Through my years of doing stand-up, I've consumed thousands of hours of comedy. I feel like this makes me somewhat of a critic, or at the very least able to discern good jokes from bad jokes. I wanted to share with you guys what I think the best specials of the first half of 2022 are, and if you haven't watched any of these yet, I highly recommend that you do.
5. Pete Davidson Presents: The Best Friends
So here's the thing about this ensemble special: It's not great. There are definitely a lot of things I could do without (specifically the two musical performances, the shots of the green room area, and Pete Davidson not actually hosting the event), but I feel like the actual comics that got put up were all really solid. Pete Davidson himself had a very good new 15 minutes, showing me that he's really cut out to be more of a feature comic than a headliner (Have you seen his specials? Dog shit.).
Aside from Pete, the featured comics were all people who have been respected and known around New York, but haven't really broken out onto Netflix or the national scene yet. Neko White had some really great callbacks in his set, Dave Sirus is witty as hell, Joey Gay's style reminded me a bit of my own, and Carly Aquilino had great subject matter. While Giulio Gallarotti was a bit forgettable, and Jordan Rock was just plain bad (he's Chris Rock's little brother, obviously that's why he gets spots), I don't think that hurts the special overall.
People are really hating on this one, and it seems like the vast majority of the public didn't like the special, but I'm an outlier here. The crowds from the tapings of the Netflix is a Joke Festival (which is where this came from) seem to have all been bad, making it seem like the comics are bombing because they don't have a laugh track essentially. But ignore the audience on TV and just focus on the material and the comics, and there was some good stuff that came out of this recording. Not to mention that Netflix is a Joke released a follow-up addition to this special exclusively on their YouTube starring Derek Gains that is 17 minutes of just absolute fire, add that in and you have a lot of funny comics packed into one special.
4. Joe List: This Year's Material
Joe List is a comic that I have been a fan of for a while. I listen to his podcast (Tuesdays with Stories, if you like our show you'll like that one for sure), and while he usually plays second fiddle to his buddy Mark Normand, he is an absolute killer comic. This special just proves that, as it's an hour of just non-stop jokes. There's no dragging and barely any set-up, List lands more punches in this special than Ray Rice in an elevator (callback to some of Joe's material in this one).
There's lots of self-deprecation, just the right amount of edge, and even a little bit of beautiful crowd work worked into a couple of set-ups, showing me exactly why this has gotten over a million views so far. Joe List is probably going to sell out shows for the next 2 or 3 years thanks to producing this special out of pocket and putting it on YouTube, and damn does he deserve it.
3. Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel
Believe it 0r not, I had never even heard of Jerrod Carmichael before he hosted Saturday Night Live. I didn't know who he was, I didn't know that he already had some really solid comedy specials out, and I didn't know that he largely has his own brand of comedy. Watching this special's predecessor "8", I was fully taken by how Carmichael uses silence to set up his punchlines. A lot of comics like Burr or really any kind 0f old school stand-up don't want to appear like they are thinking about what they're saying on stage. Instead they want to do their act how they've practiced it and string punchlines together.
Jerrod Carmichael uses silence to really put meaning into his jokes. It's like he's thinking, feeling even during his set-ups, and then uses his punchlines as a reminder to the audience that they're at a comedy show and not a therapy session. Even the atmosphere of Rothaniel is so unique and fits so well with the material. It's not recorded in the biggest theatre that Jerrod Carmichael can sell out, but instead in an intimate, smoky blues club with audience members actually participating in a taping of his special. I don't think I've seen such good cinematography in a comedy special before, and the whole hour seems more like a piece of artistic expression instead of the shit and dick jokes that most of us are accustomed to from an HBO special.
2. Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special
I'm not sure if I've ever seen a comedy special that doubles as a memorial service before, but leave it up to Norm to do something so bitterly funny and sad at the same time. What really hit me about this special was that it was actually recorded in 2020 before Norm went through a surgery that he wasn't confident he would survive. Of course Norm didn't pass away until 2022, and this seemingly thrown together hour of material, recorded in one take in an empty room with nothing but a computer and a microphone was resurfaced by Netflix and shown to some of his closest friends in order to get their reaction.
Maybe the roundtable conversation afterwards wasn't necessary, but it could have been a lot better if it included people who were closest to Norm. Where was Adam Eget, his best friend and comedy sidekick for years? Where was Nick Swardson, who Norm talked about wanting to see in some of his final moments? The answer is that they aren't big enough names for Netflix to care about. Yeah, Dave Letterman and Adam Sandler knew Norm really well, but there were some important people missing from the conversation.
As far as the material itself goes, it blows my mind that Norm Macdonald can record a comedy special with no audience while dying from cancer that is better than pretty much every other Netflix special released in the last year. It just goes to show that he was one of the greatest comics to ever live, period. Right up there with Carlin and Pryor should be Norm, and it sucks that no one realized that until after he was gone.
1. Stavros Halkias: Live At The Lodge Room
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