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Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, I’m Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. Today. It is the twenty five best stand up specials of the year, and let’s just dive in. Why are you doing this now, John?
The year is not over. Well. You see, I hired a publicist and she needs to get the lists out to everybody else who’s doing their year end recap. So I can’t wait until New Year’s Eve to put this out, so I have to jump in now. So with that said, there are at least five notable specials not part of this list because as I recorded this on Tuesday, they were not available yet.
They include Sarah Sherman Live and In the Flesh, which was on HBO last night tomorrow, Robbie Hoffman’s wake Up is on Netflix coming up on the nineteenth, Kamil nan Gianni’s Night Thoughts, which Vulture says is the best special of the year based on the trailer. I can’t believe that, but okay. Tom Sigora has a Netflix special on Christmas Eve, and Ricky Gervais has Mortality on Netflix on December thirtieth. So there’s a good chance all five of those or at least four of the five of those make my revised end of the year list, which I’ll put out around New Year’s Day. But for right now, these are the top twenty five stand up specials of the year.
I’m gonna jump right in, not mess around, not tease you, just tell you what it is. The answer is the top stand up special love twenty five is Mark Maren’s Panicked from HBO Max. This is Maren at his absolute best. He found a way to channel all the anxiety of the current movement into something both deeply personal and universally relatable. This was the year Mark Maron walked away from his podcast sadly, but he handed it in his best work.
Mark Maren’s Panicked easily the best stand up special of the year. Number two Kevin Hart’s Acting My Age on Netflix. Sorry haters, this one’s just funny. It’s Kevin Hart doing material about getting a little bit older. Laugh or laugh.
It’s there. I’m a guy sitting on the couch. Kevin Hart made me laugh. That’s the mission. Mission accomplished.
Same note from my number three special of the year, Matt Rife Unwrapped, a Christmas crowd work special. I know you like to hate on Matt Rife. I’m sorry, he’s funny. I posed it in the Facebook group Daily Comedy News Podcast Group that Matt Rife Special’s funny and people are like, really, Johnny mag you might be, as they say in Queens, are you on crack? And no, I’m not on crack.
I’m on the couch watching Matt Rife and laughing. And most of the people who took my word for it clicked on it and went, oh wow, that was really funny. Bit of a drop to the rest of the top tier here. So those three, I think stand alone a bit of a gap here down to number four. Jim Jeffries to Limb Policy on Netflix.
Jim Jeffries being Jefferies. Edis goes for it, always funny, always delivers. Number five Justin Willman’s Magic Lover on Netflix. Did you watch this one? It’s a comedy show plus magic.
Yeah, I know you’re like, what, trust me? Watch it? Justin Wilman Magic Lover, blending magic in comedy. It works. Number six and one of these years this guy’s going to top the list.
This is someone in ascendency. Longtime listeners of this program know what a fan I am. We are still at the point where I can somewhat easily get him to come as a guest on this show. We’ll see how long that laughs, or if he’s the new Jim Gaffigan. I think he’ll still come on.
He’s John Marcos Sareisi Thief of Joy on YouTube. Fantastic. People are noticing how good he is. I saw he as a million three followers on Facebook. Now, like I said, one of these years, he’s going to be number one on the list.
Number seven kind of under the radar came and went, but I watched it and it was really good, and it was someone who had something to say. Moe Amer’s Wild World on Netflix even did a bit of a Carlin esque thing at the end there. Really like that one a lot. On number eight. One of my favorite working comedians these days, Dusty Slay’s Wet Heats, also from Netflix, quote unquote Southern comedy, working, clean, shucking jokes, love Dusty Number nine Netflix again.
Bert Kreischer is lucky, Bert being Bert. Take your shirt off, tell a couple fun stories, be chartismatic. My note on this was just funny. Sometimes you don’t have to overthink the comedy, specially you come right down the middle. Burt Kreischer knows what his fans want, he delivers.
That’s a good one. Number ten Brett Goldstein for the second best night of your life. That’s nominated for a Golden Globe. You might be like the guy from ted Lasso. He’s good at stand up.
Yeah, he’s good at stand up. Number eleven Michelle Wolf’s The Well Netflix Again. I have in my notes here not hilarious, but, as I’m always say, for this next bunch of specials, good company. Enjoyed just staring at it and having my brain tickled. I wasn’t like ah for an hour, but I thought that was really good.
That’s my number eleven special Michelle Wolf At twelve Sarah Silverman’s post Mortem, also on Netflix. Netflix had a hell of a year here, very thoughtful comedy, which is a weird thing to say. I really enjoyed spending an hour on the couch with Era, so to speak, very very enjoyable. All right. One night when I was diving around Netflix, I came across Matt McCusker’s Humble Offering and I wrote, poor Man Sheen gillis.
