The Prestige TV Podcast - Netflix Stand-up Specials

Episode Date: May 20, 2020

Netflix pushes out stand-up specials at a steady clip. We talk about two of our recent favorites, Jerry Seinfeld's '23 Hours to Kill' and Patton Oswalt's 'I Love Everything.' Hosts: Chris Ryan and Rob Harvilla Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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See you on the room. And welcome to TV concierge, a daily podcast where Ringer Staffers, Help you navigate the crowded TV landscape. I'm Chris Ryan, and today I am joined by Ringer staff writer Rob Harvillo. What's up, Rob? Yo, it's an honor to be here. Is this your first comedy special edition of this podcast? It is.

People can't see us on Zoom, but if they could, they'd see that I was like holding a mic and making a, what are you talking about face? And it says Chris Ryan, raw and unfiltered. It's very convincing. We're here to talk about some of our favorite Netflix specials. Obviously, one of the nicest things. things, well, there's many nice things about the Netflix platform, but this steady clip of stand-up specials has been just really, like, great to have because you can kind of just mix and match

and pick and choose the ones you want. And there's always like a new one in there. And surprisingly sometimes, like from big, big names, I mean, obviously there are some people like Chappelle who have gotten a lot of headlines. But Rob and I are here to talk about two of our favorite recent ones, Pat and Oswald's, I Love Everything, and the New Jerry Seinfeld special. Which one was that called? 23 hours to kill 23 hours to kill so rob let me ask you about Seinfeld first

because you wrote about this for the site would you call yourself like a Seinfeld stand up scholar going into this scholar would not be the right word I'm a Seinfeld agnostic like as a child of the 90s I've absorbed like massive amounts of Seinfeld you know like I watched a decent chunk of the show

in real time like when he puts the pez dispenser on Elaine's knee at like the player that's my favorite Seinfeld moment but just if you were growing up in that time you just, you had Jerry Seinfeld's voice in your head for so much of your life, even if you've never voluntarily absorbed any Jerry Seinfeld content. And so I'm sort of walking around with that. And I, I, you remember that movie comedian? Sure. That everybody has this realization and I wish it were earlier in my life. But you, that was the

movie that made me realize that like stand-up comedians are the most miserable people alive. Like, not miserable to be around, but like miserable within themselves. Like, they're just, they're so ridden with anxiety and they're so. grouchy and they love what they do, but they hate doing it. Like, that's just, I, that movie, I don't remember much specifically about that movie except walking out with just that feeling that, like, being a stand-up comedian, even like a famous stand-up comedian is like the worst thing in the world. Like, you just, you're never satisfied, no matter how rich and famous you are, even on Seinfeld's level. I feel like stand-up comedians had Twitter before Twitter was invented.

Like, they are living in that feedback loop of negative reinforcement of content. And constant self-doubt and self-loathing and they just manufacture content out of it. When it comes to Seinfeld as a stand-up, he's not only kind of like an expert at it, but he is also something of a of like a historian and a kind of protector of that. Did you get the sense when you were watching this latest special, like you were watching kind of a master at work? I kind of was in a way. Like, I love watching comedy specials, especially on Netflix. And like, what I love about them usually has very little to do with the actual. content, like what they're saying and what the jokes are, it's just the rhythm and the melody

of that person's voice and like the perfect feedback loop of like joke, you know, crowd reaction, another joke. Like it's not, I don't watch them in the same way that like you watch Netflix when you fuck around on your phone or like watch the office while you're cooking dinner or whatever. But there's just, there's something very soothing about the ambient quality of listening to a Netflix special or a comedy special, HBO, Amazon, whatever, that, that I enjoy regardless of whether like this is this person's best work or like, even if these jokes, are particularly funny. So like 23 hours to kill is nowhere near Jerry Seinfeld's best work. It's not his apex mountain. I would not say so. I don't understand what that concept does either,

but it's not. During the club. Yeah, right. So I don't know what Apex Mountain is, but I know that this is not Jerry Seinfeld's apex mountain. But it's still, you can still tell it's a master at work. It's just the rhythm and the melody is so perfect. And you can picture Seinfeld's voice in your head and he does a perfect Seinfeld and like, he's super grouchy. And it's like, this isn't his fault. all obviously. But like the first five minutes of this special or just Jerry Seinfeld going like, don't you hate going out? Don't you hate going to shows? Don't she hate going to restaurants? Don't she hate seeing your friends and touching other people? And it's just, it's just like the perfect worst timed thing to put out into the world in the spring of 2020. And it's, it's,

he's just so aggrieved. Like I, I just made a list of things that he complains about. Like I don't know if this is the proper. Okay, this is a no particular order. people who text him K instead of okay to save time, buffets, which are a subset of restaurants. Voicemail messages that tell him to wait for the beep, which he finds insulting because he knows at this point to wait for the beat. It's been like 20 years.

