First, there are a lot of very talented folks of the past +/- 20 years that maybe could eventually make my Mt. Rushmore , but since I set societal/cultural impact as a criteria, maybe they need a little more longevity. So I'm not against Chris Rock, Tina Fey, Sandler, Noah, Hart etc. , just need more time to potentially justify a spot. Two that just missed out- E. Murphy and R. Williams. With that said, I'm going with: 1) George Carlin- a genius who definitely moved the meter on comedy and thought provoking stuff. (yeah you can argue he was as much 60s as 70s and 80s) 2) Seinfeld (I'll kind of include Larry David here), hard to argue anyone has had as much of a popular culture impact 3) Steve Martin- this guy's brilliance across the spectrum of performing and creating, is IMO very underappreciated. 4) I'm going with two guys here- because in a way they are opposite sides of the same coin. They greatly influenced how the "rest of America " might view Black culture at their time. Richard Pryor ( related what was really going down in the streets) and, although he is toxic today, Bill Cosby (he sort of related a more aspirational view of Black folks in America to a non-black audience).