What does it mean that the most talked about comedy special of the year offered a biting critique of comedy itself? And that the most memorable talk show rant took aim at talk show rants? Maybe nothing — after all, comedy has long looked inward — but for an art form, tough criticism is one sign of health. Here are a few more.
When I asked the heads of comedy at Netflix about my theory that Hannah Gadsby’s “Nanette” is less popular than its massive media coverage made it seem, they declined to answer. Truth is: It doesn’t matter. The impact of this arresting performance cannot be accurately measured in clicks, subscriptions or even rave reviews. It’s the most important comedy of the year because it challenged the form, and in so doing, expanded the idea of its possibilities. The criticism often leveled at “Nanette” — it’s not stand-up, but a solo show — is an unintentional compliment. Solo shows have a venerable, and funny, tradition (see Lily Tomlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Spalding Gray), and the fact that comedy has co-opted the genre from the theater is a coup.
[Our critics chose the best TV shows of 2018.]
With “Kid Gorgeous,” John Mulaney made the leap from highly respected writer and comic to elite A-list stand-up. This slick production had range. Mulaney told a top-tier Trump joke comparing his presidency to a horse set loose in a hospital, shifted gears with a vividly nostalgic story about an elementary school safety assembly and also thundered a nice polemic against colleges asking alumni for money. But it also has enough oddball touches, including its David Lynchian introduction walking through Radio City Music Hall, to convince the audience that this clean-cut comedian is much more eccentric than you thought.
This was the year when ambitious direction of comedy specials became the norm, with artists trying conceptual flourishes like taking away the audience, as Jerrod Carmichael did on Drew Michael’s experimental hour, or adding an inner-voice narration to punctuate punch lines with meta-jokes, like Jay Karas did in Demetri Martin’s unfortunately overlooked “The Overthinker.” But Steven Brill’s excellent direction of Adam Sandler’s “100% Fresh” was not flashy. What distinguished it is how effortless he made the complex editing together of a multitude of shows appear. Not only did he create a cohesive stand-up set out of appearances in both vast and intimate spaces, along with a few oddball clips of Sandler mugging outside theaters, but he also made sure this special had the emotional arc of a well-made romantic comedy.
When the superbly curated weekly Brooklyn stand-up show “Butter Boy” started in late 2017, Maeve Higgins was the one of the three hosts (Jo Firestone and Aparna Nancherla are the others) with the least stand-up experience. But she has emerged as a natural master of ceremonies, quick with banter, charming and biting, and if a comic indulges in hack stereotypes, there’s a chance she might call it out.
It was a big year for Michelle Wolf. In April, the dependably funny stand-up comic broke into the national consciousness with a scathing set at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which since they didn’t invite a comic this year, was so cutting that it may have ended a venerable tradition that was probably better off gone. But then things took an unfortunate turn when her new Netflix talk show “The Break” was abruptly canceled before it had time to find its footing.
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