Top Ten Comedy Specials of 2024: Self Published

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Top Ten Best Comedy Specials of 2024

Welcome to the 2024 Best of Everything in Comedy Awards!

BEST COMEDY SPECIAL is one of the most coveted awards every year, and for many, even more meaningful than Comedian of the Year. In recent years, comedy specials have exploded.  Networks- both streaming and broadcast- have upped the number of specials they air, and there are so many more networks than ever before.  At the same time, the audio-only comedy album is disappearing.  Hardly anyone records an album without also putting out a video version- typically on YouTube. With the number of specials growing exponentially, and the disappearance of the audio album, we’ve decided this year to reorganize our categories to better reflect the comedy world.

So this year, we’ve split our specials into two separate categories- one for specials bought by a network or streamer, and another for specials self-published on YouTube and Video On Demand services.

That means you can vote for TWO specials this year! To vote for best special released on a streaming or broadcast network, click here.

PAST YEARS WINNERS:

Even though we’ve said goodbye to our Album category, replacing it with self published special category,  the interest of preserving the past, here are your prior winners. So let’s take a quick look back at the winners of the last 10 years

Last year, Bob the Drag Queen won Comedy Album of the Year for “Woke Man in a Dress.” In 2022 Jen Kirkman won best comedy album for OK Gen-X.  In 2021, the best album award went to James Mattern for The Check Spot. In 2020, Bonnie McFarlane won for her album Bird Calls.  In 2019, Rich Vos scored a win for album of the year for When I Saw Hamilton. In 2018 Adam Ferrara won album of the year. In 2017 you gave the award to Joe DeRosa, in 2016 you overwhelmingly picked Rich Vos V as your favorite album of the year, and in 2015, Jay Mohr won  In 2014, and our first annual album of the year award went to Big Jay Oakerson.

Don’t forget you can vote for  Comedy Movie of the Year! Vote for Comedy TV Series of the Year!  Vote for Best Book by or about A Comedian or About Comedy Vote for Best Comedy Special: Streaming and coming soon, Comedian of the Year!

Connor O Malley Stand up Solutions (YouTube).  690,000 views and counting. “If Indiana Jones was from Illinois”  Connor is in character as Richard Eagleton, an aspiring entrepreneur pitching the world’s first artificial intelligence stand-up comedian, with powerpoint. It’s like….fucked up genius.

Colin Quinn: Our Time is Up/ Stamps & Tea (YouTube). The only person on our list to release two full specials this year, CQ is on the Mount Rushmore of New York comedians forever.  Our Time is Up was released in May, has racked up 615,000 views and was taped in front of a room of psychotherapists. He covers social media, identity, Karens, Manners, super ego and more, and some of the funniest jokes released this year can be found therein. Stamps & Tea was released in November as an election special. The 43 minutes have received 164,000 views and was taped at the Comedy Cellar, covering politics. Do we really even need a president?

Kyle Kinane: Dirt Nap (YouTube) Recorded with 800 Pound Gorilla, at the beloved Acme Comedy Club in Minneapolis, Kyle has 1 million views. Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, in Dirt Nap he covers tolerance, returning to your roots, the plot of Furious 7, and an epic story about moving to Oregon during the pandemic and taking in a stray cat.

Rich Vos Anonymous (VOD) His first stand up special, after releasing 11 albums, Rich taped his hour in front of an NA meeting/convention in Long Island. Loaded with personal insights, tons of self deprecation, plenty of deprecation and some new stories from his addict days, Anonymous is a must rent or buy for any comedy fan.

Dan Soder on the Road (YouTube) Some brag about being a comics comic- Dan is a comedy fan’s comic. He’s absolutely beloved which is apparent from the 2.4 milllion views he’s already racked up.  Dan is never not funny. . Produced by 3 Nuts Studios directed by the Homeless Pimp at Helium Comedy Club in Portland, On the Road is 40 minutes impressions and stories and jokes.

Ali Siddiq Domino Effect Part 3 & 4 (YouTube) Ali is a force of nature and has dominated YouTube with his four part- so far- comedy special about his rough upbringing in the Houston Projects, trafficking drugs, and being incarcerated.  Parts 1 & 2, released in 2022 and 2023 already have 20 million views combined. This year he released parts 3 and 4-three and a half hours combined, each with over 5 million views.  Part 3  tells the true stories of Ali Siddiq’s first few years of incarceration for drug trafficking. Part four goes into the later years, starting comedy and getting out of prison. Don’t be the one who sleeps on Domino Effect.

Sal Vulcano Terrified (YouTube) Everyone loves Sal Vulcano because he’s an Impractical Joker, he’s a sweetheart, and he’s hilarious.  1.7 Million views can’t be wrong. Sal released  Terrified with 800 Pound Gorilla and taped at the Vic in Chicago. He covers the fears he had throughout his adolescence especially those that lingered too far into adulthood. He talks about thunder, menacing 80s song lyrics, a war against moths, you’re going to love it.

Sarah Tollemache Butt Hole Money (YouTube) Sarah’s 50 minute special was filmed at Grove 34 in NYC while Sarah was 9 months pregnant.  150,000 viewers (and counting) have watched Sarah hilariously talk about the challenges of living with mental illness, showing your butthole, fighting the patriarchy and more, she is one of the best writers in comedy and one of our favorite performers on this list or anywhere.  Its her second hour special. Directed by Patrick Holbert, produced by Joe List.

Nathan Macintosh Down With Tech (YouTube) With 110,000 views so far, Down With Tech is one of our favorite specials this year.  Its his second YouTube hour (first one was called MONEY NEVER WAKES) and is filled with the funniest take down of tech nerds, social media, Mark Zuckerberg, screen time, Apple, Steve Jobs, AI, Elon Musk, and robots you’ve ever heard. Nathan belongs that exclusive club of hilarious ranters who have righteous anger, and know how to take the piss out of anything. He’s one of the few comedians truly releasing an hour that centers on a topic and he does it brilliantly.   “Leave people alone, for God’s sake. ‘Why can’t a robot drive a truck? Why does a human being have to drive a truck?’ I don’t know. Maybe because a robot doesn’t have a mortgage!” Filmed at the Comedy Cellar Village Underground in New York City.

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