Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli

No pun intended - I really like Pete. He is a good comedian and this stand up special is nice too. That may sound worse than I mean it to be. Also nice may not be the word you may think of when you watch this! As already stated in my summary line, he uses quite a bit of profanity. By the way this is nothing new - see Richard Pryor and many others from many decades ago.

He has some jokes about sexuality and drugs too. In other words you cannot be too sensitive or easily offended ... well you can, but it probably does not make much sense watching this if you already know this will trigger you and make you angry ... just saying. I also am quite certain this year will have way better stand up specials ... at least for me. That said, I don't mean that this was one is bad ... well he is bad ... but in a good sense ...

The only person that could have written that has to be Pete David send himself. I keep giving this guy a chance after chance and I am consistently disappointed. He had his moments and I mean brief moments at SNL but he is absolutely terrible as a stand-up. Surprisingly he's better at acting so long as that role is basically exactly who he is in real life but at least it comes across as natural. I don't care about his dating history or anything of this sort but this guy got put on a pedestal and I don't believe he is deserving of one and I think this is my last foray into the world of Pete Davidson.

Pete Davidson is Pete Davidson, and continues to be Pete Davidson in his most recent standup special, which is titled Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli. It might be a little less funny than I remember his older standup being, and the decision to film it all in black and white felt a bit pretentious, but I got a few chuckles out of it, and other specials in the past from lesser comedians have certainly provided less in the past.

I feel like the main thing that tanks this is the way he milks certain topics long past the point where they stop being funny. It felt like half this special was dedicated to talking about interactions with a stalker, and whether the story has any credibility is beside the point; it just stopped being funny after a while.

Anyone who's enjoyed Davidson's humour in the past will get some laughs out of this, but it's definitely not a great special... and I say that as someone who has enjoyed some of his humour in the past. I'm not going to say standup is dead or anything, but I haven't been wowed by a comedian's special in a while; I can say that much.

I can see that Pete's standup skills have improved since his first special. In this one, he's become more confident and has a smoother delivery. I like that he still comes across as somewhat relatable despite his fame - he hasn't lost the casual vibe that's become his signature. This special also had a good pace, with plenty of content, and just enough callbacks to show that he's put thought into making it a cohesive performance. There was definitely some dark humour, and I didn't enjoy the mum jokes (those who've seen it know what I'm referring to), but conversely there were multiple other parts when I laughed so hard it nearly hurt. If you like Pete's usual style of comedy, you'll enjoy this.

I was underwhelmed with Pete Davidson's first Netflix special, "Alive From New York," which struck me as a little sloppy and unpolished. It was pretty good, but it was his first special and the potential for well-written jokes was there.

Because of that, I hoped that this second special would demonstrate his growth. And it did. His jokes in "Turbo Fonzarelli" are better worked out and clearly more practiced. He was much more comfortable and confident with his stage presence, and ultimately it felt like the show was more for his fans and less for himself. I'm genuinely excited to watch Pete continue growing and evolving his comedy.