Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale

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.

I laughed so much that my sides ached. He dared to go where many comedians shy away from these days. It was refreshing how he called the shots. True comedy pokes fun at real human experience. This is what I like about Jim; he gets real.

The dark comedy was a good way to not take myself so seriously. Life is short. You need to step back and laugh at some of the dogma and cultural things that make us real. I like how he addressed death, religion, and yes, coffee drinkers who are so wrapped up in themselves they forget to laugh.

If you are really honest with yourself you can laugh at multiple levels.

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.

First of all it's essentially twenty-eight minutes of material that's been vamped and teased and fluffed somehow into an hour long special - which would be fine had it been funny or thought provoking or entertaining orrrr enjoyable! Then it's basically jokes about the jokes and bits on the joke just told which I mean.. Sure people love a call back and he does that third person commentary which can be endearing but this is not that - ok wait, I can explain it simply and it's not that he does diarrhea jokes - nay... It's cause he actually came at us with the laziest or played out of all jokes - Starbucks (and if u think it's not about the mispronounced name on the cup well boy-oh-boy....) all and all, for this once seamless storyteller that I fawned over, I have to say BOO! Boo Jim, just boo!

On a positive note: this is the only comedy show I've seen in a while that I didn't have to shut down due to numerous F-bombs (and worse). Keeping the act clean: good for you Jim.

On the other hand, I rate a comedy show by the number of times I actually laugh during the show... and a good show brings me to tears from laughing so hard. To be honest, I'm not really sure if I actually laughed out loud during the entire show. Maybe a light chuckle here or there. That's about it.

The shame is that there was some material that would have been legitimately funny-- if another comic had done it who had better timing. I could tell when a joke thudded just because his timing was lousy. A little longer pause and he'd have nailed it. But nah, it was like he just rambled on and well, that one went over like lead balloon. (Which has some actual relevance to his show.)

I did somewhat enjoy the Starbucks section, not because it was funny but because it was pretty spot on. His monologue on death and funerals was somewhat humorous but not especially impressive. A lengthy run-on dialog about diarrhea (un-funny at that) does not a comedy show make.

This was pretty sad. I think I'm generous in giving it 4 stars, but then again, he kept the show language relatively clean.

Next time Jim, maybe have an honest test audience listen to your show before you get in front of an audience. "Jim, it really wasn't that funny" would be doing you a big favor.