The Year in Review: Best comedy of 2010

Greg Davies

Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog

The Inbetweeners star, and one-third of silly sketch troupe We Are Klang, drew on his previous experience as a drama teacher to produce a fine debut show at the Edinburgh Fringe, piecing together some of his funniest anecdotes, some apocryphal, some not, from his life inside and outside the classroom.

Stewart Lee

Vegetable Stew

Along with Daniel Kitson, Stewart Lee enjoys a prime position in the vanguard of non-mainstream comedy, a position which allows him great freedom of expression, looser performances and a pronounced devil-may-care attitude. He's currently producing some vintage material.

Jim Gaffigan

Despite sticking in my memory as one of Miranda's dates in Sex and the City (he's the who leaves the door open while he performs his ablutions), Jim Gaffigan's flying visit to London cleaned up with no recourse to toilet humour required. A highly satisfying and grown-up set.

Bo Burnham

Words, Words, Words

From YouTube sensation to Judd Apatow cohort and sitcom star, 20-year-old Bo Burnham dazzled with his debut Fringe show, a mix of music, poetry and stand-up. Vulnerable but with plenty of attitude, his efforts were fobbed off with a Spirit of the Fringe award rather than the main prize, but that's unlikely to do his burgeoning career any harm.

Penn & Teller

The visit of these two American veterans of comedy magic was both an exercise in nostalgia and a reminder of the renewed interest in this comedy genre in recent years. The old pros still have the talent to amuse and amaze, reinventing familiar tricks so that they appear fresh out of the box.