It will be the same as it always has been. They will mention the names popular now in 2013 and then add "now THAT were funny guys... we have nothing like that today" 
What I meant was, maybe 20yrs from now we won't look back at a lot of stuff and say that's funny in the way we do now, like laughing at a cell phone the size of a briefcase. Or maybe we will?
That may be that generations always go through this cycle of looking back and thinking that was so funny or influential, ergo we don't have anybody like that today (or at least in their prime.)
But
:
I'll give a list, mostly American and terribly culturally imperialistic of me I know, sorry, just some names off the top of my head:
Johnny Carson: legend... I sincerely do not think anyone comes close, do you?
Johnny Cash: enough said
Steve McQueen: at one point was anybody cooler?
John Wayne: enough said
James Dean
Jim Morrison
Roger Moore
Robert Duvall
~Sean Connery (early, maybe some later stuff)
Eva Gardner
Audrey Hepburn
Katherine Hepburn
Elizabeth Taylor
Lucille Ball
Harrison Ford (could be one the most mentionable (imo) from my generation)
~DeNiro deserves to be mentioned, but has become rather sweethearty.
Also I'm a child of the late 80's, graduated high school in '94 and this list has a lot that passed before I was even born, yet they are what comes to mind. To me that makes them truly iconic, rather than what I see from my generation as a lot of psuedo-icons. I'm sure everybody has a different list and a lot of those outside the US will have some that were as influential where you grew up, but can you argue any on my list don't deserve to be noted as great?
Oh well sorry got off on this huge tangent, Rickles is great!
