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 (*)
- A+
- Stewart Lee - Carpet Remnant World
- best bit: entire second half but especially jungle canyon rope bridges
- 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 - Baby J
- 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
- B+
- Hannibal Buress - My Name is Hannibal
- Hannibal Buress - Animal Furnace
- Mike Birbiglia - Thank God For Jokes
- best bit:
- worst bit: every time he starts talking about charlie hebdo lol
- Ilana Glazer - Human Magic
- best bit: if youre “one of the guys”, youre actually a woman
- B
- 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
- Marc Maron - More Later
- best bit: probably egypt
- 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)
- 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
- C+
- Hannibal Buress - Live In Chicago
- best bit:
- worst bit: i am an american
- C
- 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-
- 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
- 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
- D+
- D
- 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-
- 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
- Nick Kroll - Little Big Boy
- best bit: the recording of his hypnotist
- worst bit: pretty much all of it, he should stick to tv
- 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)
- sam jay's hbo special
- keep an eye out for marie faustin if she drops a special