editors note: the bigger this list gets, the more i become unsure of the minutae of the placings for specials i havent watched enough times. soon i might switch to some sort of ranking system, but for now ill just mark those specials with an asterisk (*) also, as most comedians are varying flavors of reactionary, i wont take great pains to mention everything i dislike or disagree with in a special, just take for granted that things being higher up in the rankings doesn't necessarily mean i endorse the views of the comic
- A+
- Stewart Lee - Carpet Remnant World
- best bit: entire second half but especially jungle canyon rope bridges
- Katt Williams - The Pimp Chronicles Pt. 1
- best bit: i dont have not one insurgent friend + n---- did you know that i can see you? + fuck michael how you gon be a muslim half your face is pork michael
- A
- Andy Kindler - I Wish I Was Bitter
- best bit: hes just a regular super MAN
- worst bit: mister sister mister
- James Acaster - Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999
- best bit: top of the tea
- A-
- John Mulaney - Kid Gorgeous at Radio City
- best bit: the bittenbinder method
- Rory Scovel - Tries Stand-Up for the First Time
- best bit: do mayors smoke crack?
- worst bit: the trump/obama material, but thats par for the course
- Jerrod Carmichael - Don't Be Gay
- best bit: jesus is gonna treat my mom like the lady who killed selena
- worst bit: being an obnoxious millionaire. with internalized racism.
- John Mulaney - Baby J*
- B+
- Hannibal Buress - My Name is Hannibal
- Hannibal Buress - Animal Furnace
- Stavros Halkias - Live at the Lodge Room
- best bit: you know what i dont understand about traffic + i just knew when i saw that daquiri mix in the freezer + i will not have gay eggs
- Jerrod Carmichael - Rothaniel
- best bit: a lot can change in 5 years, age and coming out cause him to expose the vulnerability that makes this late period work function even when hes being an obnoxious millionaire
- worst bit: being an obnoxious millionaire. with internalized racism.
- Kate Berlant - Cinnamon in the Wind
- best bit: its the river, the reflection, and then cheers + im not really the girl next door, im The Door
- worst bit: at its worst, more clever than it is funny, though it mostly manages to strike a balance. also painfully LA so be warned. probably pairs well with rory scovel's special
- Redd Foxx - Video in a Plain Brown Wrapper
- best bit: the ass should be in the palm of the hand, my main subject tonight is the fart, corn say "fuck shit", speaking of "big pussy"
- hormone pills, fat wife jokes, etc and of course the classic 'black people vs n----s bit
- Mike Birbiglia - Thank God For Jokes
- best bit:
- worst bit: every time he starts talking about charlie hebdo lol
- B
- Kumail Nanjiani - Beta Male
- best bit: there's old pigeon pockets + cyanlovers.com/i loved yellow's work on bananas [...]
- worst bit: a lot of corniness and amateur comic moves here, like straight up repeating punchlines, which is weird for someone who had been doing this for a decade at this point
- B-
- Mike Birbiglia - The New One
- best bit: cross between matt damon and bill o reilly (he really does look like that)
- John Mulaney - The Comeback Kid
- best bit:
- worst bit: bill clinton
- Hannibal Buress - Comedy Camisado
- best bit: "you ever smell-"
- John Mulaney - New In Town
- Langston Kerman - Bad Poetry
- best bit: thats right, you a pedophile for my baby + all the sunset singles
- worst bit: that whole extended bit about wanting to hurt his students
- Mike Birbiglia - The Old Man and the Pool
- best bit: boston toddlers are like “im wicked tired” + i like pizza so much i get excited when i see the word .. plaza
- worst bit: that annoying ass trying to be deep moment where the lights dim. hate when he does this type of shit in general but i guess thats what you get with "storytelling" comics. also the music selection as usual
- Marc Maron - More Later
- best bit: probably egypt
- Tig Notaro - Happy to Be Here
- best bit: the indigo girls
- worst bit: i love tig but i appreciate her more than she makes me laugh per se
- Marc Maron - Thinky Pain
- best bit: beefheart
- worst bit: the anti-semitic stuff (although it does illustrate that point about the secularism of zionism well) + the bit about israel (which doesnt even mention palestine)
- C+
- Hannibal Buress - Live In Chicago
- best bit:
- worst bit: i am an american
- Sam Jay - Salute Me or Shoot Me
- best bit: i wish i was a man in my charizard form + the autism bits
- worst bit: the MRA style material
- Ilana Glazer - Human Magic
- best bit: mama... show you green!
