The 10 Best Stand-Up Comedy Specials Of 2022

The night before he underwent stem cell transplant surgery in June 2020, Norm Macdonald decided he should record the new hour he’d been working on, just in case he never recovered. Since the pandemic prevented him from filming it with an audience, he shot it alone to a camera in his home. He did survive the treatment and lived another year, but never got to tour again. So Norm’s producer edited the footage from this night, and Netflix delivered it to us, complete with a coda: a postscript panel consisting of David Letterman, Dave Chappelle, Molly Shannon, Conan O’Brien, Adam Sandler, and David Spade, talking about their friend Norm after just having watched the footage for themselves. As O’Brien said: “He had this folksy, completely out-of-time — I don’t know if he was born 300 years too late or 300 years too early, but he’s talking in a way — no one speaks like that.” Macdonald managed to be somehow timeless, outdated, and very much of his time, all at the same time. And only he could’ve talked this way in that condition without an audience and made it look so easy. (Read my full review)

Watch Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special on Netflix

It’s a bit of a magic trick for a comedian to stand on a meticulously-designed stage, dressed head-to-toe in white to match the stage and the objects upon it, and then mock the “modern-day comedy special” for sometimes seeming more like a TED Talk than anything resembling funny, only to follow that by saying: “I have nothing of educational value to add to your night…I just want to tell you what it feels like to be poor.” And then Moses Storm did, making full use of the stage, displaying photos of his younger “little lady” self onto it, with a camera perched above that he directly plays to from time to time. To top it all off, he closes with a cliffhanger! If you watch til the end, you’ll be as intrigued as I was to hear Storm say the introduction for “Part Two.” (Read my full review)

Watch Moses Storm: Trash White on HBO Max

There’s a rich comedic tradition for overconfident characters who find themselves in way over their heads but cannot seem to get themselves out of the situation without making things worse. (See: I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson; the movies of Will Ferrell.) Kate Berlant and John Early mine this tradition to great effect. And in the cinematic universe they’ve created for this special, they’re not only able to create surreal absurdist moments that allow for the currency of hot caramel or the existence of big dog families, but also to joke about each other in increasingly meta manners. Whether they’re attempting to one-up undermining each other in front of Vieira with backhanded compliments, or alone in a dressing room questioning the boundaries of their relationship, they prove time and again that as singular as they may be individually as scene-stealers, they’re a powerhouse duo together. Even if plenty of their sketches find themselves feeling a pinch of imposter syndrome. No, they belong here. They certainly belong here. (Read my full review)

Watch Would It Kill You To Laugh? Starring Kate Berlant and John Early on Peacock

Chris Redd exudes so much more energy onstage and control over his audience, making you feel like you wish you were in the room to fully catch the infectiousness of the joy he’s spreading. People may have been surprised to learn this fall that Redd wouldn’t return for a sixth season on SNL. But as he addressed this crowd (perhaps knowing he’d leave but not having announced it yet): “People think I’m living my dream because I’m on SNL,” adding “I’m living white peoples’ dream.” He explains: “I’m grateful. I’m blessed. It’s changed my life.” But do you think he’d still be 5-foot-6 if he were living his dream??? As a comedian and as a performer, though, Redd stands tall. (Read my full review)

Watch Chris Redd; Why Am I Like This? on HBO Max

Lil Rel Howery had the happiest homecoming of the year, and director Ali LeRoi’s best decision was allowing the camera to linger on the comedian’s sheer enjoyment of the proceedings. That starts straight from the opening spotlight cue into a bouncy beat that brings the audience to their feet, with Howery applauding Crucial Conflict (“West Side’s finest” hip-hop group who opened for him, with a brief appearance over the end credits). In between, he dishes about some infamous moments caught on film over the past year, from a pastor robbed during a livestream service, to “The Slap” at the Oscars, and several Verzuz battles. When Howery says “I am happy as hell to be here,” we sincerely believe him. (Read my full review)

