Stand-up comedy has never had more to offer – and never been harder to navigate. Between Netflix specials, YouTube sets, and club recordings floating around the internet, you could spend a week trying to figure out where to start. This list does the work for you.
Whether you want absurdist storytelling, sharp political commentary, uncomfortable truths, or just someone who makes you laugh until your face hurts, there's a comedian here worth your time. These ten are at the top of their game right now – some are legends you should already know, others are names you'll want to remember.
Dave Chappelle
Nate Bargatze
Hannah Gadsby
John Mulaney
Ali Wong
Ronny Chieng
Nikki Glaser
Gary Gulman
Trevor Noah
Taylor Tomlinson
There's no list of modern stand-up comedians that doesn't start with a conversation about Dave Chappelle. He's the most decorated comedian of the past decade – multiple Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album, a Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and specials that have generated more cultural conversation than most movies. Love him or have complicated feelings about him, his craft is undeniable.
What makes Chappelle worth watching is the architecture of his sets. He doesn't just tell jokes – he builds extended narratives that circle back on themselves with precision. His timing is studied, his presence on stage is commanding, and his ability to find the absurd inside genuinely difficult subjects is something most comedians can't touch.
Start with: Sticks & Stones (Netflix, 2019) or The Closer (Netflix, 2021) – both are polarizing, both are extremely well-constructed comedy.
Best for: Viewers who want dense, layered stand-up that rewards attention and tolerates provocation.
Nate Bargatze is the comedian your dad likes, your mom likes, your little sister likes, and – if you give him a fair shot – you'll like too. He's one of the cleanest headliners in the business, which sounds like a limitation until you realize how hard it is to be genuinely funny without leaning on shock or edge. Bargatze doesn't need either.
His material is rooted in everyday domestic life – marriage, kids, the South, small travel disasters – delivered with a slow-burn drawl that makes the punchlines hit harder than they have any right to. He's consistently sold out arenas and his Netflix specials have put up huge numbers, which reflects how universally accessible his comedy is.
Start with: The Greatest Average American (Netflix, 2021) or Hello World (Amazon Prime, 2023).
Best for: Anyone who wants crowd-pleasing, family-friendly comedy that's still legitimately smart.
Hannah Gadsby's Nanette (Netflix, 2018) broke conventions the comedy world didn't even know it had. It's technically a stand-up special, but it builds toward something closer to a TED talk delivered at full emotional velocity – a deconstruction of what comedy requires from marginalized people and what it costs them. It won an Emmy and a Peabody Award and made Gadsby one of the most talked-about comedians on the planet.
Their follow-up specials, Douglas and Something Special, are more conventional in structure but still sharper and more formally aware than almost anything else on the circuit. Gadsby thinks about comedy as a form, not just a vehicle for jokes, which gives their work a depth that outlasts a single watch.
Start with: Nanette (Netflix, 2018) – there's no way around it, this is where you begin.
Best for: Viewers who want comedy that challenges its own form and isn't afraid to get uncomfortable before it earns the laugh.
John Mulaney spent a decade building one of the most technically precise stand-up careers in the business – tight, clean storytelling with callbacks so well-constructed that comedy writers openly study his sets as examples of how to do it right. His first three major specials (New in Town, The Comeback Kid, Kid Gorgeous) are basically a masterclass in structure.
Then his personal life collapsed publicly in ways that became tabloid fodder, and his most recent special, Baby J (Netflix, 2023), addressed all of it head-on. It's rawer and messier than his earlier work – deliberately so – and it's arguably his most interesting special because of it. If you want to watch a comedian in real transition, this is it.
Start with: The Comeback Kid (Netflix, 2015) for the craft, then Baby J (Netflix, 2023) for the current version of the person.
Best for: People who appreciate tight joke structure and storytelling that respects the audience's intelligence.
Ali Wong performs in a way that most comedians don't have the nerve for. She's brutally specific about sex, marriage, pregnancy, money, and ambition – and she does it with a controlled aggression that makes it impossible to look away. Her first two specials, Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, were both filmed while she was visibly pregnant, which became part of the visual language of the set and made them genuinely memorable viewing experiences.
Her material covers territory that female comedians have historically been told to soften or avoid. Wong doesn't soften anything. She's also moved into acting and writing since her specials, but stand-up remains the purest version of what she does.
Start with: Baby Cobra (Netflix, 2016) – still her most celebrated and probably the sharpest 60 minutes she's put on screen.
Best for: Viewers who want unapologetic, boundary-pushing comedy from a comedian operating without a safety net.
Ronny Chieng is one of the most underrated comedians on this list – a Malaysian-born, Australian-raised comic who now splits his time between stand-up and his recurring role on The Daily Show. His comedy is fast, caustic, and deeply opinionated. He complains with precision, which sounds simple until you realize how few comedians can actually make sustained frustration this funny.
His specials on Netflix – Asian Comedian Destroys America! and Love to Hate It – cover immigration, identity, capitalism, and the specific absurdities of American culture as seen from the outside. The perspective is distinctive, the pacing is relentless, and he rarely wastes a word.
Start with: Asian Comedian Destroys America! (Netflix, 2019) – sharp, fast, and consistently surprising.
Best for: Viewers who enjoy high-energy observational comedy with a cultural and political edge.
Nikki Glaser has been working the stand-up circuit for over fifteen years and the industry finally caught up to how good she is. She's built her reputation on unflinching, self-aware material about sex, relationships, and her own psychology – delivered with a confidence that makes the vulnerability land as strength rather than oversharing.
