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Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, I’m Johnny mag with your Daily Comedy News. Today it is the Top eleven Comedy Specials of the Year. If you listen to the podcast every year, you know I do an end of the year top stand up specials list. This year I have twenty three of them, but today I will do the Top eleven and part of that is to cross promote a new podcast called The Top Eleven, which is a fun show that takes a topic and discusses the top eleven things in that subject.
In today’s episode will be the top comedy Specials of twenty twenty three. Follow the Top eleven wherever you get your shows. I’m not going to go from eleven to one. I’m going to go from one to eleven. The best comedy special of the year, and it came out pretty late in the year, but wow, it was fantastic.
Gary Goleman born on third Base. Here is a comedian who you see in a scendence. A great guy. I’ve worked with him, spent some time with him, tried to hire him. The boss wouldn’t give me the budget to hire him.
Oops, boss Man. But Gary special The Great Depression got a lot of praise and that was Gary in ascendancy, and I think this is next level Born on Third Base. When you watch it, Gary’s very natural delivery, his choice of words, the way he crafts a story, the way you can tell he’s having fun telling the stories, his pacing, his changing of speeds. The special is almost clean. He uses a swear word pretty late in the special just for effect and nails it.
Good use of a swear word there. He made some very funny material about Jerry Seinfeld that I want spoil. That really cracked me up. So Gary Goleman, Born on Third Base Best Special of the Year, number two and this guy held the crown for most of the fourth quarter. And I really love the special.
Todd Barry’s domestic short here it may even be funnier joke for joke than Goldman’s. Just Gary, just like he just nailed the art of an hour. But Barry had me laughing out loud several times. And as I’ve discussed in the past, I do this. I call it the Emperor of Room thing that I’ve listened to so much stand up comedy over the last twenty years that I’ll do the thing the comedians do where you’ll stay on the back of the room and you’ll be like, oh, great set, great set, great callback.
Oh wow, that was really well written, but you don’t actually laugh. So when something makes me actually laugh out loud, I treasure it. I recommend on Todd Berry’s Domestic Short Hair on YouTube. Number three Shane Gillis Beautiful Dogs. That one’s on Netflix.
Here’s a guy, very funny special. And here’s a guy that you can tell as he’s doing the special, he’s just having a good time. His body language is like, isn’t this fun? And I just he’s so charismatic. It’s just a good time.
Shane Gillis Beautiful Dogs at number three. Number four Tom Sigoor’s Sledgehammer. That one also on Netflix, same kind of note there. You can just tell Tom’s having a good time with it. Plenty of solid laughs.
And that special. Number five. I had this one at number one for a while. Kyle Kanaan Shocks and Struts. That one’s on YouTube.
Great storyteller, a great way of changing speeds, setting up jokes. Kyle kanay and Shocks and Strats at five six. This guy had a huge year. The special came out eleven months ago January thirty first on Amazon, Nate Bergatzy’s Hello World. I was enjoying that special so much that I paused it and thought my wife would like it, went upstairs, grabbed her, and I went back and I watched ten minutes of it for a second time.
Number seven Ricky Gervais over Again. That came out Christmas Day on Netflix. I loved it. Ricky just went into total DGAF mode. Of all the comedians who have fought back against wokeness, I think Ricky found a pretty good take on it, slipping into character that he had now gone woke and then totally being unable to actually do that.
Ricky at times reminded me of George Carlin. And I don’t say that lightly, but the points he was making very carlin esk And I think the beard kind helps the controversy about some of the jokes about dying children totally overblown. When you see it in context, it’s nothing. It’s clearly a joke. Riggy stops down a few times to explain that he is a comedian telling jokes.
Sometimes people forget that stuff. Number eight Michelle Wolfe’s It’s Great to be Here on Netflix. Now, what’s interesting about that special is rather than making a single hour, it split across three small parts. They’re all about twenty to thirty five minutes. She didn’t want to artificially tie the chunks together, so she just made them separate chunks and it worked really well.
