MARCH 19, 2008 | Is "stand-up comic" the same as "stand-up guy"?
No. A stand-up comic is someone who does stand-up comedy, which is a type of performance where someone tells jokes in front of a live audience.
A stand-up guy is a slang term which means "a reliable, dependable, or trustworthy man." The term is thought by some to have originated in the mafia where it was used to refer to solidly reliable, trustworthy members. Maybe this is why even today the term is used almost exclusively for men (not women), and is almost always used as "stand-up guy", not "stand-up man", "stand-up person", etc.
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