Anthony Jeselnik: Fire in the Maternity Ward

All jokes are about sensitive social values. So this is unusual and often surprising

Unapologetic, funny, and dark for the sake of being dark.

When I first saw his Thoughts and Prayers special I was floored. I couldn't predict most of the jokes and was actually shocked that he said some of the things he said. It was hilarious and for me dark humor at its best. This however was just him trying to recreate the same effect in the most laziest way possible. All these repetitive setups became tiring and predictable after 20 minutes. I think we got it after the thousandth 10 second punch-line.

He gets a 6 for originality though, I haven't heard his types of jokes anywhere else. When you watch a lot of specials it's refreshing to watch someone who doesn't make the same kind of old jokes about millenials, Starbucks ordering, how times have changed, people getting easily offended and so on. He is in his own lane and therefore competes with himself, this wasn't his best tho.

I like Jeselnik's comedy a lot. This special however, was a disappointment for me. For the major part of the show, he's repeating this trope becoming idea of short jokes that consist of a short setup and then an ending that turns the expected context around. While most of these were smart and funny, you come to expect the turnaround. So he starts with something, and as a viewer you already know, 'ok, he's going to end it with something to change it.....and.....there is is'. Funny at first, but then nothing more than simply 'cute'. The shock effect runs out if you repeat these kinds of jokes and Jeselnik does this over and over in 'Fire in the Maternity Ward'. In three cases I was even able to predict the complete joke.

His baby/abortion jokes are just ok. It didn't make me laugh. I guess the shock-effect has to be a big thing here as well, but it's nothing I haven't seen others do. Also, maybe for Americans, since in the US abortion is still a delicate issue, these jokes might have a bigger effect; to me however, they didn't do much.

All in all, for the most part these jokes seem suitable for these little books that are released as toilet-reads. Smart quick jokes that hold up over time and are funny to most people and don't require a lot of time to set up.

I wonder if 'Fire in the Maternity Ward' is a better watch when you do it in two or three stages or something; so that the 'setup-context changing turnaround'-effect holds up.

It's not as much a special as it is a dance between both sides of the line that defines the limits that we should never cross in comedy: It crosses it brilliantly and shamelessly and in this day and age, it is refreshing eventhough Mr. Jeselnik has been doing this kind of comedy for a long time. It is delivered flawlessly to a point where it feels unrehearsed and maybe even off the cuffs.

It is also refreshing to get such a great jaw-dropping, eye-popping, one punch combo, misdirection-filled comedy-laced hour in this, yet again, day and age where anyone can get their specials on TV and bore us to death. This is not it.

This is comedy.