Top Ten Best Comedy Specials of 2022
Top Ten Best Comedy Specials of 2022
Welcome to the 2022 Best of Everything in Comedy Awards! We choose the top ten and you vote for #1. Over the next two weeks, you’ll have the chance to vote on the best of everything in comedy- best stand up special, best comedy album, best comedy movie, best comedy television series, best comedy book, even the best comedy scandal. Every day we share a new category, and you can vote every day until January 4th. We’ll share the results on Wednesday January 5th, but all our nominees are winners. Use our lists as your guide to what to watch, read and listen to this year. BEST COMEDY SPECIAL is one of the most coveted awards every year, and even more meaningful than Comedian of the Year. If you’re even nominated for this award, your talents are at the very top of a long list of performers. A special is the truest, purest representation of a comedian’s talents.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Before we get to the nominees, we have to list some honorable mentions here, because we have so many more than ten favorites this year. Some giants put out great specials this year. Bill Burr: Live at Red Rocks is must watch, we’re big fans of Nick Kroll: Little Big Boy, you don’t want to miss Ricky Gervais: Supernature, and also Patton Oswalt: We All Scream, and of course Jo Koy’s Live From the LA Forum.
We love Ian Lara’s Romantic Comedy streaming now on HBO Max, Joel Kim Booster: Psychosexual, available on Netflix, Christina P crushed with Mom Genes, available on Netflix, and also on Netflix, check out Whitney Cummings: Jokes. We’re giant Tim Dillon fans so you won’t want to miss Tim Dillon: A Real Hero. Taylor Tomlinson’s Look at You is a strong hour from an up and coming huge talent- and you’re going to really dig Sam Morril: Same Time Tomorrow. All three are available on Netflix now.
Andrew Schultz: Infamous should be on your short list to watch, definitely check out Kyle Kinane: Trampoline in a Ditch, and watch Yannis Pappas: Mom Love, all available now on YouTube. Looking to discover someone new? We recommend Ranaan Herschberg: Jokes From the Underground and a great first special from Andy Fiori titled Check Right. Both are available to watch for free on YouTube.
We kept this list pretty traditional in terms of stand up specials- a mic, an audience, a performer. There are some other brilliant specials to talk about this year that went a different route, but we’ll get to those in a different category.
PAST YEARS WINNERS: Now, before listing the nominees, let’s take a quick look back at the winners of the last 9 years. In 2014, you picked Jim Jefferies “Bare” as the comedy special of the year. In 2015, the honor of best special went to Jim Norton’s “Contextually Inadequate.” In 2016 the late great Barry Crimmins took the award for “Whatever Threatens You.” In 2017 our champion proved to be the World Champion Judah Friedlander, for his Netflix work of art “America is the Greatest Country in the United States.” In 2018 you chose Gad Elmaleh’s “American Dream.” In 2019 you overwhelmingly voted for Dan Soder’s “Son of A Gary” as the best special of the year. Mark Normand “Out to Lunch” was voted the best special of 2020. And last year, you voted Shane Gillis “Live in Austin” as your #1.
Go through our list and vote for the Best Hour Special of 2021! Voting is open!
Don’t forget you can soon vote for Comedy Movie of the Year! Vote for Comedy TV Series of the Year! Vote for Best Book by A Comedian or About Comedy!
Coming Soon Comedian of the Year! and Comedy Album of the Year!
NIKKI GLASER: GOOD CLEAN FILTH. HBO. Nikki Glaser’s HBO special is the Nikki Glaser special you’ve been waiting for. In Good Clean Filth, Glaser is at her best and her bluest. She’s raunchy, she’s hilarious and she looks amazing. Whether cluing you in about why you should reconsider anal, or kink shaming, or explaining the hazards of giving handjobs, men who don’t eat pussy (and men who like it a little too much), or even dating dynamics, Glaser is finally a filthy female perspective to rival the dirtiest and funniest men in the biz. She’s shocking, she’s hilarious and she’s saying things so deeply personal, you may want to watch this alone. Glaser is the real deal, and brings us, and HBO, one of the best specials this year. Taped at the Paramount Theater in Denver.
Director: Linda Mendoza. Produced by: Alex Murray and John Irwin.
ARI SHAFFIR: JEW. YOUTUBE. Ari Shaffir is consistently one of the smartest and boldest comedians in stand up today. There’s nothing too taboo for Shaffir to discuss, but he’s not just looking for fucked up things to say for the sake of cringe. Shaffir knows what he is talking about, and for this special, he researched, he tested himself in front of tough audiences, and made certain his material was tight. Jew would have been controversial at any point in time, but it comes now, at a time when a wave of anti-semitism keeps Jewish culture in headlines daily. As both an insider (Shaffir was born, raised and educated Orthodox) and an outsider (after two years at Yeshiva he left his religion behind, becoming an atheist), Shaffir is the perfect person to examine, pull apart, and skewer the absurdities of religion. The result is hilarious, its full of truths, and its about as on-the-edge as a special can be. Filmed at Roulette in Brooklyn, Jew is undoubtedly one of the year’s best.
Director: Eric Abrams.
