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Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, I’m Hunny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. If you miss the last couple days, have been doing the top twenty three comedy specials of twenty twenty three today or the specials that did not make the list. So why do such an episode, John, if these aren’t your favorites. There are some huge, huge names on here, and I just wanted to talk through why they didn’t make my list, in no particular order other than kind of sort of when they came out.
Jim Gaffigan’s Dark Pale on Amazon. Now, if you listened earlier in the week, I have Jim as the most influential comedian right now. Jim’s at the top of the pack, touring with Seinfeld, working mostly clean, got a movie career, going, always gets great press, has respect of other comedians, and yet I felt like Dark Pale just missed. It’s perfectly fine Jim Gaffigan, but I think Jim has better in him. It’s by no means a bad special.
Don’t get me wrong, It’s a totally fine special. It just didn’t have that extra gear that some of Jim’s other work has. I know he tried to work a little dirker this time, and I just found it just wasn’t grabbing me, and I punched out of it halfway through. Next up is Joe Lists enough for everybody on YouTube, Very very very very funny. Really enjoyed it.
But here’s the thing. I gotta draw the line somewhere. The word special gets thrown around a lot. And if you were Ricky Gervais playing at the two, that’s a special. If you are Chris Rock and you’re finally responding to slap, yeah, that’s a special.
If your Joe List and you set up a couple of tripods and you do a really really funny thing that happens to be an hour long, that’s an hour or that is a set. I don’t know if it’s a special. So that’s why I couldn’t put it on the list. It just didn’t feel like it was in the same class as those other things. Funny, yeah, should you watch it, Yes, But a special I don’t know.
And there’s a lot of those. Part of the challenge of making this end of the year list was I saw somebody mentioned there were seven hundred things released this year that are ostensibly specials. You know, at some point it’s too much, or you’re gonna watch two of these a day. I can’t next up. I know this guy a little bit.
We cross paths at a previous gig. Jared Freed, cool guy, like his podcast work a lot. His hour is called thirty seven in single. That one on Netflix really great way to spend an hour. I just cut my list off of twenty three and that wasn’t in the top twenty three.
But nothing wrong with it. Amy Schumer Emergency Contact on Netflix. A few people wrote that her acts seemed a little bit tired. I don’t disagree. That’s a double negative.
You just used Johnny Mack. Yes, just never felt like that one kicked into gear. Here’s a huge special that appeared at the top of a lot of people’s lists. John Mulaney’s Baby Jay John Mulaney’s addressing of the various issues he had, including his rehab, that surprised a lot of us. Like a few things I’ll mention on the list.
It’s fine. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. The place where I struggled was when I was watching it. It’s hard to pin down this feeling. I didn’t believe some of the tellings of the stories now I get what comedy is, and I get Hasan Minhaj Gait, and I understand that comedy is often taking a story based on reality and exaggerating it.
But as I was watching it, I just I was like, I don’t believe this version of this story, John. Whereas if I compare that with Gary Golman, I’m sure Gary was doing the exact same thing, taking things based in reality and exaggerating them. But Gary sold it in a way that I didn’t feel like Malini did. If you’re throwing stuff at your phone right now, going this host as an idiot, I get it, just didn’t feel that special. Lewis Black’s Tragically, I need you Lewis Black doing Lewis Black things.
If you like Lewis Black doing Lewis Black things, there you go again. Not everything can be on the best of list. Hannah Gatsby’s Something Special. You may recall Hannah Gatsby’s Nenette was considered by some who have reinvented comedy. I actually liked Douglas Her Other Special better than Nanette.
Like Douglas a lot. This one, I don’t know. The whole thing felt kind of tired to me. Next up, not on the list. Mark Maren’s from Bleak to Dark.
You’ll find that on Max. I’ve been struggling with this one. I’ve really been into Maren, especially in the back half of the year, and I feel like maybe I should go back and watch this one. But when I originally watched it, it just wasn’t grabbing me. And I was so excited for it because I like Maren’s comedy a lot, and I’ve loved his last few specials, But this one, I don’t know.
Maybe it was the subject matter. I saw on some people’s list they had Marin at number one. If you’re throwing things at your phone right now again saying this host is an idiot, I get it. Andrew Santino’s Cheeseburger came out on Netflix early in the year. What’s the line.
If you can’t say something nice, don’t say something at all. Bert Krascher’s special came out in March, Razzle Dazzle on Netflix. Like the beginning, I didn’t love the middle, I didn’t like the end. I did love the machine though, go watch the Machine movie. But this not Bert Kreischer’s best work, and what was a really strong year for Bird.
Kreischer but not that one. Continuing a look at the specials that did not make Johnny Max list, Greg Warrens the salesman that was on YouTube. I saw that on some folks top ten lists. I actually have in my notes here, hated Hardy Craig. One of the things that bothered me is I’d been working in audio for thirty years.
