Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale

As a big Gaffigan fan, this latest special is is weakest one to date. And he's had some weak ones already. After the Pale Tourist (which was fantastic) he kinda ran out of ideas. Most of the hour was a DOA. His jokes just don't land and are undercooked and totally unfunny. I did appreciate the darker material, especially about the pandemic. He's pretty funny when he is sounding more negative about life. But unfortunately, the rest of the jokes are just bland. This will be the last special I watch from him. Hopefully he'll just have some good film roles in the future. He is good in the parts he's had in movies.

I am a huge Jim Gaffigan fan. So multitalented and a sense of humor that you aren't afraid to listen to with your kids in the room. Good, clean fun. We both come from the midwest. I wanted to love this special as much as his others; but, he's lost a step. Perhaps COVID dulled his standup skills a bit, I can't say what it is, perhaps his material, perhaps he appeared to be trying a little too hard because he realilzed he wasn't hitting homeruns. Not sure; but, I'm not sure I had a good laugh until halfway through. I still think he's a national treasure; but, he has set the bar so high for himself that sooner or later he was going to come up short, and this special #10 ("Dark Pale") was the one. Hope it's just a glitch, a momentary lapse, because he is one of th best comedians alive today.

Just as good as the last ones, but COVID had taken his comedy into darker directions and I am all here for it! You can't expect someone to just make food jokes (and there still are some) for a quarter of a century. Also I bet some of this got review bombed because he said he hates Trump! He hates Trump not you get over yourself conservatives.

I thought his material was stronger pre-pandemic, but he is still better than 99% of active comedians and he doesn't weigh into the culture wars like Chapelle or Gervis even though I agree they have every right to. Just his typical brand of humor with a dark comedy twist.

I love the comedy of Gaffigan. But in this special, there are sections where he traded in social commentary for comedy. Don't get me wrong, I can laugh at jokes directed at any party. But his SJW 'jokes' didn't even make me chuckle. I've seen all of his specials, but I've noticed that the more political he gets, the less funny his specials become.

In all honesty, I don't think I laughed until about 15 minutes into it, and he's done diarrhea jokes in the past, but this one went WAY to long. I will admit that there were parts in there that was funny in the way that Gaffigan normally does it. Overall, I'd say this wasn't one of his best efforts. But he's set the bar pretty high for himself and it's hard to keep that consistency.

Jim Gaffigan has always been a reliable and hysterical laugh and this was just not it. He took a couple mediocre bits and absolutely rode them into oblivion. It really seemed like he either fell into the "they'll laugh at anything I say" trap, or he thought he could completely change his style. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he witnessed the meteoric rise of Joe Rogan and his band of edgy comics and decided to try and tiptoe that way too. We chuckled a few times and watched the whole show but it didn't have the same punch any of his other shows. I'm rooting for his next set to get back to funny Jim.