We all need a laugh sometimes, and when it comes to stand-up comedy, Netflix has amassed a spectacular library of specials for just about every sense of humor under the sun. Netflix has also become a giant in the world of comedy specials, curating an impressive line-up of stand-up comedians. While their library of classic stand-up is a bit slim if you’re looking for contemporary comedy, they have a veritable goldmine of laughs.
There’s an insane amount of comedy on Netflix, and I dare anyone to try and watch all of it. I have brought out the best in the show business for the most impressive, ground-breaking, and laugh-out-loud hilariousness. From the new names who are changing the game to established industry greats, check out our picks for the best stand-up comedy specials on Netflix below.
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Top 5 Stand-Up Comedians On Netflix
5) Joel Kim Booster: Psychosexual
In addition to writing, directing, and starring in the hilarious ‘Fire Island‘ (a queer, comedic take on ‘Pride and Prejudice’) and stealing scenes in ‘Loot‘, Joel Kim Booster has a new stand-up special on Netflix called ‘Psychosexual‘. He splits the hour into three breezy acts: one that centers around his identity as a gay Asian man, another with more generic jokes, and finally, a particularly raunchy section about sex.
4) Fred Armisen: Standup for Drummers
‘Portlandia‘ star Fred Armisen dives headfirst into shtick and observational humor with ‘Standup for Drummers‘, a comedy set almost entirely dedicated to music and drumming, performed on a stage decorated with four drumsets, in front of an audience of fellow drummers. It’s rare to see such consummate commitment to an utterly goofy bit pay off, but Armisen’s idiosyncratic brand of silliness is funny enough to pull it off. Whether he’s doing a demonstration of American accents from East Coast to West, performing an impression of a fox decomposing in time-lapse, or delivering one of his many music-centric critiques, Armisen’s set is always surprising and despite the fact that the large majority centers on drumming jokes, you don’t have to be a musician yourself to get a laugh (though no doubt it helps), Armisen’s oddball enthusiasm for the esoteric subject matter keeps the show afloat even through his strangest and most specific diversions.
3) Neal Brennan: 3 Mics
Best known as the co-creator of ‘Chappelle’s Show‘, Neal Brennan takes the stage solo in his candid, innovative exploration of the place where comedy meets personal pain. As the title suggests, Brennan performs his set across three mics and three categories, “One-Liners,” “Emotional Stuff,” and “Stand-Up”. Not just a clever bit of creativity, his staging is an impressive shuffle across the stage and through emotional states while Brennan alternates between pithy one-liners that get a chuckle more often than not and tighter standup segments that earn bigger laughs. But the set reaches unique heights during the “Emotional Stuff,” the self-flaying segments that dive into Brennan’s struggles with depression, his shame as a “star fucker,” and most searing of all, his tortured relationship with his abusive father. Brennan’s sharp timing — he wrote, directed and performed the set — keeps it all moving, dropping the comedic segments just when the room needs to breathe and sucking the air out again at the point of most impact.
2) Patton Oswalt: Annihilation
Twitter fave Patton Oswalt taps into the profound and the heartbreaking with his 2017 special ‘Annihilation‘, a set that ranges from the plight of comedy in the Trump era to a soul-searching exploration of grief in the wake of the tragically early passing of his wife Michelle McNamara. The expertise Oswalt commands in his tonal shifts are an impressive feat of comedy, threading an impossibly small needle whether he’s doing a bit entirely devoted to crowd work or digging into the heartbreaking experience of walking his daughter through the loss of a parent while working through his own grief. Standup comedy is rarely this raw or vulnerable while still demonstrating a performer’s sharp wit and command of cultural commentary.
1) Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King
After co-directing Bo Burnham’s fantastic, cinematic ‘Make Happy‘, Christopher Storer teamed with Hasan Minhaj for the comedian’s debut standup special and once again nailed the line between a set made for the stage and the screen. But the expert camera use and home viewer-friendly staging is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the delights of ‘Homecoming King‘, which transforms Minhaj’s hit off-Broadway show into stunning Netflix special. ‘Homecoming King‘ is first and foremost hilarious, and Minhaj has an expert sense of timing and emotional range to nail even the sharpest of cultural criticism — a talent he puts to great use on his Netflix series ‘Patriot Act‘ — pulling from a well of deeply personal comedy bits largely based around his experience growing up a child of immigrants.
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