Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mo’Nique & Friends: Live From Atlanta’ On Showtime, Precious Little Screen Time For This Oscar-Winning Comedian’s Comeback

In November, Mo’Nique filed a discrimination lawsuit against Netflix, claiming the streaming giant lowballed its offer to her for a stand-up comedy special because she’s a black woman. So what does she have to say for herself now that Showtime has put her front and center for Mo’Nique & Friends? Not nearly enough, it turns out…

MO’NIQUE & FRIENDS: LIVE FROM ATLANTA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: A decade ago, Mo’Nique won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as an abusive mother in Precious.

Somehow, someway, her acting gigs dried up despite winning an Oscar. From the 2000s, where she starred on TV in Moesha and The Parkers, to the big screen with turns in comedies such as Beerfest and Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins, and her own late-night talk show on BET from 2009-2011, to a whole lot of just talking about her beefs with Lee Daniels (who directed her in Precious), Tyler Perry, Oprah and more. After going Behind Bars to film a prison documentary and stand-up special for inmates in 2007, Mo’Nique found herself in show business jail for most of the 2010s. This is, in fact, her first stand-up special on TV since 2010, when she starred in Shaquille O’Neal Presents All-Star Comedy Jam: Live From Dallas. And like then, she’s sharing the stage now. Only this time, she’s choosing and presenting her friends: Prince T-Dub, Just Nesh, Tone-X, Correy Bell, and Donnell Rawlings (whom you likely recognize from his supporting roles on Chappelle’s Show).

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Showtime has a long history of airing comedy specials that are showcases fronted by stars, whether it’s the aforementioned Shaq, or Rob Gronkowski, or Fran Drescher leading Funny Women of a Certain Age last year.

Memorable Jokes: Each of Mo’Nique’s friends gets off a good bit or two.

Prince T-Dub, who has some 732,000 Instagram followers, joked about not yet monetizing his situation enough to keep from wearing the same outfit more than once, despite Mo’Nique hyping him up as “suited and booted” for this occasion.

Just Nesh (aka Taneshia Rice) may provoke a few folks by jokingly describing herself as “trans-slender” (saying she’s a size 16 “but I identify as a size 8”), but segues past that transgression into funnier observations about how the makers of the morning-after pill neglected to mention it’s ineffectiveness for plus-size women. “What am I supposed to do?” she quipped, adding later: “You ain’t got no Plan BBW?” Nesh also dishes a revelation or two about knowing two of the women interviewed in the R. Kelly documentaries, and what the disgraced singer’s parties were really like.

Tone-X, who hosts a weekday afternoon radio program out of Charlotte and often tours with Mo’Nique, came correct with observations about the differences between 25-year-old women and 49-year-old women, whether they’re dancing in the club or out and about trying to pull off yoga pants.

Correy Bell, who first got Mo’Nique’s attention via Instagram DM by claiming to be the star’s “spirit animal,” poked fun at herself and the lengths she must go to to please herself after giving birth to five children.

And Rawlings, whom Mo’Nique introduced as a “living comic legend” she has known since they both started in stand-up some 30 years ago, came out swinging at R. Kelly, Tekashi 6ix9ine, and the notion of jokes that are “too soon.” “I don’t think it ever could be too soon for a funny observation,” Rawlings suggested, demonstrating how the 2017 Las Vegas shootings that killed 59 and injured hundreds more could still make him laugh, if even just for the multiple photos and film footage of white guys running from the scene while trying to hold onto to their cups of beer. He’ll win everyone over, meanwhile, with bits about surviving his own short stint in jail, as well as a closer that references a viral video from 2016 involving gospel singer Shirley Caesar.

Our Take: But what about Mo’Nique? That’s why you’re tuning in, right?

“You know, it’s been a long time,” Mo’Nique starts off, “It’s been a long, god damn time. It’s been a mother-f—ing long time since y’all done seen a bitch onstage, baby. Awwww! I’m gonna enjoy this mother-f–er right here!”

Only she spends the majority of her 10 minutes onstage (out of the 70 total for the special) circling and repeating this message. She fell out of line from the other black entertainers at the top of show business, who decided to shut her up, or slow her down because of it, but she’s still here. She says this over and over again, only chock full of curse words. She calls out Oprah, again. She calls out Tyler Perry for not inviting her to his movie studio opening (Mo’Nique taped this Showtime special in Atlanta, remember, not far from Perry’s studio). “I thought we had dealt with the s–t, and they were gonna send a bitch a God damn invitation to the mother-f—ing opening,” she said. “Sometimes it’s OK to be uninvited. Sometimes it’s OK stand the f— alone.”

But she really doesn’t have to say much more about how she’s standing alone or what she’s standing for these days, exactly.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Mo’Nique had one job here. Well, two actually, but she only chose to do one job: Host a comedy showcase. Her real job was to remind us all why she’s right and Netflix and her haters were wrong. Or even leave us wanting more. This special didn’t do that. And that’s a missed opportunity, if not also a downright shame.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

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