Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.