Andrew Santino: Cheeseburger

Massive Santino fan here. Watching this just doesn't make me laugh the way his pods do. Of course stand up is a whole different ballgame than podcasting. Maybe there is a widening between funny podcasters vs funny stand up comics going on. Santino's a funny guy but I realized watching this he's just better off script than on script. That's not a bad thing. It's just a new trend in comedy. Still have huge respect for him. Lots of great jokes here (don't let the offended Trump fans on the thread fool you). It may be a bit watered down for Netflix, but I think I'll be sticking to the podcasts moving forward.

I've seen Santino live several times. He's absolutely killed it when I've seen him. This, however... I have no idea what this is. This feels like the pumpkin spice latte of comedy specials. Generic, bland, about as "basic" as comedy can get. At not one point does this special ever pick up and grab you. Probably be more effective as background noise while you're doing housework than anything else. I feel like he has reached that level where he has attained some level of success, and now he thinks he doesn't have to try hard anymore. It's very clear in his writing and execution. Unfortunate when comics go this route.

I am not very familiar with Andrew Santino, or his work. He appears to be a charming, decent guy. The issue is that he is just not that funny. It is not that he is offensive, or too esoteric. He covers a variety of topics, from the pandemic to sexuality to growing up in the 80's. His delivery is natural. His jokes and storytelling might be ok if he was a friend of yours, but not enough to conquer a Live audience. One of the other issues with the special is that he is also the Director and it is not shot very well. The special keeps going back and forth between two camera angles and it it a little distracting. I like Netflix comedy and try them all. This was very average, at best.

Like I once wrote before it's impossible to please everybody with humour as we all have a different sense of humour but rating this stand-up comedy with the lowest score possible is just ridiculous. It was my first show from Andrew Santino and it turned out to be promising. I will gladly look out for more of his shows. He's not afraid of bashing Biden and Trump, or any other politician, as they are all puppets and incompetent. Cheeseburger has some good jokes, but they're not constant enough to make it exceptionally good. Andrew Santino is a born raconteur, it's obvious he likes to entertain people, but some parts of his show are sometimes a bit long before the jokes come. That's the only negative thing I found about this particular show. I definitely like his sense of humour, maybe a bit borderline to some but not to me as I like it raw and over the top. You have to be allowed of laughing at anything, that's what humour is about, no matter if you offend others or not. You just can't please everyone and that's fine.

The man looks like a cross between Bill Burr and Robin Williams. And it was not a waste of time to watch this special. I particularly enjoyed the "ocean big, straw float, turtle swim" bit.

That said: I don't think this is a fine example to stand up at all. Not because he doesn't have a sense of humor, but because he is extremely scared of speaking his mind.

Though at times (when targeting Biden) he acted like he wouldn't mind backlash from the woke, he most definitely does. That is exactly why he didn't and couldn't target Obama or Kamala.

Totally in line with the CRT narrative, he equated Trump with Biden on the basis of "whiteness" and literally presented these people's race as "the root problem" with them.

I wouldn't mind much had I gotten the impression that Andrew Santiago himself DID actually buy the ideas behind rampant woke extremism. But when you read between the lines, you just KNOW his mind is not in peace with that narrative. He even mentions Dave Chappelle, which is tactically a huge mistake. Because he can't dare say "Hell yeah, Dave is great and spot on!" All he does with dropping Chappelle's name is some lame attempt at mitigation. Had he not blatantly shown the contrast between Dave and himself, he could hide better the fact that he doesn't have the guts to speak his mind. But he just walked right into it.

In what world can the "only mistake" by Kamala Harris be "not getting rid of Biden"? What is it about Kamala that Andrew thinks is different than Biden?

"She's Black!"

Really?

Look, Andrew: If you are smart enough to question the narrative with straws, you gotta be smart enough not to be duped by "anti-racist racism". You shied away from saying aything bad about Obama not because you thought he was the ideal president (maybe he was, that's not the issue) but because you pandered to what in your mind was your audience.

In an age where people criticize even Bill Burr for not being sincere enough, holding yourself back and trying to walk a straight line will not help you develop.