highest paid UK comedians

Who can resist stories about how much people earn?

The Sun compiled this list of the top earners in British comedy and a lot of it was very surprising - of course JAM is well represented with Paul Merton, Graham Norton, Jenny Eclair, Ross Noble, Stephen Fry, Dara O'Briain, Chris Addison, David Mitchell, Bill Bailey, Jo Brand, Rob Brydon, Eddie Izzard and John Bishop all in the money.

And another interesting fact - with the exception of Rowan Atkinson and John Cleese, Paul and Stephen are the oldest on the list!

Here's the list...

40. Chris Addison, 38, £150,000.
39. Frank Skinner, 53, £200,000
38. Sarah Millican, 35, £250,000.
37. Jo Brand, 53, £250, 000.
36. Paul Merton, 53, £300,000.
35. Leigh Francis, 36, £300,000.
34. Robert Webb, 38, £400,000.
=29. Bill Bailey, 46, £500,000.
=29. Rob Brydon, 45, £500,000.
=29. Alan Davies, 44, £500,000.
=29. Russell Kane, 30, £500,000.
=29. John Cleese, 70, £500,000.
28. Jenny Eclair, 50, £600,000.
27. David Mitchell, 36, £700,000.
26. Ben Miller, 44, £800,000.
=24. Alexander Armstrong, 40, £1million.
=24. Matt Lucas, 36, £1million.
=22. Russell Howard, 30, £1.5million.
=22. Al Murray, 42, £1.5million.
21. David Walliams, 39, £1.8million.
=16. DARA O'BRIAIN, 38, £2million: He hosts TV's Mock The Week and has taken over from Adrian Chiles on The Apprentice: You're Fired. The big money comes from a 73-date tour.
=16. MICHAEL McINTYRE, 34, £2million: He would double this if he was touring this year. His DVDs are massive bestsellers and his Comedy Roadshow was a huge BBC1 hit.
=16. ROSS NOBLE, 34, £2million: The long-haired Geordie is in the middle of the British leg of his Nonsensory Tour and regularly pops up on all the funny panel games.
=16. STEPHEN FRY, 53, £2million: He is filming the Guy Ritchie sequel to Sherlock Holmes, playing the sleuth's brother Mycroft. He's signed for two low budget Brit films, Clovis Dardentor and Jane Austen Handheld with Lily Allen. There are two console games out soon featuring his voice, Fable 3 and Little Big Planet 2. The second volume of his memoirs is out now - the first was a monster hit. He is the host of QI and sells an alarm clock with his voice to wake you up.
=16. JOHN BISHOP, 44, £2million: Catapulted to stardom after the 2009 comedy awards, he had his own show on BBC1 earlier this year. He is now taking his 92-date The Sunshine Tour round the country.
=14. JASON MANFORD, 29 £2.5million: He's taken over The One Show for four nights a week but is fitting a 100-date stand-up tour around it. He also does the voiceover on the Churchill ads.
=14. ALAN CARR, 34, £2.5million: The Chatty Man gets £1.5million a year from C4. He also has a Radio 2 Saturday evening show and royalties from four DVDs and a book.
13. GRAHAM NORTON, 47, £2.75million: The BBC keep him busy for his £2million contract with his chat show, Eurovision, Over The Rainbow and a Saturday morning radio show. The rest of his money comes in merchandising, royalties and a newspaper problem page column
=11. HARRY HILL, 46, £3.5million: His ITV deal is £2.5million per year. Harry's latest book, Livin' The Dream, will be out for Christmas and he rakes in royalties from DVDs.
=11. OMID DJALILI, 45, £3.5million: This year he was in Sex And The City 2 and starred in movie The Infidel. He's also in a US sitcom, The Paul Reiser Show. He stars in ads for Money Supermarket.
=9. RUSSELL BRAND, 35, £4million: Now a Hollywood movie star with the remake of Arthur coming up, and The Tempest with Helen Mirren. He was on screen this year in Get Him To The Greek. He has a £1.8million book deal for the sequel to his My Booky Wook and has a TalkSport radio show on Saturdays.
=9. EDDIE IZZARD, 48, £4million: Has a major role in the US TV comedy show, United States Of Tara, and plays five different roles in Woody Harrelson's new film M, which is out next year. He also starred in Race on Broadway and played two voices in The Simpsons this year.
8. FRANKIE BOYLE, 38, £4.5million: The Sun columnist has a new TV series starting on C4 next month, but the big money is from his current sellout, 50-date tour which, with merchandising, will net him over £3million. His book, My S**t Life So Far, is a runaway bestseller.
=6. STEVE COOGAN, 45, £5million: This year he appeared in two big-budget Hollywood flicks, Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief and The Other Guys. His voice could be heard in the movie Marmaduke and he has a regular part in US TV comedy, Neighbors From Hell, as Satan.
=6. JIMMY CARR, 38, £5million: The hardest-working comic - he does up to 300 stand-up shows a year, playing big venues. He has six DVDs out, is a regular on TV panel shows such as QI and fronts comedy quiz 8 Out Of 10 Cats.
5. LEE EVANS, 46, £5.5million: He kicks off another massive 50-date tour in 2011 and last week sold more than 200,000 tickets, worth £7million, in one day. A raft of DVDs and merchandising bump up his take.
=2. RICKY GERVAIS, 49, £7million: His animated series, The Ricky Gervais Show, made for US TV, has not been well received. But The Office is still in production out there, with the American cast, and he rakes in a good royalty. His UK tour, Science, made him £1million, and he played two massive dates in the US, including New York's Madison Square Garden, which will have added another £500,000.
=2. ROWAN ATKINSON, 55, £7million: His Mr Bean films are a permanent pension, as they are shown around the world - literally, as Mr Bean is the most popular in-flight entertainment ever.
=2. PETER KAY, 37, £7million: The king of stand-up is back on the road next month with his first major tour in seven years. He is playing 50 dates at mega venues, including ten nights at London's O2.
1. SACHA BARON COHEN, 39, £8million: Writing, directing and starring in his own movies brought in the big bucks. And as Bruno and Borat are still shown around the world he is still raking it in. He will be appearing in Martin Scorsese's film Hugo Cabret next year and has signed to play the lead role in a movie about Freddie Mercury. But the bulk of his fortune is still from his movie comedy genius.