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3 Stand-Up Comedy Legends Who Were Destroying Hecklers Before Crowd Work Became Clickbait

Before crowd-work clips became clickbait, old-school stand-ups were shutting down audience members on albums, specials, and dusty DVD extras.

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The phenomenon of comedians “owning” hecklers is a relatively new one. Like, we never got to hear Milton Berle cursing out an audience member for interrupting his set. Berle might’ve gotten stabbed for saying the wrong thing to the wrong person once, but comics from his era generally weren’t known for putting out recordings of themselves going back and forth with people in the crowd.

It wasn’t until stand-up albums and specials became more popular that these disruptive patrons would be caught on tape making fools of themselves for the world to hear. And now, thanks to social media, crowd work videos are just as popular as traditional stand-up specials.

Let’s check out a few comedians who were........

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