"In some ways, stand-up comedy is like a documentary of your own life," explains Mike Birbiglia in his recent special Good One: A Show About Jokes. By that measure, there were some really good – and funny – documentaries this year.
Hasan Minhaj shared hilarious conversations with his immigrant dad. Tom Papa enjoyed the freedom of being an empty nester. Fortune Feimster got huge laughs as she mimed a fight with her wife while stuck in a train's quiet car, and Ali Wong detailed her sexual escapades as a newly divorced woman.
Here are some of our favorite stand-up specials from 2024:
Ronny Chieng: Love to Hate It (Netflix)
In his new special, Ronny Chieng agrees with some of his MAGA friends that America's not doing great right now. "Our kids' math scores are down. Our children's science scores are down," he laments. Underlying Chieng's jokes are some unflattering truths. When his MAGA friends tell him they would "die for their country," Chieng's reply is, "Why aren't you willing to learn math, also for your country? … We're losing the engineering jobs to Asia."
He says he's constantly trying to get his mom off social media. "Baby boomers don't have the antibodies to deal with the Internet," he exclaims, "They can't remember a single password … but for some reason can make any piece of misinformation go viral." Fortunately, Chieng is charming enough to make looking in the mirror funny.
Hasan Minhaj: Off With His Head (Netflix)
Hasan Minhaj says his "white, NPR tote bag friends" can't understand why so many Mexicans voted Republican when President-elect Donald Trump once called them "rapists."
"I'm like, 'Chelsea,'" Minhaj instructs in his special, "'Do you know what I would let a politician call me if I could pay 0% income tax?'"
Like Chieng, Minhaj isn't just telling jokes, funny as they are. He's commenting on bigger issues like generational trauma and cultural differences. "White people: you're not even the best at racism," he quips before talking about how some South Asians discriminate against each other.
As much as he teases others, Minhaj self-mocks plenty. "Insufferable," he says of the time he corrected Ellen DeGeneres' pronunciation of his name.
Hannah Einbinder: Everything Must Go (Max)
"Humanity is a toxic, abusive husband," says Hannah Einbinder, pausing between almost every word, "And climate change is just planet Earth recognizing her worth and filing for a divorce." She then proceeds to impersonate the earth, sun and moon, commenting on the state of affairs.
It takes years of practice to perfect a full hour of stand-up. Einbinder's drawn out pacing in her first full-length special might be off-putting for some, but I found it refreshing.
Einbinder's mood swings from seductive to cartoonish to professorial. She tells delightfully wicked stories about her teen years as a friendless stoner and a competitive cheerleader. She describes herself as "feral" when she's on her period. To prove it, she drops to the ground on all fours, slinks around and hisses, doing what she calls "my Benedict Cumberbatch doing motion capture for The Hobbit." That moment alone is worth the price of admission.
Mike Birbiglia in Good One: A Show About Jokes (Peacock)
"Origin Stories," "Workshopping" and "Finding Your Voice" are names of some of the chapters in Mike Birbiglia's latest special. Equal parts autobiography and stand-up deep dive, we find out he was raised hearing his dad insist, "Don't tell anyone" about personal stories. Birbiglia's made a successful career doing exactly that. We learn about him getting bullied as a kid ("Running away works," he jokes), his methodical approach to his sets ("So many different index cards," marvels Seth Meyers) and watch how, with a little tweaking, a one-liner goes from just ok to a winner. True students of the art form soak up wisdom from their elders.
Early in his career, Birbiglia told a joke about Oprah when he opened for George Lopez. Afterward, he asked the veteran comedian for advice. Lopez told him, "You should make fun of yourself before you make fun of other people." That is good advice for just about anyone.
Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall (premieres Dec. 31 on Netflix)
Michelle Buteau is like the smart, fun, unfiltered friend who's got your back. Her descriptions of the people in her life are hilariously specific, like her "sassy" five-year-old daughter: "Hazel has the energy of a 53-year-old Black woman that works at the DMV," Buteau declares, "She walks up on the playground and she's like, 'Is this what y'all meant to do?'"
Buteau admits to feeling "rundown" as a working mother of twins, "like the door at the end of the movie Titanic. Just like less buoyant, and everyone's climbing on. My whole family's trying to take a seat and my whistle won't work."
Her stories of "vibing" with a lizard at a reptile sanctuary and being high on edibles at a Knicks game are comedy jewels. Buteau says she wants to make "millions of dollars" doing comedy that makes people feel "safe, seen, secure, heard and entertained" and asks the audience to let Dave Chappelle know he should do the same.
And before we go …
A few more notable 2024 moments in the world of stand-up: The documentary Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution explored the history of LGBTQ comedy, Jamie Foxx went back to his stand-up roots to talk about the stroke that landed him in the hospital, Kevin Hart took home his Mark Twain Prize, and Nikki Glaser crushed it at The Roast of Tom Brady.
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