The fact that the word mail is still an email, despite there being no mail component to an email. That was confusing. The post office, also poorly time. Port-a-potties, cars with dual climate control systems, which you regards as frivolous, movie theaters that ask you to clean up after yourselves, automatic sinks in restrooms,

ventilated bathroom stalls, so you can see the feet. Yeah. The phrase, it is what it is, just in general. And finally, his wife,

solid 20 minutes on his wife as, like, the climactic. And it's just, it's another master at work moment where it's just, Jerry Seinfeld is a classic comedian in the take my wife, please.

Yes. Fashion. You know, like, read an old interview with him today, like talking about he was praising Hannah Gadsby's Nanette and like the way that is pushing comedy forward and like what a comedy, what a stand-up comedy special can be now is much broader than when he started out. And Jerry Seinfeld thinks that's great. But Jerry Seinfeld is not going to do anything like that. Jerry Seinfeld is going to

just tell jokes about how annoyed he is for an hour and like probably 30% of that is going to be, you know, about his wife, which he's, they've been together forever. They have three kids. He loves are very much, you know, but it's still Jerry Seinfeld saying stuff like, you know, marriage is just two people trying to stay together without saying the words, I hate you. Yeah. You know, and like the Jerry Seinfeld voice gets that over. And like, it has the rhythm and the form and just the melody of a joke and it registers as a joke. And it seems very funny. But it just the aftertaste by design at this point, like there's no way he's not aware of it. It's just, it's just bitter fundamentally. It's so strange that we could go back to 1997 and see him and see him when he was.

sort of when he was one of the most popular people in the country, if not the world. And then think about how Larry David, who was just essentially in the shadows of Seinfeld and was only really known by people who are close followers of the show, has kind of like just completely eclipsed him in terms of, I think, being the appropriate character for that style of comedy. It's like for some reason when Jerry Seinfeld tells jokes about what he's annoyed about, you can really admire the formal accomplishment of it. And he is funny. Like, this isn't like an evaluation of that. But there's something almost weirdly like churlish about the way Jerry Seinfeld does it. Whereas when Larry David does it, it's just an amazing character and an

amazing bit. Speaking of people being annoyed by stuff, you and I also watched Pat and Oswald's most recent special. I love everything. It's his first one since 2017. And he's obviously gone through a lot of personal tragedy since that. But when you watch this special, you know, I am taken back to the moment where I first heard his stand-up. He has such a distinctive delivery. And even though he obviously is somebody who cares a lot about not repeating himself and changing things up a little bit. And he's talked about how he could probably do the KFC sadness bowl bit for the rest of his life

and have a pretty good career. But when you hear him do these new routines and he opens up this special, it's just an incredible thing about what cereal is like, which is like you're watching. and you're like, I know what he's going to say. Right. Because I also feel that way about cereal. And as he gets into it, it's like watching an older athlete get warm on court.

You know what I mean? Like, you're just like, oh, he's still got it. Like, it's still so much funnier when he says it than when I think it about beige cereals made of Amaranth Flames. Yeah. And his observational wit is just so sharp. His self-deprecation is so funny. and you just feel like you're like, oh, yeah, like, I remember now, like, back in 2003 or four when he would put out records on subpop and we would listen to them at the record store that I was working at. And you're just like, it's the same guy.

Right. I put him mentally in that category of like all comics came up in like the 2000s, mid-2000s, and they put out records on subpop like Sarah Silverman, David Cross, Eugene Merman. And they were like kind of goofy and kind of grouchy, you know, and they'd riff on pop culture and they're kind of surrealist and kind of. a traditionalist, but they're now all more or less 50 or thereabouts. And, you know, they're established, you know, like Pat and Oswald, like, great and Ratatoui, you know, really good in young adults. Like, they're all established and, like, famous within their own spheres, people, you know, but they're still masters of this particular kind of stand-up. It's not like Radio City Music Hall or, like, Beacon Theater level fame, necessarily, but they're so good at it, you know, and they just, I just was making a list of, like, the references that he makes, you know, which is like this perfect mix of like high with just a little bit of low.

It's like Takashi Mika and like Suicide Squad and Cabaret and Roxy Music and Anas Ninn and Nick Cave and like Star Wars of course. Like I think my single favorite Pat Nosswald thing is like the Parks and Rec filibuster that he does. Yeah. He just he just pitches a new Star Wars movie for like 10 minutes for some reason. And like he's what did you make of he doesn't do a lot of political stuff. Like he has a few. He reliably does a couple of jokes about how you can. can't make jokes about the Trump era.

Like, I feel like he's done that in a few of his specials now. But, like, he, he goes into Me Too for a second. And he goes really specifically into, like, men who jerk off in front of women. Yeah. And he, of course, never says it. But, like, within his circle, like, there's no way to read that. But as a pretty direct. Yeah, there's no ambiguity that he's talking about.

Exactly. Louie. Yeah. I thought it was, you know, I mean, it was definitely probably, you talk about the ambient haze that you can watch these things in. that's definitely the one that made me like click the 15 second back just to make sure I heard it. Yes. I thought it was incisive for sure.

