Friends: another life is possible. Turn off that Ricky Gervais special that you haven’t laughed at once. Dump out your Dave Chapelle DVDs. There are plenty of comedians out there who don’t specialise in low-hanging fruit or feel the need to make jokes that ridicule already at-risk minority groups.
Here are ten of the best stand-up comedies you can stream right now that don't rely on pseudo-intellectual riffs on ‘cancel culture’ or stop once to explain to you what irony means (ironically, of course!). In short: comedians with stuff left to say, from James Acaster to Nish Kumar to Mae Martin. Enjoy.
James Acaster: Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999, Vimeo (2021)
In his most recent special, James Acaster did something that few in the comedy world have thus far had the guts to do: he called out Gervais and his fellow “edgy comedians” for punching down. “They say whatever they like, edgy comedians,” he says in Cold Lasagne Hate Myself (a clip of which has gone viral in the wake of the release of Gervais' latest special Supernatural). “No one tells them what they can and can’t say. They walk straight on stage, top of their specials sometimes, and do 10 solid minutes just slagging off transgender people.” There are plenty more gems in here too, most notably the incredible story of how Rowan Atkinson (whom he refers to predominantly as Mr Bean), stole his girlfriend.
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Watch on Vimeo here.
Catherine Cohen: The Twist…? She’s Gorgeous, Netflix (2022)
Cohen is an extremely charismatic performer, and this cabaret show is filled with very funny songs and sharp asides – “she also told me I looked like Jared Leto one time, different story” she says, almost breathless, in the middle of a tune – is a great introduction to her work. Playing an Instagram-age narcissist, she skips through songs about her boundless appetite for attention (“Look At Me”), wanting what she can’t have (someone who doesn’t care about her at all in “Live or Die”) and the joy of escaping city life (“if you’re an adult who likes Disney, get help” she croons in “Upstate”).
Ali Wong: Hard Knock Wife, Netflix (2018)
In Hard Knock Wife, Ali Wong, heavily pregnant, bemoans the everyday struggles of motherhood. “[It’s] a wack-ass job,” she says. “You’re in solitary confinement all day long with this human Tamagotchi, so the stakes are extremely high.” Later on, she jokes about making more money than her husband (her first special, Baby Cobra, also filmed while pregnant, had made her a star and the breadwinner), and varying degrees of unconditional love (“I told my husband ‘till death do us part,’ and not once have I ever sniffed his ass to see if he shit his pants”). It’s hilarious, groundbreaking stuff and why it's on this list of the best stand-up comedies.
Watch on Netflix here.
Bo Burnham: Inside, Netflix (2021)
The definitive lockdown special? Inside is Burnham’s finest work yet, and it was born out of the same brand of boredom/depression/anxiety that we all felt throughout large parts of 2020 and 2021. Filmed entirely in one room over the course of a year in isolation, Burnham variously pokes fun at himself – taking on the persona of a deity compelling him to heal the world through comedy – Jeff Bezos and white women on Instagram, while slowly deteriorating into depression (the longer his beard gets, the worse his mental state). It’s funny and grimly relatable in equal measure.
Mae Martin: Us, Soho Theatre On Demand (2015)
Mae Martin’s first stand-up special, Us, made them a must-see at 2015’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and also formed the basis for their brilliant Channel 4 / Netflix series Feel Good (which should also be on your watchlist). Digging into their sexuality, struggles with addiction and dealing with anxious parents (now immortalised by Friends star Lisa Kudrow and Adrian Lukis in the series), it feels a lot like their key early text.
Stream on Soho Theatre On Demand here.
Simon Amstell: Set Free, Netflix (2019)
Now aged 42, Amstell has one of the most interesting career trajectories of any British comedian, starting out as a snide (though very funny) TV presenter on shows like Popworld and Nevermind the Buzzcocks before evolving into an underrated sitcom writer (Grandma’s House), film director (Benjamin) and, throughout all of the above, a stand-up of growing prowess. His 2019 hour-long Netflix special, Set Free, is a career-best: eye-wateringly honest, painfully introspective and very, very funny – without having to make fun of anyone other than himself.
Nish Kumar: A Very Clever Boy, Netflix Comedians of the World (2019)
Like James Acaster, Nish Kumar’s previous evisceration of Gervais’s transphobic jokes has gone viral this week (you can listen to the clip below). But that aside, the British host of The Mash Report (RIP) is a leading light of left-wing comedy who arguably tops Netflix’s ‘Comedian of the World’ series with bits on, among other things, Monopoly, Coldplay and David Bowie.
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Dylan Moran - Dr Cosmos, Amazon (2021)
When asked about Louis CK – whose sexual misconduct Gervais makes light of in Supernatural – in a recent interview, the Irish star of Black Books put it brilliantly: “Let’s say we’re talking about champion knitters, and you know, for the knitter, it’s the world knitting finals coming up. Now, he hasn’t dropped a stitch. And then, all of a sudden, he takes his d*ck out in front of the other knitters. How do you think that’s gonna play out for his career?” A rare case of an established older comedian being thoughtful rather than belligerent as the world changes around him, Moran’s Dr Cosmos is a masterful riff across religion, politics and pop culture ephemera.
Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel, NOW (2022)
Jerrod Carmichael landed himself an unlikely Saturday Night Live hosting gig in the wake of this acclaimed special (he was self-aware about it at least, calling himself “the least famous person in Saturday Night Live history”). Rothaniel is an intimate, confessional piece in which plumbs the depths of Carmichael's personal life. In it, he enters a literal dialogue with his audience (there’s a group therapy vibe to the whole thing, but it’s also funny – we swear). As has been widely publicised, it’s also the way in which Carmichael decided to come out as gay to his fans, a decision which he fascinatingly unpacks in real-time.
Hannah Gadsby: Nanette, Netflix (2018)
In Gervais’s view, challenging comedy is about making jokes about supposedly taboo subjects and recalling all the times you ‘owned’ someone on Twitter. In Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby’s world, it’s a high wire act between well-crafted gags and deep dives into personal trauma that confront her audience with sometimes deeply uncomfortable truths. Nanette was not an easy watch, but it was undoubtedly a watershed moment for comedy that pushed the boundaries for what stand-ups can make people laugh at, think and feel – basically what Gervais thinks he is still doing, but hasn’t for many years.
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