Hannah Gadsby returns with a third Netflix special that starts good and ends great. While her first special is best remembered for being a serious affair, and her second increased the quantity of jokes (Gadsby herself acknowledged she'd unpacked most of her trauma in her first big special), with Something Special, I feel like Gadsby just revolutionised "my wife" comedy (which itself is a generally tired type of standup that I tend not to like).
To elaborate, it's a pet peeve of mine when stand-up comedians rely too heavily on jokes about their wives (mostly men, but I've also seen female comedians who make much of their routine about partners), and that there seem to be increasingly fewer ways to make these jokes funny. They're not always inherently unfunny, but it's a type of joke you start to recognize (and get tired of) after watching a decent number of standup specials.
Here, Gadsby's show largely revolves around the last few (mostly positive) years of her life, particularly how she came to be married. Her jokes aren't at the expense of her partner; they're more just funny and endearing observations. The endearing part makes up for the fact that the material isn't always laugh-out-loud funny. It's a little more subdued, but it's consistent and doesn't often miss. It also builds up to an excellent ending that made me appreciate the special as a whole much more.
If there's one complaint, it's that things grind to a halt whenever Gadsby mentions "editing out" jokes that don't hit. I feel like comedians should take a failed joke in stride, lampshade its failure in a funny way, or actually edit it out and not let the imperfection show. I know I've seen other comedians lately do this kind of reference when something doesn't hit with the audience, and I think it's starting to hurt specials. It's confusing, because I remember her second special had some better meta-observations about the nature of standup, but here, they just feel like (very occasional) awkward bloopers.
But this is largely a very good special, and expertly subverts and puts a positive/wholesome spin on the tired "complain about my wife for an hour" style of standup special. From now on, anyone else who wants to base a comedy special primarily around their significant other has to make sure it's at least as good as this.
