. In 1972 Diller made her face-lift public.
- 1972: The Comedy Store. It opened in 1972, and comic Sammy Shore was one of its co-founders.
- 1972: The Comedy Store. One account says Sammy Shore founded it in 1972 with Mitzi Shore, who was his wife at the time.
- 1972: The Comedy Store. Mitzi Shore is also credited with opening the club in 1972.
- 1972: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. In 1972, the show left New York and set up in Burbank, in the Los Angeles area.
- 1974: Jack Benny. Benny died on December 26, 1974.
- 1974: Mel Brooks. In 1974 he directed both Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.
- 1974: The Comedy Store. Mitzi and Sammy Shore ended their marriage in 1974.
- 1975: David Letterman. In 1975, Letterman arrived in Los Angeles and took the stage at the Comedy Store.
- 1975: FCC v. Pacifica Foundation. In February 1975, an FCC order said Pacifica might have faced administrative sanctions.
- 1975: Lily Tomlin. Tomlin made her film debut in Nashville, which came out in 1975.
- 1975: Saturday Night Live. Saturday Night Live (SNL) is an NBC late-night program that debuted in 1975.
- 1975: Saturday Night Live. The 1975 cast went by the name Not Ready for Prime Time Players, and its members included Belushi, Chase, Aykroyd, and Radner.
- 1976: Mort Sahl. In 1976 Sahl released a memoir titled Heartland.
- 1976: Second City Television. The show was on the air between 1976 and 1984.
- 1976: Second City Television. SCTV got its start in 1976.
- 1977: George Carlin. His debut HBO special, On Location: George Carlin at USC, was recorded in 1977.
- 1978: David Letterman. In about 1978, he made his first guest appearance on The Tonight Show.
- 1978: FCC v. Pacifica Foundation. Justice Stevens wrote the opinion for the Court, which ruled on the matter in July 1978.
- 1978: FCC v. Pacifica Foundation. The justices heard oral argument on April 18, 1978.
- 1978: FCC v. Pacifica Foundation. They announced their decision on July 3, 1978, less than three months later.
- 1978: Garry Shandling. He took up stand-up comedy in 1978 and also served as a guest host of The Tonight Show.
- 1978: Joan Rivers. Rabbit Test, a 1978 movie about a man who becomes pregnant, was the sole feature Rivers ever directed.
- 1978: Milton Berle. In 1978/79 he was given a special Emmy honoring his lifetime achievement.
- 1979: Richard Pryor. In 1979 he made a trip to Kenya.
The 1980s
- 1980: Dick Gregory. In 1980 he went to Iran, where he held a hunger strike while working to free the American hostages.
- 1980: Eddie Murphy. He was once part of the Saturday Night Live cast, having joined the show in 1980.
- 1980: Saturday Night Live. By 1980, none of the original cast remained.
- 1980: Saturday Night Live. Jean Doumanian was the producer of the 1980-81 season.
- 1981: Jackie Mason. In 1981, Mason appeared in the Mel Brooks film History of the World: Part I, playing a character called Jew No. 1 in its Spanish Inquisition sequence.
- 1982: Andy Kaufman. Kaufman was a regular or semiregular presence on Saturday Night Live, and he appeared on that program in 1982.
- 1982: David Letterman. Late Night with David Letterman debuted on NBC in 1982, with Letterman as host.
- 1982: Saturday Night Live. John Belushi died from a drug overdose in 1982.
- 1983: Joan Rivers. Her appointment as his regular guest host was announced in September 1983.
- 1984: Andy Kaufman. Kaufman died at Cedars-Sinai Hospital on May 16, 1984.
- 1984: Dick Gregory. In 1984 he started Dick Gregory Health Enterprises, a company that marketed weight-loss products.
- 1984: Sam Kinison. Sam Kinison was a comedian whose career took off after a 1984 HBO special.
- 1986: Jackie Mason. His solo Broadway show, The World According to Me, played from 1986 to 1988, a run of roughly two years.
- 1986: Lucille Ball. In 1986, she was honored by the Kennedy Center with its Lifetime Achievement recognition.
- 1986: Sam Kinison. His first comedy album, Louder Than Hell, came out in 1986.
- 1987: Eddie Murphy Raw. Eddie Murphy Raw is a comedy concert film released in 1987.
- 1987: George Carlin. He received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in 1987.
- 1988: Sam Kinison. In 1988, Warner Bros. issued his release Have You Seen Me Lately?
- 1989: Dick Gregory. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale gave him an honorary doctorate in 1989, and the Kennedy Center held a tribute in his honor.
- 1989: Jerry Seinfeld. Jerry Seinfeld is the co-creator, along with Larry David, of the sitcom Seinfeld, which premiered in 1989.
- 1989: Jerry Seinfeld. The series ran on NBC between 1989 and 1998.
- 1989: Lucille Ball. She died in 1989.
- 1989: Mitch Hedberg. Hedberg took up stand-up in 1989.
- 1989: Redd Foxx. In 1989, Foxx shared the screen with Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor in the movie Harlem Nights.