Watch Lil Rel Howery: I Said It. Y'All Thinking It. on HBO Max

What makes Bill Burr stand out among his peers is not that he plows ahead despite his detractors. Oh no, plenty of Gen X men in comedy seem to get off on their offensiveness and mine it for additional riches these days. But Burr also acknowledges where he may be wrongheaded, as well as where there’s room for growth and/or compromise, and ultimately progress. Perhaps he’s simply more skilled as a performer and comic. Perhaps having children has helped him see a better way forward. When Burr says midway through, “I am a changed person, believe it or not,” there’s at least one guy in the audience who vocally disapproves, and Burr challenges that man to see if perhaps his anger is misplaced, if perhaps that audience member is jealous or afraid of getting left behind by Burr. Either way, the comedian is changing for the better. (Read my full review)

Watch Bill Burr: Live at Red Rocks on Netflix

Taylor Tomlinson jokes that she questioned whether she should joke about her mental health, ultimately brushing the worry aside because, heck, she needed new material. Ultimately, she realizes how losing her mother to cancer affected her childhood as well as her early ambitions, which led her out of religion and into comedy and TV credits since she was 20. At one point, she asks rhetorically, “Do you think I’d be this successful at my age if I had a live mom?” before answering, “She’s in Heaven. I’m on Netflix. It all worked out!” Pause. “This is a real thing I said in therapy.” She can joke about all of it now, and to great effect. (Read my full review)

Watch Taylor Tomlinson: Look at You on Netflix

Sheng Wang doesn’t mind sharing his secrets as well as his struggles as a comedian on the come-up, whether he’s sharing his poor eating habits on the road, or revealing that he once paid more to get to a gig in Boston than the gig was paying him. But it’s in his responses to these predicaments that he proves that the funniest comedians don’t need to wait long to make fun of their own tragedies, no matter how minor they may be. He even finds a way to turn annual rent increases in New York City into a motivational tool. And with all the current trending on social media about “quiet quitting” among Gen Z and younger Millennial workers, Wang already knows the score on how employees for years have used workplace settings to their personal advantage. Likewise, as the son of immigrants, Wang also can acknowledge that choosing a comedy career might not have been the best investment to prove his worth as an American. But it should pay off a lot more in the years to come. (Read my full review)

Watch Sheng Wang: Sweet & Juicy on Netflix

What might make Jena Friedman’s comedy tough to swallow for your typical late-night TV audience is precisely what makes her vital in starring vehicles where her penetrating punchlines and dark humor can truly shine. It’s no wonder Sacha Baron Cohen hired Friedman to help him maneuver his way through scrapes such as duping a pregnancy center doctor into believing his daughter needed a baby taken out of her. But Friedman finds herself cracking abortion jokes while carrying her own baby to term. Her personal circumstances, coming as they do when the politics have shifted, have led to perhaps her sharpest comedic work because it’s so laser-focused. Here and now, her sound and fury signifies everything. Friedman claims she chose political comedy because joking about sex and sexuality made her uncomfortable, despite the notion that women in comedy her age were encouraged to do so to make men pay attention to them. “Long story short, that’s why nobody knows me.” It’s about time everybody knows Friedman now. (Read my full review)

Watch Jena Friedman: Ladykiller on Peacock

Watch Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel on HBO Max

Jerrod Carmichael acknowledges not only the pressure an audience may feel once they realize that a filming makes them part of the performance, but also how he must feel knowing he’s recording this for posterity. So he unpacks his shame regarding his birth name, regarding the unfaithfulness and consequences of such by all three of his paternal ancestors, and regarding his own sexual conduct. In a lighter moment, he rationalizes: “if you knew them, you’d know keeping a secret is the only way to honor them.” For all of the seriousness of his revelations, Carmichael does manage to keep things from getting too dark. First, with the cultural references to Destiny’s Child, Terry McMillan, “The Color Purple,” and Tyler Perry movies. Later, as the audience indeed takes the comedian up on his offer to make the room feel like a family gathering, weighing in with observations and questions. But the audience mostly acts here as his surrogate therapist. Guiding him and supporting him through this hourlong confessional that helps him move forward into the light. It’s an hour that’ll have you talking and thinking about what comedy can do and what it can be. (Read my full review)

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.