And, you know, I think a lot of people, it's interesting what you were saying about the Seinfeld one coming out and obviously him having seemingly a litany of complaints that are no longer valid. Like, you know, it's like buffets have been taken care of Jerry Seinfeld. You don't have to worry about them coming back. But this one seemed actually pretty prescient. the Patton Oswald special, I thought, felt very, not of the moment in terms of the, of the pandemic, but of the moment socially and politically. What did you think? Yeah, definitely. I mean,

he sort of ends it with lengthy rifts on like both Jesus and Denny's. And those are like, those are solid, you know, again, like this special is not necessarily his best work either. But yeah, I mean, I think there's always been a fundamental sort of weariness and grouchiness, you know, in resignation, but like finding joy where I can find joy to, Nosswald that I think is very well suited to this time. Like he, you know, his wife passed away in, I think, 2016. And like, he did a really intense special, like, about that and about grief and, like, sort of busted the format in its own way.

But he's since remarried. And I was struck by, he described his wife as this poem of a woman who relit the sky, you know, and then he goes on to tell some story about her. But just there are these concentrated moments of joy, of happiness, of just freshness to him that make him seem much younger, you know, than the 50 he keeps telling us that he is. Well, he's such an interesting guy. He's actually quite representative of like a larger trend in popular culture where I think Patton probably saw himself probably if I'm being honest, not unlike how I probably saw myself in the late 90s or the early 2000s. I'm sure you

probably share this where it's like the stuff I like and the stuff I'm a nerd about is probably never going to be popular. And it's always going to be just me and my three weird friends who like these kinds of movies or these kinds of bands or these kinds of shows. And then somehow wound up making a career out of that stuff. And I think that there is still a part of him that is that, like, I'm the guy in the record store who's just kind of like writing things down for my own amusement. I'm not like, and that, like, his relationship to his larger fame and his relationship to probably being a public figure, he still has that poetic streak. He still has that, like, that weird, literate streak that I think has always been a really key part of his comedy,

even if it's not always the quote unquote funniest thing. Right. Both of these specials, Oswald and Seinfeld, I thought a lot about Dave Chappelle. I've watched every Chappelle Netflix special and like none of it is his best work. And like,

I don't think anyone including him is misled about it. And like that's a master at work, even if the material is bad, which often it is. Like just the rhythm and the melody and just him saying something, you know, when he yells,

you know, when he whispers, just the quality of his voice. It's just, it's so perfect. But like, every Chappelle Netflix special has like 30 seconds.

where he says something ill-considered about like transgender people, about like Louisa Kay's accusers being brittle spirits. And then, you know, there's a huge reaction to that. And some of it is tossed off Twitter stuff. But like at the ringer, like our colleagues like Micah Peters and Alison Herman, have written very thoughtfully about that. But then Dave Chappelle takes offense to people taking offense to him. And then his next special, you know, has 90 seconds of him take.

And he's just, he's caught in his feedback loop. May the circle be unbroken. Yeah. Exactly. And it's, and it's keeping him. I don't necessarily want him to innovate or whatever. I don't even know what that would mean, but it's keeping him from doing fully what he does best.

And Seinfeld is inhibited in a less sort of alarming way in that sense. But Patton Oswald doesn't seem inhibited by any of that at all, even though he can be himself, like an extremely online person. You know, it's just you're watching somebody that just seems to have a healthy work-life balance and, like, internet, IRL balance. And, you know, that is another thing that's a very pleasant. experience to have right this second. Well, I think, you know, the funny thing is as we wrap this up, I mean, you and I are talking

about three people who probably have made us laugh, three or four people who have made us laugh more than anyone else in the world, Pat and Oswald, Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld. And we're almost talking about these specials the way we would talk about an athletic performance. It's like there is an obvious baseline of like excellence in what these guys do. And they're so funny and so good at what they do that it's actually. kind of fun to kind of take a ride on it and just be like, oh, I thought he could have done that one better, or that one was over the line, or I wonder how people will feel about that. It actually almost is a replacement for sports. Yeah, I mean, I just got to that last, the last dance episode was

Seinfeld in it. And there's that, that footage of Seinfeld and Jordan. And they both look just so dower and sad and like downtrodden and just sort of grouchy. And it's just, it's a perfect loop between them. But yeah, it's like, it's watching the Jordan era Bulls like play, you know, the Orlando magic or whatever. Like, you know, this isn't their greatest competition. This isn't their finest hour. But you, there's still plenty of that master at work feel to it. And there's such a low barrier to entry because if you're already watching Outer Banks and everything out on Ozark and everything, you might as well just kill 45 minutes by watching these guys. All right, we'll wrap it up there. So that's Padden Oswald. I love everything. And Jerry Seinfeld,

23 hours to kill. To kill. They're both on Nevers. Netflix and the Chappelle ones are obviously both there, and you can just keep firing up Netflix stand-up specialists as they come along. Rob, thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks for having me, Matt.