Hundreds of Beavers is an inventive comedy movie that generated a lot of buzz in 2024. Hundreds and hundreds of stand-up comedy specials?! That’s a lot to chew on, even for the most ardent comedy nerd.
You could watch a comedy special every day in 2024 and still miss out on hundreds of other comedy specials that came out during the year. Thank and/or blame the lack of gatekeepers and the ease of uploading anything you want, anytime, to YouTube (and Amazon, and even other platforms offering self-generated material). Decider published 66 of my reviews this year to help you decide whether to Stream It or Skip It. But there were perhaps 10 times that many new comedy “hours” streaming through your social media feeds in 2024, and if you didn’t know where to look for them, how would you even know they existed? That sadly includes the streaming platforms themselves, who for whatever reason don’t want to make it easy for comedy fans to find stand-up comedy.
Netflix continues to dominate through sheer global reach and output, pumping out a new stand-up hour just about every week (not including others they released for the non-English speaking parts of the globe). But the streaming giant pivoted to live in a big way in 2024, pushing their marketing chips all-in on live stand-up from Katt Williams and Joe Rogan, a live talk show from John Mulaney, and their biggest event, the three-hour live Roast of Tom Brady. HBO remains committed to quality over quantity, with the awards and nominations to show for it. Hulu ended the year by making a big splash and recruiting big names to make an even bigger statement in the stand-up space for 2025. And two newer platforms, Veeps and Dropout, gave boosts to acts who otherwise might’ve gotten lost in the algorithm. By contrast, two of the bigger streamers, Amazon and Peacock, seemed to pull back a bit.
So what do we have to show for the glut of digital stand-up? Here are two comedians I’d like to single out for special shout-outs.
Outstanding Achievement in Long-Form Storytelling: Ali Siddiq
The most popular American comedian on YouTube, Ali Siddiq finished perhaps the most ambitious undertaking by a stand-up by releasing the final two parts of The Domino Effect, in which Siddiq spent upward of two hours at a time walking audiences through his rough childhood and teen years in Houston, where he dodged drugs and gangs until the law caught up with him first, landing him in prison from age 19-25. Ali Siddiq: The Domino Effect Part 3: First Day of School has generated more than 5.4 million views since its release in May; Part 4: Pins & Needles, another 5.3 million-plus since June. Comedians Christopher Titus and John Leguizamo have mined their life stories for multiple one-man shows, but I cannot think of any stand-up who could pull off what Siddiq has, so matter-of-factly, in such short order.
Outstanding Achievement in Short-Form Topical Jokes; Josh Johnson
Johnson, a writer for The Daily Show, released comedy specials in 2021 (Comedy Central) and 2023 (Peacock). But that’s nothing compared to what he did this past year, when he challenged himself to write, perform and release a new 15-minute chunk of jokes every week. Johnson did that and then some. And took over your TikTok feed in the process, becoming as much of a regular commentator on the headlines as your previously favorite late-night TV host. The numbers speak for themselves.
Johnson also released a concert film on YouTube in November documenting his process and showing off some of his less-topical material: Freshman Fifteen: A Stand Up Comedy Film.
Here are two handfuls of honorable mentions, listed here in alphabetical order. Check them out even if you don’t already know their names!
Now for my personal best of the best! Feel free to disagree! What makes you laugh is quite subjective, so I’d love to see how you’d rank your own Top 10s.
10
‘Alex Edelman: Just For Us’ (Max) AND ‘Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees’ (Netflix)
Alex Edelman won Tonys and Emmys for his HBO debut for good reason. While he may have hoped to write an hour full of silly jokes observing what we’re to make of the relationship between Robin Williams and Koko the gorilla, the deadly serious times we live in forced his hand. Or perhaps he wanted to test how far his white male privilege might win out over anti-semitism. Either way, his hopefulness has won over the industry, coming now when we need hope the most.
And Jacqueline Novak delivered the Sex Ed Talk generations of women wish they could’ve received. In Novak’s reframing of her own sexual awakening, we as a collective audience wake up to her comedic talents. She may have bloomed years later than her college comedy partners (kudos to another older Georgetown alum, Mike Birbiglia, for helping Novak stage her initial off-Broadway run), but now is her time to blossom.
I only put them both here together at 10 because, while their performances are so perfect that they already stand the test of time, they had been performing their respective shows since the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe, and only got held up to 2024 due to pandemic shutdowns holding them back. Which actually should make their efforts that much more impressive for picking back up where they left off and delivering such great pointed shows.
9
I loved seeing the live stage versions in 2023 of both Courtney Pauroso’s sex-robot satire, as well as Grace’s meta-commentary on race, but what Grace was able to do in adapting his show to video is quite remarkable. The clip above demonstrates where the filmed special deviates most from the live stage show, as Grace falls into a self-referential rabbit hole, where we eventually jump into multiple Dropout shows such as Game Changer and Very Important People and gets roasted by the likes of Sam Reich and Paul F. Tompkins. And to think, it all started when Johansson starred in 2017’s big-screen adaptation of Japanese manga Ghost in the Shell, inspiring Grace to draw parallels between Hollywood’s white-washing there with all of his own experiences trying to become a successful actor and comedian. It’s sad, it’s funny because it’s sad, and it’s weirdly even funnier and more incisive and insightful when given the Dropout treatment.