I don’t know it sounded to me. Don’t want to accuse anybody of anything. I’m sure this did not happen, but my brain was wondering, did they add in some extra laughs into the crowd. My brain was like, hmm, this sounds like they sweet in the audience. I’m sure Greg didn’t do that.
So I don’t want to suggest that at all. I’m just telling you what my brain that started hearing, and I punched out on that one, Kevin Hart’s Reality Check, that one on Peacock, that’s Kevin Hart doing Kevin Hart. And like, I get it, he made more money touring than anybody. And I’m just an idiot recording a podcast in the basement, So who am I to say that that’s not a great special. But it’s not a great special.
It’s Kevin Hart doing Kevin Hart. Louinel’s town business as part of the Chappelle’s Home Team brand. I lasted about two minutes with that one. Not for me, BET’s stelling on Netflix. I’ve seen that way up on a lot of people’s lists.
Same note, the crowd laughter, same thing I said about Greg Warren. I kind of was feeling here. I don’t know is that a thing that actually goes on? But Bet Stealing Special did not grab me. This next one.
I think the material deserved a lot better than the final result. That is, Joe Perra is slow and steady. If you’re not familiar with Joe, he works very slow and very steady, a very low energy, slow paced delivery, and he’s hilarious. And as I watched this special, I was like, the material’s great. The problem is the crowd gets out in front of him, so before he can actually get to the punchline, the crowd is laughing in anticipation.
Mitch Hedberg ran into this late in his career. His wife Lynn Shawcroft told me that Mitch was actually struggling with needing to speed up his act because of the same thing that the crowd was getting out in front And I felt like Joe Parra recorded in front of a Joe Parah crowd, and the material may have worked better had he filmed it in front of people who weren’t familiar with his act. If that makes any sense. Zarna garg One at a billion you’ll find that on Amazon Prime. Zorna is a comedian in acendency.
The challenge here is I felt like Zarna had a strong eight minutes, but the thing is an hour. Oh this next name I have, I’ll do that one last moving along. Stavros Halkias, fat Rascal. That one on Netflix and it just didn’t make the top twenty three. Perfectly fine, or you should watch it.
Mike Burbiglia, the Old Man in the Pool. This one at the top of a lot of people’s lists. I’ve talked about this one on the podcast a few times. I think, if you guys watch it, you’re gonna love it. My challenge, and it’s similar to a note I’ve given before.
He went into a bit about wrestling, and I just didn’t believe it. He didn’t sell it, as I said earlier in this episode. Do comedians take stories and embellish them? Of course they do. I understand the craft, but there is something to selling it, and I just felt like, as Birbiglia told the story, the whole thing was made up and it took me out of it.
Leo Reich just had literally who cares on HBO just didn’t feel it at all. I made it about eight ten minutes. Tina Hasham’s Dark Little Whispers, that one on Amazon Prime. I liked it. Filmed in a small room, although whoever did the editing.
She’s telling jokes and you see some stone faced audience members not laughing at all. You got to either tighten that shot or cut away or do something. I was watching her work and I couldn’t look. There was this one guy in the front row. He’s to the right of the stage as you watch your television, so I guess on Dina’s left shoulder, and he’s just sitting there stone faced.
It’s like, that’s weird funny, But I’ll compare it to Joe List. It’s funny. I’m not sure we need to apply the word special here. It’s a set or it’s an hour, but it’s not Chris Rock doing an hour live on Netflix, you know what I mean. But Dina Hasham, you know nice enough, you should enjoy it.
I’ll come back to the one I skipped. Some specials I did not see include Roseanne Barr and Maria Bamford. One of the listeners to the show, Richard through a note in the Facebook group Daily Comedy News podcast group and was really raving about Maria Bamford and I just didn’t see that one. And the one I skipped in some ways the biggest special of the year because it blew a guy up, not in the good way, Matt Rife Natural Selection. This came out November tenth, So for the first ten months of the year, Matt Rife’s narrative was, look at this guy, he’s blowing up.
He sold so many tickets, he sold out a billion, million, kajillion shows. Everybody he loves him, go look, hey, he’s popular. Women, he’s awesome.
And then this special came out, and then the backlash came hard.
The backlash came for one of the jokes. Then Matt started to double down defending his joke and did not do well at defending his joke, and that just brought more haters. Dusting off some sins of the past. Now we’re seeing headlines like Matt Rife wants you to think he’s edge of your thre and he actually is the rise and immediately he potentially strategic downfall of Matt Rife. What’s worse than Matt Rife’s Netflix special sexist joke.
Matt Rife isn’t funny. So I’m not sure where Matt Rife is going into twenty twenty four. Maybe he was just a shooting star. Maybe he’s got enough TikTok fans and fans remaining, then he’ll be fine. He had a good year, he had a good ten months.
Anyway, I’m not sure his year ended well, and I’m not sure he cares if it didn’t end well. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it. They might like it too. If you want to support the show, you can go to buy me a coffee. Dot com slash Daily Comedy News, throw some money in the tip jower.
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