Another one of these specials that you watch and you can tell that the artist is having a good time performing the special, and she’s just a good company to be around. High energy Michelle Wolf, It’s great to be here. On Netflix at number eight. J McBride Daddy’s Girl filmed in Brooklyn in a small setting, nice lean production. You know, some of these specials in these big, beautiful theaters and multicams are great.
Sometimes I like just a smaller show. It makes me feel like I’m in the club. Jay is transgender and she makes a lot of jokes about that very very funny special. At one point she explains she transitioned fifteen years ago, and then jokes, don’t clap. I only did it to compete in the Olympics.
Great special there. You’ll find that on YouTube. J McBride Danny’s Girl. Jim Jeffries High and Dry.
Also on Netflix.
Jim jokes about how he is quit Drinking another special where he’s in DGAF mode and also clearly just having a good time telling the story. One of the weird trends this year was everybody having to make trans jokes. Jim found a good angle on it and saying I have no problem with trans people, but I do like press Jim Jeffries Number ten and a rounding out the top eleven. Pete Holmes, also on Netflix. Netflix, you guys had a great year for comedy, didn’t you.
Pete specials called I Am Not for Everyone. Pete’s another one of those comedians I just like spending time with. He’s got that nice guy vibe. He’s got that body language where he’s having a good time and he just wants you to have a good time, good storytelling, good solid set that flows. Pete homes I Am Not for Everyone on Netflix at number eleven.
Tomorrow, I’ll do twelve through twenty three. But when we come back, I’ll tell you what the actual funniest thing of the year was. Hmm, A quick list of some things that were funny but not stand up specials. The funniest thing of the year even funnier than Gary Goldman’s stand up special Kunk on Earth that came out on Netflix in February. Diane Morgan stars as Philhemina kunk an illiformed David Attenborough or Richard Addenborough, one of those guys.
It’s the history of the world told incorrectly. It is hysterical. There’s a recurring gag that cracked me up every time. I don’t want to spoil I recommend on Kunk on Earth. I’ve watched it twice.
You’ll find that on Netflix. The other truly great thing that came out this year I have this one ranked lower than Todd Berry but higher than Shane Gillis was South Park’s Into the Panda Verse, which made fun of how every movie has become the brave teenage girl showing the old white dude how stupid he’s become. That is every single movie now, and they just rip that to Shred’s South Park Into the Panderverse. Treat yourself if you haven’t seen that one. Several memes have come out of that that have just savaged.
Kathleen Kennedy from Lucasfilm, Bob Iger from Disney, the Marvel Universe. They nailed it with that one.
Also really fantastic Cocaine Bear, a nice tight hour thirty five, just a fun…
If you have not seen Cocaine Bear, treat yourself. I have that one. Not as funny as Nate Berghatzy, but more funny than Ricky Gervais. While you’re enjoying comedy movies, Burt Krascher’s The Machine. It delivered, nice fun film.
I was very happy with it. That could have been awful, but it was pretty good. I have that one at number ten and a half between Jim Jefferies and Pete Holmes. If you listen to me every day, you’re probably familiar with Burt Krescher’s The Machine story. So this is a follow up sort of of that.
But watch The Machine. That is fantastic. And the other thing I would encourage you to watch is Jury Duty. You’ll find that on free v go on Amazon Prime, you’ll find it there. There’s a trial, there’s a jury, and all of it’s fake except for the one guy that doesn’t know it’s all fake, and it is hilarious.
And that is your comedy news for today. I’ll come back tomorrow with numbers twelve through twenty three. And if you enjoy the program, you can support the show ad, buy me a coffee. Dot com slash Daily Comedy News, or if you’re familiar with what value for value is in podcasting two point zero, you can use the app Fountain to listen to Daily Comedy News and can stream some SATs in my direction. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, click on the show notes so it’ll explain it to you.
Let meet you back here tomorrow.