On the Forbes list of the highest paid comedians for this year, there are a few surprises… head-scratchers, even.

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It’s not surprising at all that Kevin Hart tops the list. Seinfeld is a no-brainer as well. But I actually had to Google “Terry Fator” because I’d never heard of him before… and I consider myself a comedy aficionado. Turns out he is a ventriloquist/impressionist who won Season 2 of America’s Got Talent and parlayed that into a standing gig at the Mirage in Vegas. Who knew that having puppets in your act could be so lucrative?

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Another dude that plays with dummies, Jeff Dunham, was also in the top 5, raking in a cool $13.5 mill. And I threw away my sock puppets when I was a kid. Who’s the dummy now?

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Names 9 and 10 were unknown to me as well, but maybe that’s because I’m xenophobic (it’s OK, so is the president-elect). Russell Peters is Canadian and John Bishop is a Brit. Forbes even wrote about Russell Peters’ lack of name recognition.

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I suppose Terry Fator, Russell Peters and John Bishop have millions of reasons to not care about whether I’ve heard of them or not. its-all-about-the-benjamins-tshirt-preview