The 1990s
- 1990: Chris Rock. Rock became part of the Saturday Night Live cast in 1990 and departed the show in 1993.
- 1990: Garry Shandling. Shandling served as host of the Grammy Awards ceremonies in 1990, 1993, and 1994, and took on emceeing duties for the Emmy Awards in 2000 and again in 2004.
- 1992: Bob Newhart. In 1992, he took the lead in Bob, playing a cartoonist.
- 1992: George Carlin. Jammin' in New York, the HBO special he did in 1992, was broadcast live from Madison Square Garden's Paramount Theater.
- 1992: Johnny Carson. After Carson stepped away from television in 1992, Jay Leno became the next host of the program.
- 1992: Sam Kinison. He died in 1992 as the result of a car accident.
- 1992: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Carson gave up the host's chair in 1992, which brought his 30-year stint to a close.
- 1992: Whoopi Goldberg. In 1992 she played the lead in the hit Sister Act, which audiences received well.
- 1993: Bill Hicks. Doctors diagnosed Hicks with pancreatic cancer in June 1993.
- 1993: David Letterman. In 1993, the show switched networks and continued on CBS under the name Late Show.
- 1993: Jerry Seinfeld. In 1993, the show received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.
- 1993: Jerry Seinfeld. Seinlanguage came out in 1993 and became a best-seller.
- 1994: Bill Hicks. He died on February 26, 1994, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
- 1994: Ellen DeGeneres. The sitcom Ellen ran from 1994 until 1998, with DeGeneres playing a character named Ellen Morgan.
- 1995: Jay Leno. During the 1995-96 season, he moved past David Letterman in the late-night ratings, and he kept that lead from then on.
- 1995: Rodney Dangerfield. He had his own home page on the Web by August 1995.
- 1995: Saturday Night Live. Adam Sandler was let go from the show in 1995.
- 1996: Mort Sahl. His son, Mort Jr., died in 1996 at the age of 19.
- 1997: George Carlin. His book Brain Droppings came out in 1997.
- 1998: Richard Pryor. In 1998 he became the first person to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
- 1999: Andy Kaufman. The 1999 film Man on the Moon tells his story.
- 1999: George Carlin. Director Kevin Smith cast him in Dogma in 1999, and in 2004 Carlin played Ben Affleck's father in Smith's Jersey Girl.
The 2000s
- 2000: Rodney Dangerfield. He had a double coronary bypass operation in 2000.
- 2001: Ellen DeGeneres. She presented the Primetime Emmys twice, in 2001 and again in 2005.
- 2002: Milton Berle. He died in 2002.
- 2002: Whoopi Goldberg. In 2002 she received a Tony Award as one of the producers of Thoroughly Modern Millie.
- 2003: Bob Hope. He died on July 27, 2003.
- 2003: Bob Newhart. He also played Papa Elf in the 2003 movie Elf.
- 2003: Carol Burnett. In 2003, she was recognized as a Kennedy Center Honoree.
- 2003: Chris Rock. In 2003 he had a role in the film Head of State.
- 2004: Rodney Dangerfield. He died in 2004 at age 82.
- 2005: Chris Rock. Rock was host of the Academy Awards ceremony on two occasions, in 2005 and in 2016.
- 2005: Johnny Carson. Born in Iowa and raised in Nebraska, he died in 2005.
- 2005: Johnny Carson. Carson died on January 23, 2005.
- 2005: Mitch Hedberg. His act was built on short, absurdist one-liners, and he died in 2005 at the age of 37.
- 2005: Richard Pryor. He died on December 10, 2005.
- 2005: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He died in 2005.
- 2007: Whoopi Goldberg. In 2007 she came aboard The View as a co-host.
- 2008: Don Rickles. In 2008 Rickles received a Primetime Emmy for Mr. Warmth, winning in the category for outstanding individual performance in variety or music programming.
- 2008: George Carlin. He died in Santa Monica, California, on June 22, 2008.
- 2008: Saturday Night Live. Tina Fey portrayed Sarah Palin in 2008.
- 2008: The Second City. In 2008, he organized a gathering of the SCTV cast in Toronto.
The 2010s
- 2010: Joan Rivers. A documentary about her, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, came out in 2010.
- 2010: Mel Brooks. He has received a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute and, in 2010, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
- 2012: Phyllis Diller. She died on August 20, 2012, at the age of 95.
- 2013: Jonathan Winters. Winters died in 2013 at the age of 87.
- 2014: Joan Rivers. She died at 81 on September 4, 2014.
- 2015: David Letterman. He stepped down from the Late Show in 2015.
- 2015: Ellen DeGeneres. According to a 2015 poll, no other public figure had done more than DeGeneres to shape how Americans viewed gay rights.
- 2016: Ellen DeGeneres. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, from President Obama in November 2016.
- 2019: Eddie Murphy. He was scheduled to come back to the NBC program in December 2019.
The 2020s
- 2020: Ellen DeGeneres. In January 2020, the Golden Globes honored her with the Carol Burnett Award.
Updated November 12, 2026.