Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Andrew Santino: Cheeseburger’ On Netflix, What’s The Beef, Exactly?

The official description for Andrew Santino’s first Netflix comedy special feels like it’s written by and for 13-year-old boys: “No topic is safe in this unfiltered stand-up set”! But is the hour really that juvenile, or is this sales pitch simply playing to the politically-incorrect trendy crowd? Maybe it’s both. Maybe, though, it’s selling Santino short, and there’s more to be found in enjoying his comedy as if it were a build-your-own cheeseburger.

ANDREW SANTINO: CHEESEBURGER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Andrew Santino released his first hour special on Showtime in 2017 while he co-starred on that network’s series about the heydays of Hollywood stand-up in the 1970s, I’m Dying Up Here. More recently, Santino has made a splash with viewers as the roommate and manager for Dave of FX on Hulu’s Dave, and he has smaller roles in Netflix’s Me Time as well as the upcoming series, Beef. So it makes sense for Netflix to deepen their relationship with him. He’s also developed a bigger profile and fan base in recent years thanks to his two podcasts: “Whiskey Ginger,” where he interviews other comedians; and “Bad Friends” with fellow comedian and MADtv alum Bobby Lee.
In this hour, Santino tackles his and our possible feelings of shame over our sexual preferences and kinks, his disdain for politicians, and eventually gets around to explaining why he titled the hour, “Cheeseburger,” and any resemblance to plot points in Beef or The Menu on this point are completely coincidental.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: As directed by Santino himself, the framing and look of this hour is fairly by-the-book.
Memorable Jokes: The teaser video above wants to sell us on Santino via his reactions to getting a prostate exam, which come across as juvenile and pedestrian stuff. To the point where it prompts him to reflect on his own childhood, when other kids would hurl gay slurs at him for doing anything that seemed remotely not masculine enough. Despite repeating the slurs in doing so, Santino wants us to know that he’s “not saying it with negative connotation” when he suggests that Jesus Christ might also be gay. Because the opening section of this hour has a larger thrust; that is, overcoming issues of shame. “You should be allowed to feel whatever you want to feel, man,” he says.

As far as his feelings now? He believes in climate change, but wonders why activists or politicians want to put the blame or onus on him for ruining the environment. Especially since he believes most all politicians are abhorrent. “We get yelled at. They take no responsibility,” he says.
Santino later asks us to consider our own personal responsibilities when it comes to being an audience for art and comedy, and uses his closing bit about taking his dog to the hardware store as a test for how well the audience has played their part in going along for the ride.

Our Take: Santino cites Dave Chappelle as an example for how free speech remains free, but not without consequences. His take on Chappelle:

“We live in this place where the beauty is he can say that stuff. They also have a right to be very upset at that. And that’s the duality of the America we live in, that you’re allowed to hate it, they’re allowed to say it. We got to keep f—ing moving. That’s kind of how it goes.”

Santino then makes a logical leap that’s worth perhaps closer examination, because he insists that when it comes to the free speech of a stand-up comedian in particular, the audience has entered into a contractual arrangement with the comedian. “When you come to these rooms, you agree to be a part of this thing.” Santino may mock an audience member in a knowingly but winking offensive manner, he says, because what happens in the room stays in the room. “Outside these walls, it’s a different set of rules.”

Exactly. Which is precisely the conundrum for comedians who want to take their material out of the room by recording it and sharing it with the rest of the world, out of context and beyond the parameters of whatever bargain the performer has with the live audience.
Santino claims to not care about his legacy, per se. He merely wants his audience to enjoy him. Much like they would a cheeseburger. Albeit a cheeseburger that they’ve custom-ordered off of the menu.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Santino’s burger doesn’t provide the most satisfying meal for my palate, but there’s enough meat and fat in there to please most folks, and by spicing things up in the second half of the hour, he’s done enough to provoke you into talking about this burger with your friends. Whether you liked it or not.

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.