- worst bit: like half of it is fairly unfunny libfem stuff + #married to a man stuff
- C
- Dave Chapelle - Killing Them Softly
- best bit: baby on the corner
- worst bit: the entire end section on women but especially "just because im dressed this way"
- Sam Jay - 3 in the Morning
- best bit: theresa may, hitler, suck my dick
- worst bit: the bit on trans women and pretty much everything after it which devolved into fairly boring reactionary material
- John Mulaney - The Top Part
- best bit: some biiig fuckin brontosaurus
- worst bit: drag queens & native americans
- C-
- Tracy Morgan - Staying Alive
- best bit: you got dual syndromes?! + him singing what a fool believes
- worst bit: talking about his young wife
- Stavros Halkias - Fat Rascal
- best bit: white people wanted ancient greece on their resume
- Ramy Youssef - Feelings
- best bit: the last joke, classic
- worst bit: so lethargic it almost feels like a podcast, and not funny enough to make up for it. just watch his tv show
- Michael Che - Matters*
- best bit: the only proof of jesus' carpentry
- worst bit: i need proof in liquid form
- Marc Maron - Too Real
- best bit: now i gotta fucking love you now?
- worst bit: most of it, marc is not immune from the trump era comedy recession. the rolling stones bit in particular nearly put me to sleep both times i saw this
- D+
- D
- Robby Hoffman - Wake Up
- best bit: im sure there were a couple funny bits in here but the bad bits are so bad i can barely remember them
- worst bit: most of this is an obnoxious white lesbian doing a bunch of regressive homophobic, transphobic jokes for a straight audience. its way too hard to tell how much of it is a character and how much is just her genuine takes, and the audience definitely cant tell. also im neither impressed nor amused by how hard shes leaning into the whole brooklyn boomer thing. really testing how many "ffffuck outta here"s i can listen to before i blow my brains out
- Aziz Ansari - Right Now
- best bit: a thousand kids!!!
- worst bit: i hate when comedians do that thing where theyre like "were all pieces of shit" like no mf its just you!!! especially bad coming from a guy doing his first special after a sexual misconduct scandal, which he also definitely did not handle well here
- Marc Maron - End Times Fun
- best bit: but you know, we hung out
- worst bit: the whole turmeric bit which doubly fails for me as an iranian ibd sufferer
- D-
- Jerrod Carmichael - 8
- worst bit: pretty thoroughly the same edgelord bullshit as love at the store, but a bit tempered, and with glimpses of his more conversational, narrative style. clearly overcompensating but also partially just putting his class bg on fuller display than in the later specials.
- Michael Che - Shame the Devil
- best bit: master says i got seasonal depression
- worst bit: most of it which is unfunny blatant reaction like a worse version of chapelle
- F
- Aziz Ansari - Live at Madison Square Garden
- best bit: he said something funny at the beginning, i can't remember what it is though, which says something given it's one of about 3 funny things he said the whole special
- worst bit: pretty much all of it, right there with kevin hart in the hideous pantheon of stadium comedy
- Dave Chapelle - For What It's Worth
- best bit: you either fuck monkeys or you fuck people... once you fuck a monkey thats a firm decision
- worst bit: forgot how early dave started spouting off unfunny reactionary shit. if it was just the low hanging fruit racist jokes (koreans, native americans, etc.) i might place this slightly higher but the whole section essentially going to bat for cosby, mj, and r kelly is nightmarishly bad and aged like milk. see pimp chronicles for the antidote.
- Nick Kroll - Little Big Boy
- best bit: the recording of his hypnotist
- worst bit: pretty much all of it, he should stick to tv
- Jerrod Carmichael - Love at the Store
- worst bit: i came to this thoroughly impressed with Dont Be Gay and excited to work through his specials chronologically. imagine my dismay when the worst reactionary impulses from that are here on full display for a non-stop onslaught of tasteless reactionary drivel on every topic under the sun. right wing comedy. and it has nothing to do with being closeted as he evidently holds the same classist and racist views later on. but what really takes the cake is like that chapelle special also down here, theres a section where he defends, you guessed it, cosby, mj, and r kelly. but he also throws in chris brown for good measure.
- Hannah Gadsby - Nanette
- excellent, doesnt make sense to try to rank
- Richard Pryor - Live In Concert
- Fred Armisen - Standup for Drummers
- best bit: im starting this thing called the circus
- worst bit: the jazz bit, i will not tolerate jazz slander
- note: fred is a great sketch comic/all around funny guy, and as an autistic musician its fun to watch him nerd out about drums (plus the letter from john waters thing was really touching), so altogether its a fun show but it just doesnt work very well as standup mostly because he doesnt seem to understand or be interested much in the form or conventions of standup so it ends up just being a series of disconnected observations/anecdotes
- James Acaster - Hecklers Welcome*
- steven wright
- mitch hedberg
- demetri martin
- jenny slate special
- chelsea peretti
- bridget christie
- all of stews stuff
- bob saget
- brent weinbach
- hans teeuwen
- andy kindler
- norm macdonald
- jo mande
- kamau bell
- reggie watts
- hari kondabalu
- pete davidson
- daniel kitson
- harry hill
- demetri martin
- stavros
- patton oswalt
- marc maron
- nick vatterot
- hampton yount
- chris fleming
- tig notaro
- simon amstell (paddy rec)
- greg davies - firing chinese balls at a dog (paddy rec)
- sara pascoe (paddy rec)
- dylan moran (paddy rec)
- keep an eye out for marie faustin if she drops a special
- best bit: n---- youll never have cereal