2024 was a good year for bad specials. I’m glad to concede that there were a couple of really good comedy specials released this year, but I’m even happier knowing that we’re not judging the year based solely on the quality of it’s online releases.

First, some highlights. The good stuff. Whenever Anthony Jeselnik drops something new, I can confidently know it’s going to be great and that I’ll be coming back to it many times over many years.

His newest, Bones And All, just came out on Netflix. It might not be the best thing he’s ever done but he’s in his best form, confidently using everything he’s learned in his 22 years of doing comedy.

He doesn’t hold back on talking about comedy either, with incisive takes on comedians who lean on mean trans jokes and play the victim of cancel culture while raking in millions. For this reason alone I’d call it essential viewing, but there’s other reasons too. He’s extremely funny and every one of his appearances is a masterclass that eager comedians can learn from.

Another member of my all-time top five, Kyle Kinane, released a special this year and it’s called Dirt Nap. Kyle’s the best storyteller in the business and he can find the funny side of anything. Dirt Nap is on YouTube and I recommend it highly.

I’ve already written about it this year, but I think Sarah Tollemache’s special, Butthole Money, is extremely enjoyable and closes with one of the best callbacks ever. Like Kyle Kinane, she’s put it on YouTube so you can watch it for free.

Another excellent special that isn’t getting enough recognition is Des Bishop’s offering, Of All People. It’s smart. It’s funny. Watch it and you’ll be outraged that it’s not more widely known. It’s also on YouTube, free to enjoy.

But what about local content? Thanks for asking. My mate and Aussie comedy legend Jacques Barrett released his first special this year. He’s imaginatively titled it The Special. You can’t look it up online. It’s available as a USB purchase online or at his shows. It’s good. Jacques showcases exactly what makes him one of the most respected comics in the country.

Those are my five recommendations for 2024. It’s worth noting that Ali Wong and Nikki Glaser released new specials that I haven’t seen yet. Ali Wong’s specials are always good and Nikki Glaser‘s is apparently her best so far, so I will be looking them up when I’m able to.

Now let’s look at what sucked.

Joe Rogan promoted his Netflix special Burn The Boats with the hype that he’s apparently the world champion of comedy and this effort is his first in six years. Pretty much everyone agreed that it’s objectively bad.

If you search online you’ll see literally hundreds of negative reviews. The funniest and most informative one is here on YouTube, but you could spend a week going through them all and their criticism trumps anything I could say.

What I will offer is that the anti-plagiarism ranter hasn’t just plagiarized his own act but he’s pinched jokes from his own friends. Worse, one of the jokes he pinched is from Brendan Schaub‘s “The Gringo Papi” which has, for the last two years, held the championship belt for worst special ever. If you’re going to steal a joke, steal a good one (or better still, don’t).

He also leans on all his usual talking points: Gay sex is gay. You can’t trust vaccines. Covid. Aliens are real. Anal probes are funny. Weed references and local pandering are easy sources of applause. Shouting is funnier than talking so shout a lot. It’s cool to be edgy and controversial, so let’s pretend to be edgy and controversial.

It’s cringey and unfunny by any objective standard. And that might be OK. I watch a lot of comedy specials and they don’t all have to be the greatest thing over. Rogan was never a great comedian, despite what he an his many minions will tell you. It might be OK is he wasn’t simultaneously pumping himself up as the elite leader of the only 250 good comedians left in the world today.

He’s high on his own supply, fed nothing but praise by his cadre of disciples. He hasn’t worked out that the praise would only mean something if all of his parasitic minions were actually funny themselves. He’s been insanely successful and made incomprehensible amounts of money so it’s easy to forget, even for him, that none of the success comes from the quality of his stand-up.

I’ve invested too much time talking about it, but holy shit it’s bad. I’ve always watched his stuff and found something to like, but I just can’t do it this time. Honestly, the footage of him talking about how amazing it’s gonna be, discussing how painstakingly he crafts his material, and “training” for it by taking ice baths is funnier than anything he wrote for Burn The Boats.

OK, it’s better Roseanne Barr‘s 2023 special “Cancel This.” I saw that this year and wish I didn’t. Just fucking awful. I never enjoyed her, even before she mutated into a delirious psychotic right wing nut job, but it’s just sad watching her forget what she’s saying mid sentence. It’s sad watching her shit on everyone in her family, who are all apparently “libtards.” It’s sad watching her shout alt right slogans as if they were jokes. There’s nothing about it that’s not sad.

At least we didn’t get anything that bad in 2024, unless you count all of her appearances at Trump rallies.

Tony Hinchcliffe came pretty close, though, Again, his claim to fame was a Trump Rally, and even Trump disowned him after that one. After overwhelming backlash for a lame racist jab, he’s thrown together a special to double-down on his bullshit. It’s appropriately called Garbage, and even more appropriately he’s made it available on Elon Musk’s toxic platform formerly known as Twitter.

Like Gringo Papi, it’s short. Like Gringo Papi, you’re still waiting for a funny joke when sufddenly it’s over. Hinchcliffe is deally leaning into his contrived edgelord persona, making sure every single joke is offensive to someone.

I know his podcast, Kill Tony, is about the most popular thing in the world (though definitely not because I’m a fan. I think it sucks and it’s bad for comedy, but that’s a separate post), but Tony Hinchcliffe is objectively the worst thing about it.

Have you seen his earlier work? I have, and it looks like he’s bombing in every single thing he ever did. These days he has a successful podcast, is mates with Joe Rogan and thinks that’s proof he’s a good comedian. Personally, I’m more likely to be convinced of your comedy ability by seeing your actual comedy.

I’d be less harsh if Hinchcliffe demonstrated anything resembling a grounded perspective but he’s been looking at his podcast’s numbers and hearing Rogan describe him as a roast-master and comedy assassin, so he’s describing about himself as the greatest thing ever happened in stand-up. It’s hard to be forgiving about lame smug punch-down jabs and fake contrived edgelord bullshit when he’s so clearly convinced that he’s superior to everyone.

Anyway, at least in Garbage he’s not bombing. Not totally. There’s some giggles. Sure – he’s pandering to a very specific audience, the Trump supporters on the Elon Musk platform and name-checking people like Tucker Carlson – so they’ll cheer even if he’s not funny. That’s the one takeaway I got from that horrible Roseanne Barr special. Good thing, too, because it’s not fucking funny.

Honestly, the only redeeming quality about Garbage is that he gave it a realistic name.

And, to be fair, the shitty specials of 2024 probably aren’t as bad as some of the crap that infested last year. I already mentioned Roseanne Barr‘s dementia-fuelled travesty, but the same network (FOX Nation. Surprised?) also released a special with Rob Schneider that was so busy telling us it was edgy and anti-woke (it wasn’t, btw) that it forgot to be funny.

Oh, and abusive sexual predator Chris D’elia made another fucking special, called Grow or Die. Sadly, he hasn’t done either of these things. Instead, he whines about cancel culture. Apparently, all of the awful things he’s done don’t matter. He argues that he got cancelled for not being trans. Look; he’s never been funny, and he wasn’t about to start during this train-crash.

OK… thinking about some of the shit that came out last year, 2024’s not that bad. Rogan and Hinchcliffe seem to get worse and more successful at the same time, and at the same rate, but we’ve had plenty of reasons to be cheerful.

Now excuse me… I’m going to watch Anthony Jeselnik do his thing again.