Her roast appearances (most notably her roast of Tom Brady) went massively viral and introduced her to audiences who hadn't followed her stand-up, but her specials are where the real craft is. Good Clean Filth (HBO, 2022) is her best work to date – tightly written, consistently funny, and genuinely honest about what it's like to be a woman who doesn't pretend to be more comfortable than she is.
Start with: Good Clean Filth (HBO Max, 2022).
Best for: People who want comedy that's sexually frank, self-deprecating, and smart at the same time.
Gary Gulman is not a household name in the way some comedians on this list are, and that's a genuine injustice. His special The Great Depresh (HBO, 2019) is one of the most remarkable pieces of stand-up in recent memory – a fully realized hour about depression, hospitalization, and mental health that is also consistently, helplessly funny. It shouldn't work as comedy. It does, completely.
Beyond that special, Gulman is one of the best joke writers in the business. His bit about the abbreviations for the 50 US states is studied in comedy writing circles as a near-perfect example of escalating premise construction. He's a comedian's comedian who deserves a much wider audience.
Start with: The Great Depresh (HBO, 2019) – genuinely one of the best specials of the decade.
Best for: Viewers who want thoughtful, beautifully crafted comedy from someone who takes the form seriously.
Trevor Noah spent nine years as host of The Daily Show before stepping down in 2022, and that tenure gave him a level of polish and political fluency that shows up clearly in his stand-up. He's South African, grew up under apartheid, and spent years performing across multiple continents before landing in the US – which gives his perspective on American culture a specific outside-in quality that few comedians can replicate.
His specials cover race, identity, immigration, and geopolitics without ever becoming lectures. He's warm, technically skilled, and his ability to find the comedic angle on genuinely heavy subjects without minimizing them is a rare talent. Son of Patricia (Netflix, 2018) remains his most complete hour.
Start with: Son of Patricia (Netflix, 2018).
Best for: Anyone who wants internationally minded, politically astute comedy delivered with warmth rather than anger.
Taylor Tomlinson is 30 years old and already headlining arenas, which tells you everything you need to know about how fast she's moving. Her specials – Quarter-Life Crisis and Look at You – cover mental health, medication, relationships, and the specific chaos of being in your twenties with a directness and self-awareness that connects hard with millennial and Gen Z audiences.
She became the host of After Midnight on CBS in 2024, which brought her to a much broader audience, but her stand-up specials are where she's operating at full power. She's sharp, she's fast, and she's the kind of comedian who makes you feel less alone in whatever you're navigating.
Start with: Look at You (Netflix, 2022) – more mature and confident than her debut, and one of the better specials of that year.
Best for: Younger audiences, anyone dealing with mental health openly, and viewers who want comedy that's both relatable and actually well-constructed.
The best stand-up right now isn't one thing. It's Nate Bargatze making an arena full of strangers laugh at grocery store confusion and Gary Gulman turning a psychiatric hospitalization into an hour of genuine comedy. Both are legitimate, both require craft, both are worth your time.
If you're new to stand-up, start with Mulaney's The Comeback Kid or Bargatze's Greatest Average American – they're accessible and immediately rewarding. If you want something that will stick with you past the credits, go to Gulman's The Great Depresh or Gadsby's Nanette. And if you just want an hour that goes by fast and leaves you in a good mood, Nikki Glaser or Taylor Tomlinson won't let you down.
Where can I watch these specials? Most are on Netflix, with a few on HBO Max and Amazon Prime. Availability can change, so a quick search by name and special title will confirm what's currently streaming in your region.
Who's best for someone who's never really watched stand-up before? Start with Nate Bargatze or John Mulaney. Both are accessible, well-structured, and reward attention without requiring any prior familiarity with the comedian.
Are any of these specials suitable for watching with family? Nate Bargatze is entirely family-friendly. Trevor Noah and John Mulaney are generally appropriate for older teens and adults. The rest vary – Ali Wong, Nikki Glaser, and Dave Chappelle are firmly adult-audience material.
Who's the best comedian on this list for political comedy? Trevor Noah and Ronny Chieng both cover political and cultural territory most directly. Chappelle also engages with political themes, though his approach is more unpredictable.
Is Hannah Gadsby's Nanette actually funny or just serious? Both. It starts as a comedy special, transitions into something more confrontational, and ends in a way that most people don't see coming. It's worth experiencing with no preview – the less you know going in, the better.
What's the best recent special from 2023 or later? John Mulaney's Baby J (2023) and Nate Bargatze's Hello World (2023) are both strong. Taylor Tomlinson's Have It All (2024) is also worth watching as her most recent work.
Dave Chappelle – Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize – kennedy-center.org/education/awards/mark-twain-prize/dave-chappelle
Hannah Gadsby: Nanette – Emmy Award – emmys.com/shows/nanette
Nate Bargatze – Hello World (Amazon Prime Video) – amazon.com/dp/B0C8V39WJY
John Mulaney: Baby J – Netflix – netflix.com/title/81664764
Ali Wong: Baby Cobra – Netflix – netflix.com/title/80101493
Gary Gulman: The Great Depresh – HBO – hbo.com/movies/gary-gulman-the-great-depresh
Ronny Chieng: Asian Comedian Destroys America – Netflix – netflix.com/title/81058497
Nikki Glaser: Good Clean Filth – HBO – hbo.com/movies/nikki-glaser-good-clean-filth
Trevor Noah: Son of Patricia – Netflix – netflix.com/title/80230402
Taylor Tomlinson: Look at You – Netflix – netflix.com/title/81289193