JOE LIST. THIS YEAR’S MATERIAL. YOUTUBE. It just might be that 2022 is the year of Joe List. In the middle of a very busy year, Joe cranked out his third stand up special and its ridiculously funny. Not since Woody Allen has anyone so thoroughly entertained audiences with nervous self deprecation. His anxieties are always operating at peak, and somehow Joe is able to look at his own experiences and find exactly what is funny about the things that make him most uncomfortable. Joe’s stories about riding a rollercoaster with children are absurdly funny, as is his material about learning to punch at an MMA class. The highlight might just be a story about his dad, a pizza place and an unfortunate situation. Filmed at the Village Underground, this year’s material is Joe List’s best…so far.
Director: Jason Katz.
HASAN MINHAJ. THE KING’S JESTER. NETFLIX. Hasan Minhaj is a brilliant writer and one of the best storytellers in the business. The critics have gone crazy for The King’s Jester- a personal storytelling journey and multimedia experience that covers a lot of ground, including struggling to start a family, a troubling teenage encounter with a white man at a family mosque after 9/11, and calling out Jared Kushner. This hit follow up to his other critically lauded hour, “Homecoming King” is engaging, smart, thought provoking, and always funny. Minhaj is one of the best, and The King’s Jester will stay with you for a long time.
Director: Prashanth Venkataramanujam.
ROBERT KELLY. KILL BOX. LOUISCK.COM. One of the funniest comedians touring today, yesterday and tomorrow, Robert Kelly has put together a special that will leave you out of breath from laughing so hard. He starts out funny and ends like a fireworks finally. No one owns the stage like Bobby Kelly and he wouldn’t and couldn’t put out a special unless he was certain he had given a killer performance. His infamously funny snow tubing story is peak Bobby, and yet he somehow even surpasses that with a story about getting intimate with his wife on a car ride home from Tony Roma’s. And we love Kelly’s candid stories about raising his son in a cultural climate that’s very different from his own childhood. Taped in Tampa Florida with a live band on stage, Bobby Kelly shares stories that WILL make you blush, and WILL make you laugh, and WILL make you tell your friends they need to buy it.
Directed, produced and edited by Louis C.K.
ALI WONG. DON WONG. NETFLIX. She may not be pregnant this time around, but now we know, Ali Wong is just as funny without a baby in her belly as she is with one. Ali’s third special, Don Wong was filmed at New Jersey’s Count Basie theater and it is full of everything you loved about her first two Netflix hours. Why don’t female comics get good groupies? Is marriage monogamy jail? To cheat or not to cheat? All this and more is hilarious in Ali’s hands.
Director: Nahnatchka Khan
JERROD CARMICHAEL: ROTHANIEL. HBO. Rothaniel is this year’s critical darling, and with good reason. Jerrod Carmichael’s third hour, available on HBO is mesmerizing, it’s powerful, it’s beautiful to watch, and yes, it’s also funny. Directed expertly by Bo Burnham, the cameras help bring you into the Blue Note Jazz club- and that’s essential to the success of Rothaniel, because its an incredibly intimate hour. Jerrod confronts demons and family secrets in this confessional comedy that goes deep, and pays off handsomely. You’ll love Carmichael, and you’ll love Rothaniel.
Directed by Bo Burnham
PAUL VIRZI. NOCTURNAL ADMISSIONS NETFLIX. Paul Virzi’s second hour special shows that Virzi has stepped up and is ready to compete in the big leagues. He’s deadly serious about being funny, and Nocturnal Admission is proof that he’s here to stay. Paul has found his stride in this joke packed hour. It’s very traditional comedy, covering familiar topics like raising your family, while still dealing with the craziness of your parents, relating to your community, and getting older. But though the topics are familiar the comedy is 100% original and unique. Virzi impressively navigates the line between shocking and relatable so skillfully you might not even realize he’s crossing boundaries. Standout moments include a hilarious conversation about “cholos”, and stories about his eccentric Sicilian dad who is sure he saw a UFO. Personal, silly and dark stories from a family man, that will have you laughing the entire way through.
Directed by Pete Davidson
STAVROS HALKIAS. LIVE AT THE LODGE ROOM. YOUTUBE. Stavvy Baby has made a huge mark this year, and he’s clearly this season’s break out comedian, going from a young kid who everyone had their eye on, to a killer with a huge audience. His hour, free on YouTube has four million views and its still growing. Filled with amazing stories about this Greek family, contemplations on broadening his sexual horizons, his personal adventure into the world of threesomes and more. In Live at the Lodge Room, Halkias displays an Incredible confidence beyond his comedy years. This hour shows Halkias is already a force in comedy and it’s just the beginning.
CHRIS DISTEFANO: SPESHY WESHY. YOUTUBE. Chris Distefano has it all- the love of a dedicated audience, the respect of industry, and he balances the two like no one else- showing he doesn’t give a fuck about being correct to his audience, while still being a pro and cultivating the love of the powers that be. Speshy Weshy is proof of that. Distefano self produced an hour that would be made on his terms, without the interfering hand of a corporate platform, and then once he was ready to publish, Netflix entered the picture, bought the special and released it. He’s at the perfect age to be caught between crazy stories about being a dad, and equally nutty stories about being a son and he covers the dynamic of having a half Latino family like no one else could, his story about getting fired from doing color commentary on a show called The Ultimate Beastmaster is hysterical, and nothing tops hearing Chris talk about the time he brought his dad to sit courtside at Madison Square Garden for a Knicks game. Also a great chance to brush up on your bruh slang, and abbreviated words.
Directed by: Chris Distefano.
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