Photo: courtesy of Zach Broussard

At the end of every year since 2014, comedian Zach Broussard has been honoring comedians with the best and biggest list of “top comedians” the internet has to offer. In 2014, Broussard kicked off his annual tradition by simply posting a list of the “Top 1,000 Comedians of 2014 (So Far!)” to Tumblr, and in 2015 he took it to a new level by creating a website for the list in which comedians were forced to click through a slideshow to find out whether or not they were featured. In 2016, Broussard added another twist by revealing the year’s top 1,000 comedians on a series of ten billboards around Los Angeles, and for last year’s list, he announced all the names during a live video — and, notably, all 1,000 of the 2017 top comedians also happened to be women.

Broussard’s 2018 list has now arrived — kind of. Broussard revealed on his website today that instead of just announcing the 1,000 top comedians, he’s chosen to announce 2,000 “nominees” today, half of which will receive the official “Top 1,000 Comedians” honor at a free live show in Los Angeles he’s calling “The Toppy Awards” on Saturday, December 8, at Dynasty Typewriter.

“This year I was really struck by how many comics completely crushed it. Everyone did such a great job. I asked fellow comedy nuts online to recommend comedians who might have enough buzz, and I was blown away with the responses,” Broussard told Vulture on introducing nominees this year. “Despite going to several shows a year, I didn’t know most of these names. Simply naming the top 1,000 wasn’t gonna cut it. Too many great comics would miss the cut, just because they didn’t have enough buzz. That didn’t seem fair.” Broussard added that when it comes to next month’s live Toppy Awards, “This will be the Academy Awards for #buzz. And since I’m the academy, nominees should send me their stuff, for my consideration.”

Check out the full list of 2018 nominees below, and if you’re a comedian who has been nominated this year, we wish you the best of luck making it into the industry’s most exclusive annual list of top comedians!