Through a combination of our greed and the desire to improve the quality of human life, we have created a stressful yet efficient world. All this, according to scientists, despite the improvements in our physical state, has adversely affected our mental and emotional state.
The more our physical life improved, the more our mental and emotional deteriorated. This is why comedy has proven useful, and why at no other time in human history has comedy become an indispensable tool for coping with existence, ‘current times, where the ups and downs are falling.
This necessity has provided a steady stream of financial gain for talented people who are great comedians. Those whose understanding of our world and the ability to find levity in the magnitude of stress and drama has become an important means of bringing relief from the crush. It’s why memes and comedy sketches have taken social media pages by storm, and popular comedians smile in the bank every year after consistently sold-out shows.
In this list, we take a look at the list of the top 10 highest paid comedians in the world, who are also, coincidentally, mostly the top comedians working today.
If there’s a correlation between being really good at something and making sure you get paid well for it, there are fewer places where that’s truer than in comedy where the best makes millions of dollars a year, with a steadily increasing net worth.
A combination of Netflix’s pot of gold and sold out shows across the country and around the world for comedy tours is responsible for why most of these comedians make this list. Without further ado, here is the list of the top 10 highest paid comedians in the world so you can see if your favorite comedian is succeeding.
Highest paid comedians in the world today
1. Jerry Seinfeld – $57.5 million
Jerry Seinfeld has been in the comedy scene for decades. His self-performing sitcom Seinfeld has been one of the most-watched shows on television since its debut in 1989. While it doesn’t pack the global financial and financial muscle of its friends, Seinfeld remains one of the most expensive shows for the networks I Want Sitcom Rights, with Hulu, Disney’s latest streaming toy, costing around $180 million to make reruns of the series.
The show itself has earned $3.1 billion from reruns since its end in 1998. However, in 2018, Jerry Seinfeld continued to reign as one of the highest paid comedians, earning over $57.5 million. dollars in 12 months, which earned him 30 million from his stand-up tours around the country alone.
Jerry Seinfeld is the highest paid comedian in the world. This has been the case since 2006 and it doesn’t look like it will end soon. He may not be the undisputed king of comedy, but he is the king of monetary comedy.
2. Kevin Hart – $57 million
Kevin Hart is a comedian who tends to find himself in one controversy or the other. If it’s not in his personal life as a husband, it’s in his statements as a public figure. The latter recently cost him the dream of hosting the Oscars. Either way, Kevin Hart is a comedian with an extremely large fan base. he is the only comedian on this list who is also an accomplished actor.
One of his films, Jumanji, earned nearly a billion dollars at the box office, proving that Hart is a man of the people. A combination of his film revenue, stand-up tours, which in 2018, thanks to the Kevin Hart Irresponsible Tour, brought him over $30 million with over a million tickets sold, and stand-up revenue him grossed $57 million in 12 months.
With more films in the works for Kevin, there’s a good chance he’ll dethrone Jerry Seinfeld for the second time this year.
3. Dave Chappelle – $35 million
Behind the two giants of modern mainstream comedy is Dave Chappelle. Dave has recently returned to the limelight with the release of two Netflix specials. One would recall that Dave Chappelle returned to full-time stand-up comedy after a long hiatus in 2013 and it was celebrated with the release of his specials; The Age of Spin and Heart of Texas in 2017. In 2018 he released Equanimity and The Birds Revelation and all four specials were well received by mainstream audiences.
With all the promotions released on Netflix, Dave Chappelle earned $35 million, mostly for his promotions. Dave Chappelle’s return to stand-up comedy was met with controversy and fanfare, including the release of his specials, Equanimity and The Age of Spin, which were seen as discriminating against gay people. and transgender. Dave has since tried to clear things up, but with little success. Controversy would hardly bother him as he has received over $30 million for his work.
4. Chris Rock – $30 million
Through the ashes of small supporting roles in movies, Chris Rock rose to the top of the comedy industry. From Saturday Night Live to the blockbuster Penguins of Madagascar movies to his own show, Everybody Hates Chris, Chris Rock is one of the most established comedians in the business.
So, it’s no surprise that he made $30 million last year. Like Dave Chappelle, the majority of his income comes from his promotions. He had signed an $80 million deal with Netflix to record two specials for the streaming giant. The first was released in 2018 titled, Chris Rock: Tamborine. Also, like Dave, the rest of his income from last year came from stand-up shows held around the country.
5. Ricky Gervais – $25 million
He may not have been paid as much as the first four comedians on our list got their special from Netflix, but Ricky Gervais was arguably one of the best and most successful released over the past year. Humanity, the special activity from the creator of Office, was one of the best offerings released on Netflix last year.
For the special, which was part of his return to comedy, he was paid a total of $40 million for two of his specials. The second special is set to be filmed and aired later in 2019. Like her peers, the rest of her income comes from her Humanity tour around the world, including the UK and the US.
6. Gabriel Iglesias – $20.5 million
Her nickname is Fluffy, as is her bank account. Gabriel Iglesias is one of the comedians currently taking advantage of Netflix content to get into comedy and specials. Recently, he signed a special deal with Netflix and two shows with the streaming company. The deal propelled Gabriel into the upper echelons of comedy, earning more than $20 million over the past year. Outside of his contract with Netflix, Gabriel has also managed to cut income from his performances at 136 shows over the past year.
7. Terry Fator – $18 million
Terry Fator has exploded since his victory at USA Talent in 2007. Since then, he has fulfilled one of the dreams of many artists, a residency in Las Vegas. The deal, worth $100 million, has tied him to the Mirage for five years. The ventriloquist and impressionist, despite such a busy schedule, however, managed to hold 33 shows outside of Vegas, earning him $18 million over the past year.
8. Jim Gaffigan – $17.5 million
In a world taken over by Netflix and other streaming platforms paying comedians astronomical sums for the rights to their works, Jim Gaffigan chose the independent route, opting instead to release his special, Noble Ape, straight to digital. He admittedly didn’t make as much money as he would have sold his special to Netflix, but he made up for it by touring across America to pull in a decent $17.5 million shell over the course of of the last year.
9. Jeff Dunham – $16.5 million
Ventriloquists can still be the butt of jokes for many people around the world, but for men like Jeff Dunham, the size of their fans and the resulting involvement in their bank accounts makes them immune to those jokes. The popular ventriloquist has performed over 90 shows in the past year, grossing an average of $350,000 per show, and earns additional income from his film appearances and DVD sales of his older works.
All of that has helped him come in at a cool $16.5 million in revenue in the past year. Would you have thought that a big man with a puppet would be one of the top 10 highest paid comedians in the world a few decades ago? Maybe not, but that’s the reality of men like Jeff Dunham and Terry Fator now.
10. Sebastian Maniscalco – $15 million
Sebastian Maniscalco has been on the comedy scene for years. Since 2005 he has been working with open mics in bowling alleys and bars. He reunited for his first special on Netflix, released in January 2019. The special, Stay Hungry, along with his shows across America and his other appearances on shows from Late Night Television, and Comedy Central enabled him to obtain a solid sum of 15 million dollars. The Chicago-born comedian is one of the highest-paid comedians in the world over the past year.