Yeah, maybe, but the special works. The audio could be better. This is a little bit homebrew, but the material lands. Number fourteen, our first Hulu special, Mateo Lane’s Al Dente, same note as I’m a one trick pony, I wrote, maybe not hilarious, but Mateolane is a nice company for an hour and sometimes that’s enough. And number fifteen the last of the top tier specials, Tim Dillon’s I’m Your Mother.
If you like this podcast, you’ll like this special. If you don’t like Tim Dillon’s podcast, you won’t. Simple as that, take a break here and I’ll tell you about the middle tiers. We take a look at Johnny Max’s top twenty five comedy specials of the year, not including the five that didn’t come out yet. Earlier I said there was that top three of Marin Hart and Rife, and then a bit of a gap.
Then I had the rest of my top tier. This is the middle tier. This is still the top twenty five, but these aren’t quite on par with everything that came before. The commercial break. Number sixteen special of the year, Mike Kaplan’s Reenie.
You’ll find that on YouTube. Clever writing, clever execution, definitely worth your time. Seventeen Hulu again, Chinado Unaka’s LOL Live that’s a part of the Kevin Hart Brand. Nice debut special, Very funny eighteen Drad Carmichaels Don’t Be Gay on HBO and here’s the thing. For twenty minutes, it’s brilliant Carmichael at his best.
Then it kind of gets tired. This is a talented storyteller with something to say, but it just doesn’t land. And after like twenty minutes, I’m like, oh, okay, nineteen Roywood Juniors at your age on Hulu. I know a lot of people really like this one. It’s a solid pro doing solid pro work.
Twenty yachtsco at Kotska’s father. I think maybe I was a little disappointed in it because I loved her previous special so much. I was like, oh, this is gonna be amazing, and it was solid, not amazing, but definitely put eyes on that. Twenty one Ian Edwards untitled. Now.
I didn’t even know this existed. You’ll fund it on YouTube until Vulture put it in their top ten. It’s a nice club set. It’s nothing special, there’s nothing wrong with it. There are a few individual chunks that are quite memorable, a few individual jokes that are even more memorable, But you know to compare this to some of the things higher up on the list.
No way. It’s a nice, solid club set, but it’s the sort of thing that you’d expect to see at the Chuckle Hut on Thursday night at the Late Show, not if you went to the arena and if he and Edwards handed that in, if that makes sense. Arii Shafeer America’s Sweetheart on Netflix. A lot of people really like that one. I just couldn’t connect with it.
Wasn’t digging it. It was okay. And I’m starting to pull teeth a little bit here. This was not the strongest year for comedy specials. Twenty three Gabriel Iglesias Legend of Fluffy from Netflix back in January.
Here’s the problem. It’s an hour forty one. I can’t I have comedy add I can’t watch one guy for an hour and forty one minutes. No way, Gabe is funny, but this needed editing. Hey Gabe, maybe this was two really good fifty minute specials.
I don’t know why they went an hour forty one. He too much. Number twenty four Mike Birbiglia is The Good Life on Netflix. My note, civilians will like it Bverbiglia does his storytelling thing well, it’s well crafted, it’s a good version of what it sets out to be. Just not my cup of tea, but I understand the civilians like it.
Twenty four is Mike Burbigulia running out the top twenty five. Jessica cursons, I’m the man, hilarious, same note, civilians are gonna like this. It’s fine. I’m a comedy snob. It’s fine.
Some others that were on par with that, but I had a hand in a top twenty five, not a top twenty eight for the Publicist. So you can rank these twenty six, seven, and eight however you want, but these are among the better specials of the year. Larry the Cable Guys It’s a Gift on Amazon. Cable guy knows what you want and cable Guy gets here done. Kathleen Madigan The Family Threat on Amazon.
Kathleen is a pro, always hilarious, always puts a smile on your face. And Leanne Morgan’s Unspeakable Things on Netflix, totally fine comedy stobbing me went, yep, this is good, but it’s just not my cup of tea. So you know I got it. Her audience loves her. I’m not her audience.
That’s all fine. So those are Johnny max twenty five best stand up specials of twenty twenty five so far, not including the ones that aren’t rut yet. Tomorrow we’ll take a look at six of the funniest things of the year there weren’t stand up specials, and I’ll fly down what didn’t make the list, and i will comment on the Golden Globes and nominations and meet you back here tomorrow