The best stand-up comedians in the world may not have much to laugh about when they compare their lifespans to their peers who act in films: Stand-up comedians like Chris Rock and Jimmy Fallon are more likely to die.

"It appears that for stand-up comedians, being at the very top may be no laughing matter," said researcher Simon Stewart.

A retrospective study of elite stand-up comedians versus other entertainers found "a pattern of premature mortality in elite stand-up comedians" indicating that those in the top tier die younger when compared to screen comedians and "serious" dramatic actors.

The study of 498 people included 200 Stand-up Comedians (13 percent women), 114 Comedy Actors (17.5 percent women), and 184 Dramatic Actors (29.3 percent women) listed in the top 200 in each category on popular online crowd-ranking website http://www.ranker.com. These individuals appeared in the 2015 lists "Funniest Stand-Up Comedians of All Time," "Funniest People of All Time," and "Greatest Actors and Actresses in Entertainment History."

According to lead researcher Professor Simon Stewart, a world-leading cardiac researcher from the Mary MacKillop Institute of Health Research at Australian Catholic University, there was a "significant gradient in the age of death, with stand-up comedians dying at a younger age (67.1 years) than their comedy actor (68.9) and dramatic actor (70.7) counterparts."

"Within an international cohort of stand-up comedians spanning the last century and voted by the public as the funniest of their profession, we discovered that greater comedic ability was associated with a shorter lifespan, even after adjusting for life expectancy differences based on year of birth," he said.

A previous study by Stewart titled "Does comedy kill?" found that the funniest comedians are most at risk of premature death and reduced longevity compared to their less funny counterparts. That finding prompted the current study which is more extensive.

The recent study confirmed "significantly more deaths among stand-up comedians (14 of 36 deaths — 38.9 percent) categorized as "premature" relative to population-based, life expectancy when compared to dramatic actors (11 of 56 — 19.6 percent). And stand-up comedians experienced proportionately more non-natural deaths (7 of 36 — 19.4 percent) than their comedy actor (3 of 33 — 9.1 percent) and dramatic actor (6 of 56 — 10.7 percent) counterparts.

Professor Stewart noted the widespread association between high social status and low mortality — as evidenced in a study finding that Academy Award winners live longer — does not extend to every occupation. "Indeed stand-up comedians don't share the 3.9-year life expectancy advantage enjoyed by Oscar-winning actors," he said.

"While screen actors are generally required to arrive on set early and adhere to tight schedules, thus increasing the likelihood of regular sleep patterns, stand-up comedy involves irregular and late hours and extensive travel," Professor Stewart said. "The associated difficulty in maintaining regular patterns of sleep, nutrition and exercise may contribute to detrimental physiological effects and health outcomes, including increased inflammatory markers, higher blood pressure, reduced glucose tolerance, obesity, heart disease, and mortality."

"The current results reveal a pattern of premature mortality in elite stand-up comedians, and taken together with our previous findings, indicate that higher comedic standing is linked to younger age at death," Stewart concluded.

The study was published in the International Journal of Cardiology.