Every year, “Forbes” puts out a list of the world’s highest paid comedians, and JERRY SEINFELD has been #1 in 12 of the past 13 years . . . with the exception of 2016 when KEVIN HART took it over.

Well, guess what . . . Kevin has done it again.  He made $59 million over the past year, despite losing his gig as the host of the Oscars, which is not a high-paying gig anyway.  Word has it the Academy only pays $15,000.

Kevin kept his sponsorships with Mountain Dew and Chase, and released a Netflix special.  He also did a global stadium tour.

That drops Jerry to #2.  He made $41 million, which is down a bit from last year, partially because he didn’t do a Netflix special in this period.

Here’s the Top 10:

1.  Kevin Hart, $59 million

2.  Jerry Seinfeld, $41 million

3.  Jim Gaffigan, $30 million

4.  Trevor Noah, $28 million . . . TV hosts don’t usually make this list, but “Forbes” made an exception because he earned the bulk of this money from stand-up.

5.  Sebastian Maniscalco, $26 million

6.  Gabriel Iglesias, $22 million

7.  Amy Schumer, $21 million . . . Her tour made bank, despite her having to cut it short because of a pregnancy-related health issue.  According to data from Pollstar, her shows grossed an average of nearly half a million dollars per city.

8.  Ventriloquist Terry Fator, $17 million

9.  Jeff Dunham, $15 million . . . Yes, there are TWO puppet guys in the Top 10.  Where did we go wrong, America?

10.  Aziz Ansari, $13 million

The comedians from last year’s Top 10 that dropped out this year are:  Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, and Ricky Gervais.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielshapiro/2019/08/16/the-highest-earning-stand-up-comedians-of-2019/#22f36f0342fa