What is Greatest Bits?
A hand-built, non-commercial archive of stand-up: every comic, every special, and every bit, with the hundred best of each ranked. A bit is the unit, the single joke, run, story, or act-out the whole form is built on. Think of it as an index of stand-up and an argument about what's great, made for love rather than money.
What exactly is a "bit"?
The smallest piece of stand-up that stands on its own: a joke, a run, a story, a sustained act-out. Carlin's Seven Words. Pryor's heart-attack act-out. A tight Hedberg run. Mulaney's Horse in the Hospital. Every bit links back to the comic who performed it and the special it came from.
Who makes this?
Two people: a curator whose taste sets the rankings, and an AI assistant that handles the systematic discovery and research. It's a passion project, not a company, and it isn't affiliated with any of the comedians, networks, or platforms it indexes.
Is it finished?
No. It's live and built up piece by piece. The catalogue, the search, the comic and special pages, the Index, and the weekly news are all up. The rankings are still seeded and provisional, and the long-form History of Stand-Up is still to come. The Roadmap shows what's next; the Changelog shows what's already shipped.
How are the rankings decided?
By hand, one placement at a time. A bit first lands in a tier (Pantheon, Classic, Great, or Notable), then earns its exact spot against the bits already there. No algorithm, no crowd poll: this is one editor's canon, argued and owned, with the reasoning shown. The full rulebook is in Method & Sources.
Why are the current numbers provisional?
The three lists start from a seeded order drawn from primary sources, not a final verdict. They're marked illustrative until the curator's own head-to-head ranking replaces them, and everything stays re-rankable as the catalogue grows.
Why isn't my favorite comic or bit here?
Most likely it just hasn't been added or deepened yet; the catalogue grows constantly. When a bit matters but is hard to source, it gets logged with the gap flagged rather than dropped. If you think something's missing, tell us.
Do you host any of the videos?
Never. Nothing is hosted or re-uploaded here. Every clip plays from YouTube or Spotify, and every image is credited to its source. We use the comic's own channel and the major comedy networks first, and fall back to a long-standing public upload only where no official one exists. The full policy is in Method & Sources.
Where do the photos and posters come from?
Comic photos come from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA); special and album posters come from TMDB. Both are credited and used to identify the work. There's more on the dataset on The Data.
Something's wrong, or I want it taken down.
It gets fixed or removed promptly, and without argument: any clip, photo, or page. Get in touch. All rights stay with their owners.
Can I suggest a bit, or contribute?
Suggestions and corrections come in through the contact page for now; there's no open contribution tool yet. Letting fans log and add their own picks is part of the longer plan, sketched on Get Involved.
Is it free? Any ads or accounts?
Free, with no ads, no accounts, and no tracking. It's a static site, so there's nothing to sign up for. The Privacy page has the details.
Is there an app?
Not yet. The longer-term plan is a real product for logging, rating, and tracking stand-up, a kind of Letterboxd for stand-up. The Roadmap lays out where this is going.