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Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, I’m Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. Today we’ll take a look at who won and lost comedy in twenty twenty five. I decided for the weekends in January. I want to try out some different things.
January tends to be quiet. I’ve done this in the past, especially during the pandemic. I kind of spread my wings on the weekends a little bit, and I’ve got some things i want to talk about.
Also, one of the things I did the other day I recorded two and a half hours w…
And we’re hoping to do a lot of that this year as it goes along, just trying to mix it up a little bit and keep it interesting. But today, let’s take a look at who won and lost comedy in twenty twenty five. The big winner in twenty twenty five. If I had recorded this a month ago, this would have been slam dunk, hands down, no doubt, nothing to talk about. Only great.
One hundred out of one hundred five stars. Conan O’Brien had a fantastic year. Butt and let’s start with the butt the horrible murder of the Reiner family taking place after the Hiners were at Conan O’Brien’s party.
Now here’s what I’m worried about.
I assume there’ll be a trial. I assume the defense attorney will try to keep the accused out of jail. And I’m not a lawyer. I’m a guy in a basement recording a podcast. My fear is that said lawyer will want to ask questions about what went down at the party, because we’ve heard there was some shouting.
There have also been some anecdotes that, as the story goes, some people wanted to call nine to one one and Conan said, no, please, don’t do you know, we’re having a party here. It’s okay. And I could just see Conan getting dragged into a trial. And I’m not sure Conan’s going to have an awesome twenty twenty six. He was having a pretty good twenty twenty five, so let’s focus on that.
His year capped with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, putting him in some really really good company there. And boy, it was just like the industry going, Conan, we love you. A listers coming out doing funny stuff. Conan just looking great. Multiple generations of comedians and writers, it was just saluting Conan.
Nobody was like Conan O’Brien, that’s crazy. It just consolidated his legacy and the respect everyone has for him. And he also crushed hosting the Oscars and immediately got invited back to do next year. So the back to back of the Oscars and the Mark Twain Prize. Just Conan O’Brien just was the winner of comedy.
I fear rough seas ahead, but he was the winner of comedy in twenty twenty five until one awful night in December. Nikki Glaser had a great year. The year before she was part of the Tom Brady Roast and people went, oh, who’s that?
And then she hosted the Golden Globes and crushed it.
Got invited back to host the Golden Globes coming up, you know, about a week, not about a week, John in a week. I better write that down before I pre tape a weekend and be like, oh, yeah, he probably should have mentioned the Golden Globes. A right. I just added that to my list here, so we’ll see. I mean, she had a great twenty twenty five.
Now are we at peak Nikki Glaser? Or is there more to come? And I think we’ll find out a lot more a week from tonight when she hosts the Golden Globes. But congratulations to Nikki Glaser in a year where he transitioned from successful stand up to trusted industry utility. Interesting words.
There another big winner this year, Mark Maren. Congratulations to Mark Maren, take that victory lap. He walked away from his podcast on his own terms and had the special of the year. If you listened to yesterday, Mark Maren’s special Panicked You’ll fund It on HBO was the best comedy special of the year. It just put Maren into this statesman role.
He was one of the critics of the Riod Comedy Festival. Other comedians took shots at Maren, which put him in the comedy zeitgeist. He took all the slings and arrows, kept his honor shifted from a commentator to a reference point inside comedy. That puts him at the top of the game. So Mark Marin one of the winners of comedy in twenty twenty five.
Another winner, despite some rough seas, was Jimmy Kimmel. You May recalled Jimmy Kimmel was pulled off the air for a little bit, but then he came back and just seems to have the win into sales right now. The show extended another year. There’s talk that Kimmell wants to walk away in May of twenty twenty seven. I’ll believe it when I see it, because I think when Colbert’s show ends, that audience is going to go somewhere.
Some of the audience will just go away. Some of the audience will just stare at whatever CBS puts on anyway, whether it’s a new show or the Byron Allen thing. But some of the late night people, I think we’ll pick Kimmel over fallon. So Kimmel’s numbers are going to go up. And I had a conversation with Mike Chisholm about this, and I’ll share it on one of the weekend episodes coming up this month.
You know, Kimmel’s my age, and if you’re not doing that, what are you doing? The oscars are heading to YouTube. He’s not going to be the YouTube post of the Oscars. So, Jimmy Kimmel, you’re in your mid to late fifties, you could work another twenty years, like a you know, it’s nice to have money and sit on the beach, but you need something to do. What would you do?
Tour? Stand up? A Netflix show? So I don’t see why he would walk away. Now might he arrange his schedule?
He already doesn’t work summers? Could you cut down to three days? Do the late period Johnny Carson thing? Someone else host Monday and Kimmel shows up Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and does I don’t know, thirty four weeks a year and takes the summer off and a long break at Christmas. Why not do that Jimmy Kimmel.
So I’m not sure Jimmy kim was gonna walk away, but he had a great year. Other winners of twenty twenty five Adam Sandler, despite my personal opinion, happy Gilmore too. People seem to like it. Cast a big check, also helping my argument. People have come around and realized, oh, Adam Sandler a great dramatic actor.
He was great and Jay Kelly, what a great film. You should watch it. Let’s all reward Adam Sandler with an Academy Awards. He goes, hey, I’m an Academy Award winning actor. I should do more of that and less stupid songs.
So Adam Sandler had a great year. Robbie Hoffman went from who to everybody’s talking about Robbie Hoffman. If you haven’t watched that Netflix special, it’s fantastic. Another winner of twenty twenty five. As I sat down and really thought about this, Roy Wood Junior.
