Comedians often live a tragic life, it’s the only job where you’re judged purely on whether they make people happy or not. What if they’re not funny? Do they think they’re funny? In turn, these types of questions can take a serious toll on a person’s body and state of mind, especially once you start taking the amounts of drugs that some of these comedians did. The 80s and 90s certainly seemed like a wild ride, it’s just a shame these comedians couldn’t hold on for a little longer. We’ll miss them terribly. See our list after the jump.

The premature passing of 44 year old comedian Greg Giraldo caught everyone by surprise yesterday. Today we honor him and 9 other comedians who left us before their time on Earth was up. Unlike these comedians who had their time, we hoped the joke tailors on this list could’ve given us more comedic gold in their golden years.

It takes a true talent to manufacture a laugh out of a buzz kill. Like death: if you go too far, it’s seen as insensitive; don’t go far enough and you’re too sensitive (i.e. “too soon” jokes). Many a comic has been booed off a stage before his set is up (in this metaphor, “booing” is dying and “the end of the set” is death…try and keep up). Too many comics have bit the big one before we, and they, were ready for them to die.