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Saw the Joy Tactics guys do stand up and legit almost pissed myself laughing  made me like stand up again.
Mar 17, 2025
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The sheer amount of standup specials, YouTube/IG/TikTok stars, etc. oversaturate our brains, and I think it dilutes our experience. This is surely true of music for me lately - I need breaks from new things pretty often. I think another symptom of it being so abundant is the more you've seen, the harder it is to be surprised by new styles and personalities. I've been a life-long standup fan for as long as I can remember, and gimmicks and fads have always been a thing. But still, every year, something new grabs my attention. It just takes some digging to find the people that tell the kind of stories that make you laugh. Here are some ones I really liked recently:
Kyle Kinane - Dirt Nap
Jacqueline Novak - Get On Your Knees
Sheng Wang - Sweet & Juicy
Brian Simpson - Live From The Mothership
Chris Fleming - Hell (As mentioned in other responses, just the best kind of weird)
Taylor Tomlinson - Look At You
Nate Bargatze (any of his many on Netflix)
Jun 21, 2024
Your 90% figure is something I use to describe how much art media is basically not good – tv, movies, music, etc. But the particularity of standup as an art form – the bizarre mutual expectation of a specific response (laughter) – means that it can “fail” more obviously. Mediocre music can be shrugged off, and pretty easily tolerated by most; it doesn’t come with the same expectations. But when someone’s jokes don't land, it immediately lays bare a devastating rift between performer and audience.
Most people just want to laugh, though, and they’re ok with laughing at anything that purports to be funny. You make a joke about the difference between men and women, I laugh, everyone goes home happy. So there’s a lot of trash that ends up getting elevated because it’s “good” enough to fulfill this social contract for enough people.
But there’s always good stuff out there!
I’ll 4th Chris Fleming and throw in Conner O’Malleys recent special.
Sorry but they both yell, lol.
If you want a very different, bizarre, highly personal, often uncomfortable, avant-garde, and of course, funny rec: Natalie Palamides’s Nate: A One Man Show which was out on Netflix a few years ago.
Jun 21, 2024
Great jokes, even better delivery
Other good ones I watched recently:
Taylor Tomlinson: Look At You
Nate Bargatze: The Greatest Average American
Wanda Sykes: I'm An Entertainer
Tom Segura: Sledgehammer
Feb 19, 2024
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This movie is boring as fuck but can’t stop thinking about it since I saw it a few weeks ago
Mar 17, 2025
The lip balm is good too. I’ve been putting it on the high points of my face and now people finally take me seriouslyÂ
Mar 17, 2025