Matt Rife: Natural Selection

Okay, I have laughed too hard with this guy on TikTok too many times but this is really bad, the first 20 minutes can easily make you turn it off, and beyond that it gets better but it's still bad.

I can accept that some comedians can only shine in a smaller an warmer crowd, but I can't imagine someone writing this script and thinking "this will do well". The stories are so long, uninteresting, and barely believable, and by the time the joke hits you're just sitting there with a straight face. By the 40 minute mark you'll just be waiting for it to end.

It's better that they stop promoting this and then try a second time next year, because I don't think many people will be watching a second special if they watch this.

This unfortunately fell short with me. I have been a fan on Matt Rife's for a while now but unfortunately seeing this special turned out to be not special at all.

Matt Rife has made a real name for himself via social media and his crowd work which is phenomenal and some of the best I have seen as of late.

In this special it's focussed on his actual set and not his crowd work as obviously crowd work completely differs from show to show but your general set does not.

At the end of this special you see quick clips of Matt Rife doing his crowd work after his set has finished and in those short clips is where you can see the audience laughing the loudest.

We want to see you engaging with your audience.

All in all looking forward to seeing how Matt does progress as a comedian.

I've heard lots of comedians talk about taking one year to write and perfect their special, I've heard them talk about how to approach controversial topics, or for example - when is too soon.

A general consensus is that you'll be forgiven for a lot, if you're funny.

Sorry Matt, this is simply not funny.

The jokes went way too long, didn't deliver, highlighted your youth and inexperience, and sounded clueless and immature.

Bummer. Let's see if you can recover from this one.

Maybe now is the time to look inward instead of double-downing on the stupidity & childishness.

It is simply: not funny.

Love that guy on insta, his crowdwork is hilarious. I had high expectations from this and it was just meh. Very flat jokes, nothing really clever or funny on more levels. At some point i was questioning if this guy is really smart or just pretty face, because some of those jokes like from teen person. It was all very surprising to me. Not in a good way. I love dark, incorrect humor. I mean I am fan of Jimmy Car or Ricky Gervais and both are ahole, but this just didnt work at all. He sounded cocky and know it all, no respect, not humble, not relateable. And i dont care he mentioned he doesnt like when someone comment negatively on internet on something he is proud off. You can do better and you should know.

Having watched him on social media and seen his funny clips, I was surprised that there was a lot of backlash against this show, much of it about certain jokes that some said were misogynist. So, I decided to look and see.

The jokes many claim were misogyny were rather tame compared to much of the harder hitting comedians out there, and I'd use Dave Chapelle as a comparison as he's said way worse about practically everybody in my view, as have many British comedians.

The problem with Matt Rife's Netlfix special is it starts with a standing ovation, which is really odd and scripted it seems. Then he speaks and I didn't recognise him as the same person because he seemed to be doing an impersonation of the dudes in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, where every second word is dude and everything is rad. It's simply embarrassing to watch as he's trying to be something he's not: ghetto and hood.

The nerves were evident and he wasn't natural or relaxed and probably had too much expectation placed on him by the audience, producers and most likely himself. If he's going to recover from this, he should do what he does well and rip the hell out of himself for this dud of a performance. And drop being a dude, dude?