Update 2026-02-06: New update available – here.

Something popped into my feed this morning that caught my eye – the YouGov (UK) website collects data on the popularity of Comedians (amongst other things) – See here.

It’s pretty much like sites like Ranker – but on a much bigger scale and looked at by Government departments and businesses to understand trends on all aspects of British society.

Couple of observations first – for this report they don’t say how many people they have collected data from and we also don’t know whether they are fans of comedy – or humourless grumps!

The term “comedian” is also a bit fast and loose. Many of these are comedic actors/actresses – but they are not comedians (stand ups). To be more representative of tastes I would prefer those groups to be separated. For example – why are the below listed as “comedians”? The survey title says “popularity of A comedian” (singular) and yet includes a Show and actors/actresses.

• Monty Python
• Peter Capaldi
• Prunella Scales
• Arthur Lowe
• Gordon Kaye
• Richard Beckinsale

Having said that – I was curious as to how the different age groups / sexes responded.

I can never remember the generation labels, so let’s start with those:

• Baby Boomers – 1946 to 1964
• Generation X – 1965 to 1980
• Millennials – 1981 to 2000
• Generation Z – 2001 to 2020

The 2 measures that they use are (1) Fame and (2) Popularity.

All Adults

Fame – Jimmy is 7^th (91%)

I think the list above him (Walliams at 1 and then Kay, Gervais, Bishop, McIntyre and Lenny Henry at 6) could give you the idea that OLDER respondents are probably featuring heavily. On the one hand they are recognising names of comedians that have been around 20-30 years…but then Ken Dodd is down at 77%. Would love to see the actual data set.

Popularity – Jimmy is 27^th (48%)

Its of note that the highest score in this category is 67% (Billy Connolly) and Ronnie Corbett (66%). Once you get down to 6^th place (Kenneth Williams, 59%) there are 18 people that are 50-59%. And then the group of 47-49% covers another 7 people. Meaning this score is “not as bad” as it appears.

Baby Boomers

Fame – Jimmy is 32^nd (95%)

This is where these reports are a bit frustrating as they don’t show “joint” positions and we also don’t know whether their seemingly random order is because they are using more specific numbers (but only showing rounded totals).

Example – 100% fame (11 people), 99% (6), 98% (9), 97% (2), 96% (2) and 95% (3).

Popularity – Jimmy is 50^th (36%)

With people like Richard Beckinsale (1), Ronnie Barker (2) and Monty Python (3), Billy Connolly (4), John Le Mesurier (5) and Kenneth Williams (6) at the top – we get a feel for the comedic tastes of the respondents, in this age group.

And, as mentioned above, too many comedic actors in here.

Generation X

Fame – Jimmy is 30^th (90%)

Ricky Gervais is 29^th on this one (91%) and it’s again a strange mix – although we have more 90s comics represented.

Popularity – Jimmy 27^th (56%)

Measuring this against the Baby Boomers – we come down a generation and Jimmy jumps 23 places in popularity.

But we still have a lot of “gentle” old comedy shows and comedic actors (Kenneth Williams at 3).

Millennials

Fame – Jimmy is at 6^th (96%)

Here we have Gervais (1^st with 100%) and then Walliams, Ranganathan, McIntyre and then Lenny Henry. Lenny’s prominence in all of these reports bemuses me slightly as he’s not been very active for some years.

Popularity – Jimmy is at 1^st place (77%)

Second place is John Bishop (72%) and 3^rd David Walliams (69%). Ricky Gervais is 23^rd and Ronnie Corbett surprisingly high at 4^th. I saw surprisingly high because, apart from WILTY, I wasn’t aware that he’d been that active in his later years (I’ve just looked him up and he appeared in a lot more than I was aware – just nothing of the type of TV that I watch).

Women / All Ages

Fame – Jimmy is at 19^th (84%)

I think the main thing to take from this on is when commentators complain about “not enough women comedians on TV” – we perhaps need to look at who women have chosen here. Jo Brand makes 4^th but we’re down to 9/10 for Miranda and Dawn French.

Popularity – Jimmy is at 50^th (35%)

The results in here are all over the place – probably reflecting the breadth of the ages of respondents. When Windsor Davies make 48^th you know you’ve got a pretty confused data set.

Men / All Ages

Fame – Jimmy is at 2 (97%)

David Walliams made number 1 (99%) and Romesh was 2^nd (97%).

Popularity – Jimmy is at 14 (60%)

Again – Ronnie Corbett at number 1 (86%). Did some of Ronnie’s fan club deluge the surveys? I’ve absolutely nothing against him but the great Eric Morecambe doesn’t even feature in these listings. On the positive side – it’s made me think back across Ronnie’s career.

It’s the subjectivity thing again…that and the personality type of people that agree to complete surveys.

Summary?

Jimmy’s main audience is millennial men (aged 44 to 25), which is not what you would take away when you are at his gigs.