8
“I might surprise us both!” Taylor says of judging him on his looks.
There are hints of Chappelle in Taylor’s work, at least tonally in both delivery and subject matter. But while the extremely more rich and famous Chappelle may seem mired in trolling his critics, Taylor enjoys exploring all perspectives of his premises. Taylor has a strong point of view and an even stronger command of his audience. And his relative youth also works in his favor here, such as looking back on movies he grew up watching and realizing how, whether the films were intended for kids or for adults, their subtext said much more damning things about race, sex, and American society writ large. You might not always see his points coming, whether it’s defending the portrayal of sex in porn or refuting vegan arguments against eating animals, but you best keep an eye on Taylor. Because he’s very much up-and-coming, and deserving of much bigger platforms in the future.
7
Thinking back to the Biden campaign pressing Ramy Youssef to get out the vote in Michigan, where the Arab-American population is most concentrated, he can only respond bleakly: “Is it up to me? Am I the guy?” He might not have been the guy in 2020, when he was still questioning his faith and his place in both his Hulu series and in his stand-up. But four years later, he’s no longer struggling with his identity or his confidence. And Storer’s camerawork reflects this confidence, framing Youssef often for long shots in close-up, the comedian’s face bathed in the glow of the spotlight, so we can focus on him plainly and clearly.
6
‘Conner O’Malley: Stand Up Solutions’ (YouTube) AND ‘Nathan Macintosh: Down With Tech’ (YouTube)
Let’s face it. The next year or four or more are going to be even more ridiculous than the four or more that came before, and we could really use some comedy that meets the moment. When real-life feels like satire, whom can we turn to for laughs and a bit of a release?
Conner O’Malley and Nathan Macintosh take two different tacks at addressing the capitalist cyber Cerberus that threatens to eat us alive if we’re not more careful.
In May, I wrote that “I sadly fear that O’Malley’s satire is so on-the-nose that some real-life evil venture capitalists and tech bros might actually turn his joke concept into a reality.” Somehow, Mark Zuckerberg still emerged this year with a new look that looks exactly like O’Malley’s caricature of him.
Macintosh, meanwhile, may be a millennial from Canada. But he’s a tried-and-true New York comic now, and his bubbling frustration bubbling over into outrage makes him a rightful heir to the mantle long held in this city by Lewis Black. That he’s targeting the tech industry right now just makes this hour more indispensable. From our addictions to our phones to the evils of social media and AI, he may have more than a few of you wishing the jocks ruled again instead of the Big Tech nerds.
5
On Hacks, Hannah Einbinder sometimes suffers onscreen in the shadow of Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance. But here, finally, in her stand-up debut, what a showpiece of Einbinder’s talents in a very theatrical, intentional, polished hour. Anyone who saw Einbinder get a chance to perform on Late Show with Stephen Colbert before Hacks, pre-pandemic, could see she had such an assured sensibility and stage presence already. But now we all can see what she’s capable of, so no matter what happens to her character’s arc next season, this hour shows us why she’s deserving of the spotlight in her own right. A star is born, indeed.
4
For his first solo stand-up special in a decade, Dave Attell proved once more he’s operating in a different league from his peers, eschewing whatever traditions other comedians might be observing for their comedy specials. He’s short on time. He’s quick with the punchlines. He cuts out the chaff. Attell introduces several of his jokes as offensive or naughty or transgressive (“I don’t care if lose my entire North Korean fanbase”), but ultimately so few of them actually are worth protesting because of just how well he has crafted not only the construction of the jokes themselves, but also in how ludicrous it sounds when he delivers them. With Attell, there’s no confusion. Just comedy.
3
Whereas too many comedians today may see our divisions and look to take advantage of them for their own self-interested profit motive, Ronny Chieng speaks with a refreshing awareness and astuteness about how Americans are divided but perhaps not in as many ways as we’re led to believe. His bits about social media algorithms and influencers and socio-economic trends demonstrate a savviness and sophistication that not only make him a great correspondent for The Daily Show, but also would serve the show well were they ever to promote him as a permanent anchor for the late-night satire.
2
If the key to comedy is timing, then Glaser unlocked all of her possible career opportunities by releasing her newest HBO special just days after stealing the show at Netflix’s Roast of Tom Brady. She’ll be hosting the Golden Globes this year. What else might bear fruit from this?
All of which makes her special’s physically-intensive closer more poignant, as Glaser wonders aloud: “Why is this your career at the age of 39?” Yet few of her peers in gender or age could do what she’s doing, whether it’s singing her own songs or pulling off punchlines such as “I don’t have the kegels to get into some Claussens.” This is her moment. And she’s making the most of it.
1
Even if you haven’t seen any clips of Anthony Jeselnik before, this serves as a perfect introduction to him. As he says at one point: “Comedians are supposed to be unparalleled badasses. I know this because I have a f—ing mirror.” It’d be great if more comedians were this bad-ass.
Though his onstage persona is all about making him the bad guy, someone for you to boo at while also somehow cracking up at, he’s not really evil. It’s more that he sees life as sometimes so dark and awful that you have to laugh at it, lest you allow the reality of the situation to destroy you. “Gallows humor is what I’m all about,” he says. Part of what makes this special truly special is how, starting from that moment, Jeselnik finally begins to pull back the curtains to reveal a bit of his wizardry, and he shares sincere stories from his 20 years in the business.
