With Louie returning for its third season tomorrow on FX, we thought it was a good time to show some respect to those comedians who haven’t yet reached Louie C.K. level. While these guys might not get away with insulting their Twitter followers and actually gaining fans from it, they are comics we happen to love and think you should know about. Here are the 10 comedians we think are deserving of their own show. (Some clips are NSFW.)
1. Nate Bargatze
Nate Bargatze is one of those comedians that just makes it look effortless. He’s like that guy in your group of friends who just talks and everyone is laughing like you just passed something around. We have no idea about his acting chops, but we’d watch his show.
2. Hannibal Buress
We first saw Hannibal when he opened for Aziz Ansari and immediately loved his style. Dude can write a joke. Guess that shouldn’t be shocking since he wrote for 30 Rock and SNL.
3. Amy Schumer
Most of the public starting paying attention to Amy Schumer after she destroyed on the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen, but she’s been delivering clever lines about sex and booze for a while now. A show about her partying with guys that can’t hang would be season passed on our DVR.
4. Kevin Hart
Even if Kevin Hart’s fame has already surpassed TV show level, it would still be great to get a 30 minute sitcom out of him.
5. Kyle Kinane
Kyle Kinane sports the beard and raspy voice of a guy who’s been on a year-long bender. We’ll assume he was, but luckily he came back with some great stories. While we don’t know his drinking habits, we would love to see a show for once where the lead character was drunk 24/7.
6. TJ Miller
More than anyone on this list, TJ might actually be ready to be a breakout comedic actor. As good as his standup is, he seems to have the presence to carry a show.
7. Patton Oswalt
Speaking of guys who might be beyond doing their own show, Patton Oswalt has already conquered movies (he’s the only reason we took our eyes off Charlize Theron during Young Adult), television and books (seriously, go read Zombie Spaceship Wasteland). If anyone on this list can challenge the clout of Louie, it’s Patton. Here’s hoping there’s a Spence spin-off.
8. Maria Bamford
You either won’t get Maria Bamford or you’ll think she’s brilliant. We side with the latter. She’s quirky in a way that we think would work for a refreshingly offbeat TV show. One that doesn’t star Zooey Deschanel.
9. Kumail Nanjiani
We would love to see a show of Kumail just riffing on video games. His Call of Duty bit is one of our favorites, and we’ve said it for a long time, “There aren’t enough hilarious video game shows.”
10. Brody Stevens
YES! Brody’s energy is enough to jump right through your television set. Seriously, give him a show, he’s got Zach Galifianakis on speed dial.