So just about everybody, including me, liked his comedy special a lot. Now it’s a year ago now, so it’s not as fresh in your mind to say Chappelle, but people really like that special, and people seem to really like the CNN show. I’m not sure Have I Got News for you? US version has a massive cultural zeitgeist, but it seems a reliable show, and it’s regularly picked up in the press. And most importantly, Roywood Junior bet on himself when he didn’t get the Daily Show Cheer.
He went, Okay, I gotta go do something else and figure something out. And he went and did something else and he figured out. So good on you, Roywood Junior. You’re one of the winners of twenty twenty five and another winner this year. Now I’m not sure he won the year, but he might win twenty twenty six is Friend of the Show John Marcos SARRESI three time guest, his special really resonated.
Critics are noticing, mainstream press is noticing, and I think John Marco’s going to have a really big twenty twenty six and good for him because he’s fantastic. Those are your winners. Will come back and we’ll talk about the losers of twenty twenty five. All right, Johnny Max who lost comedy in twenty twenty five? I feel very strongly about this.
The big loser in comedy in twenty twenty five. The comedian who lost the year is Bill Burr. Bill Burr, you lost the narrative. Let me remind everybody a year ago. Early in the year, he was doing a lot of media appearances and he was getting criticized for his tone.
He was defensive and a lot of interviews it just wasn’t a good look. Some people are down on Monday Morning podcast that it’s low energy and he’s just talking about sports. Maybe that was always true.
And then he played the Reodd Comedy Festival, and his defense of playing the …
Pete Davidson, for all my problems with Pete david said, at least I can respect Pete Davidson going they paid me a lot of money. I can at least respect that because it’s honest. But Burke came away like, yeah, you know, they’ve got an Applebee’s over there, and we’re all like, can you just admit that they paid you? Well? Like stop.
Burr kind of changed his persona this year. You know, he’s letting go of the young, angry Bill Burr. We’ve now got the try and avoid a loaded word here, but we’ve got the more thoughtful Bill Burr.
And then if you point that out, he gets very defensive about it, and it just …
Maybe Bill Burr and his audience are heading in two different directions, and that’s fine. But I’m not sure Bill Burr had a good twenty twenty five. In fact, he’s the big loser of twenty twenty five when it comes to comedy. Now, after I made my list, I saw this on crack dot com their headline this comedian had humor’s worst heel turn in twenty twenty five. Now again, I saw this after I made my list, And if you listen back to previous episodes.
I’ve been kind of dropping not even hints, but breadcrumbs about how I felt about Burr’s here Cracked Rights. Back in February, Bill Burr went on Monday Morning podcast and declared that the billionaire class who’s so division and exploit suffering among the masses are rabbit dogs that need to be put down. But that was before he talked to their booker. Wow. Wow, if this was a boxing match, We’re fourteen seconds in and Keegankelly and Crack dot Com just hit Bill Burr in the chin, unblocked.
What a shot at a good one? Cracked Rights. In twenty twenty five, Old Billy Blood Money went from the top voice of anti billionaire anger in America to the court gesture for literal slavers. Considering how Burr reveled in the aftermath of the violent death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, shouting his support for the accused shooter Luigi on every talk show and podcasts that would have him, Burr’s fan base was by far the most inflamed of any re odd comic upon returning to the US, and of course, Burr’s imprudent handling out of criticism didn’t help his relationship with his listeners. Even now, months later, the Monday Morning podcast fandom is still an open revolt against the host.
Every new episode immediately faces a barrage of dislikes and negative comments. Just under one video that they shared, one of the top comments reads, You’re just not funny anymore. Selling out to murderers just seems to interfere with my laughter. Bill Burr, the big loser of twenty twenty five. Some other losers, Pete Davidson, not just for Riot.
I think Pete had a bad year, did a couple movies, not sure anybody cared about them. He’s out there sort of touring, takes breaks, seems like he’s okay. Then he seems like he’s not okay, seems like he’s all over the place. So the net of that, and again he’s open about his mental health challenges, and I hope he finds himself in a good place. But from an industry standpoint, when you’re making a project, you look back at him walking away from Bupkis, So you’re not gonna hand him a show because you’ll be afraid that he’s going to just walk away from it.
You hire Kevin Hart, because you know, Kevin Hart likes to work and is going to show up for work. Kevin Hart has made it clear he’s going to show up for work. But with Pete, you know, you walk away once and all the other stuff that surrounds you. It’s just if you’re making a project, let’s just pick somebody else. I think Pete Davidson’s one of the losers of twenty twenty five.
The other big loser of twenty twenty five. Now, the man’s not a loser, but he is one of the comedy losers of twenty twenty five. Stephen Colbert, And I mean it’s crazy, right, Hey, my job is to host Late Night and I have the number one show, and I’ve kept the Late Show franchise going for a decade and everything’s great. Well, CBS disagrees, so we can all love Stephen Colbert and he does a great job and he’s a good guy, and I think he’s short for president. But you lost the show maybe through no fault of your own.
Hey, I’ve been fired for no fault of my own. But that makes for a lousy year. And Stephen Colbert one of the losers in comedy in twenty twenty five. He might be one of the winners in twenty twenty six. So much like we saw all the love for Conan in twenty five, we probably will as Colbert takes this not victory lap, but final lap.
I think we’ll see a lot of outpouring of love for Stephen Colbert. So he’s probably prime for a great year, but just as I analyze twenty twenty five, he’s one of the losers. And that is your comedy news for today. All right, Tomorrow’s Monday three, a normal episode than at noon episode one of Comedy Survivor. I think I scheduled the Facebook post for seven am Eastern as when voting opens, So look for the Comedy Survivor logo and then go in there and vote on Comedy Survivor and I’ll see you tomorrow.
Twice