The Best Comedy Specials to Watch Right Now

Bill Burr "Why Do I Do This?"

There's something about these east coast ginger dudes who get their Irish up on stage, telling it like it is and standing on people's heads when they don't like what you're doing with your life. Bill Burr has a unique style of observational critiques of the average American, followed swiftly by wildly hilarious problem/solution theories of how screwed-up people can live less idiotic lives.

Not a huge fan of the traffic on the way to work today? Bill's got a plan to get the human population down to around 30,000, a comfortable number that not only takes away traffic, but allows everybody to go to the Super Bowl every year, if not to play in it.

His HBO specials "Why Do I Do This?" and "You People Are All the Same" are so gut-bustingly good that you'll swear you have appendicitis or some sort of heart condition. If you were a fan of Bill while he was on "Chappelle's Show," you'll really piss yourself with this stuff.

Mitch Hedberg "Mitch All Together"

He might be gone, but Mitch Hedberg's short but witty, unconventional jokes are still with us. Anybody who has sat and YouTubed Mitch for hours on end knows his childlike humor and ability to make wearing sunglasses indoors at night cool was unique to most stand-up comedians.

His unexpected and abrupt punch lines are best found in an uncut comedy special on Comedy Central, which is packaged within his 2003 comedy album "Mitch All Together." Sadly, Hedberg died of drug overdose two years later in 2005.

Jerry Seinfeld "I'm Telling You for the Last Time"

What's the deal with Jerry Seinfeld? Nobody can seem to get enough of the guy's verbal abuse on the idiosyncrasies of humanity. Maybe it's because he's the only sitcom star to go out on top without the need to return for lesser work. Ever since the time of great Seinfeld characters, Jerry has been more focused on the hands-free, hydrated lifestyles of the people he finds most annoying.

Since "Seinfeld," Jerry has gone on to retire his old jokes on his hit DVD "I'm Telling You for the Last Time" before starting fresh with new material in his follow-up DVD "Comedian," a documentary behind the building of a comedian's stand-up act. Seinfeld, despite his reluctance to return to mainstream television, recently rode around in cars and got coffee with comedians in a web-based series called "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." Sounds simple enough.

George Carlin "It's Bad for Ya"

A wise man of the times, George Carlin is like the Bukowski of comedy, quoted about as much as Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama combined. He passed in 2008, but his final performance "It's Bad for Ya", and 2005's "Life Is Worth Losing," are comedic ridicules of the nature of society you gotta see.

Noted by many comedians as one of the greatest of all time, Carlin has books and five Grammy awards as proof of his genius, whether funny or introspective. If you've never had a chance to listen or see George, shame on you. It's about time.

Ricky Gervais "Out of England"

A keen observer of the pathetic lifestyles of the typical American, Ricky Gervais is something of a comedian figurehead, as well as a comedian who ironically has a tendency to laugh like an overweight child on nitrous oxide. Amid his many successes like " Extras" and BBC's "The Office," Gervais reports the truth as he sees it. If you've been privileged to watch him host the Golden Globes, you no doubt understand his love to shred on celebrity, as you'll find in his Madison Square Garden gig "Out of England." Join Ricky for a laugh, a very high-pitched, screeching weasel, nitrous oxide overdose laugh, and then more of the same.

Richard Pryor "Live on the Sunset Strip"

The proclaimed greatest comedian in history, Richard Pryor is the colorfully worded entertainer that most comedians look up to. Although he passed in 2005, a tough year for the funny men in showbiz, Pryor's best work lives on in his special, which is instant on Netflix, "Live on the Sunset Strip" from 1982 (and of course, 1983's "Superman III").

Aside from seven marriages over the course of four decades, Pryor led a very successful life as an actor and writer, in addition to being a stand-up comedian. If you like a good jokes about women, race relations and drug addiction, you'll appreciate Pryor's contributions to the comedy world, especially in this special.

Bill Hicks "American: The Bill Hicks Story"

"If you work in marketing...kill yourself." A memorable quote from the great Bill Hicks, a man whose hard-hitting, alcohol-fused comedy tore at the fabric of American society. Hicks was known more as a lecturer of everything that's wrong with people, like most good comedians, planting seeds of genius here and there.

"American: The Bill Hicks Story" is a mixed media documentary of Bill's stand-up combined with interviews and back-story to the life of the comedian/musician. Despite his early death from cancer at age 32 in 1994, shortly after finding his sobriety, Bill's jokes continue on as catalysts for avoiding the lifestyle of being another brick in the wall. He had a way of inspiring his listeners by talking about the big topics: religion, politics and philosophy in a negative light, pulling apart the American man like a pair of unused chopsticks.

David Cross "Bigger and Blackerer"

Chris Rock has nothing on David Cross, as his comedy special is apparently "blackerer" than ever. The "Arrested Development" star loses the never-nude jorts and blue body paint to take the stage of Boston's Wilbur Theater in his 2009 comedy special. With the new "Arrested Development" season and movie about underway, it'll be good to wet your whistle with a little David Cross from the real world before things get hilarious awkward for the psychologist-turned-actor actor.