Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Kathleen Madigan: Hunting Bigfoot’ On Prime Video, A Comedian Really Feeling Those Generation Gaps

This is her fifth hourlong comedy special, but only Kathleen Madigan’s first in seven years since releasing 2016’s Bothering Jesus on Netflix. Her return finds Madigan now on Amazon Prime Video as an Amazon Original, but is it also a return to form for the former Best Female Comedian at the American Comedy Awards?

KATHLEEN MADIGAN: HUNTING BIGFOOT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Despite the promise of the title, or perhaps completely leaning into it, there is very little actual Bigfoot hunting in this hour from Madigan. Instead, she’s much more focused on what dealing with her aging parents, worrying about what Millennials are thinking, and realizing what she could and could not accomplish with her own life thanks to the free time she found herself with when the pandemic kept her from touring.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Considering how much of her comedy comes from wondering how she fits in, whether it’s comparing herself to the generations above and below her, or whether it’s comparing her lifestyle to the people she meets on the road in rural America, then how would Madigan compare to other comedians? Going by two other recent hours…she’s got the heartland appeal of Roseanne Barr, and the cultural mindset of Chelsea Handler, but exists somewhere between the two of them while not anything like either of them. If anything, she’s most like her former touring partner and longtime friend, Lewis Black, but much more chill.

Memorable Jokes: Her take on Caitlyn Jenner isn’t so much an opinion about the trans community as it is a commentary on Madigan’s own laziness. “I’m in my 50s, and I don’t want to go to LensCrafters.” So forget having enough desire to undergo multiple surgeries later in life, or even making sourdough bread or much of anything, especially and despite having all of the free time in the world for a year during the pandemic. Turns out Madigan’s school nuns had her pegged.

She jokes that the one thing she did pick up in the pandemic was a gambling habit, thanks to all of the new apps making it all too easy to bet on anything and everything. Madigan’s one lesson: Turn off the notifications on your phone. Why?“Because that is 100 percent the devil’s doorbell.”

Much of her new hour focuses on our generational divides, with Madigan smack dab in the middle of it all. On the one hand, she thinks the #MeToo movement might be wasting their time on elderly politicians such as Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley: “He doesn’t even understand why you’re out…like, of the house!” Even elderly liberals, such as Madigan’s own farther, are hilariously out of touch, as she reveals his unfounded worries about…not being able to wink at a pretty female co-worker? “Dad, if you winked at a millennial, they wouldn’t even know what you were doing,” she replies, prompting a funny act-out imagining the reactions of young women to such a wink. Madigan compares our current geriatric government to “a Florida bridge club” making fun of Nancy Pelosi not for her politics but for the way her dentures make her talk, of Mitch McConnell for his obstructionism, and of President Joe Biden for not having people around to help him get out of his own way sometimes. All of which leads Madigan back to her own parents, who as they hit 80, are nowhere near fit to be president.

Not that Madigan is ready to lead, either. She’s still more apt to spend her free time watching reality TV, from Shark Week to Tiny House Hunters, to Snapped on Oxygen. But she just might snap if a car salesman tries to pull some math on her.

Our Take: Similar to both Amy Schumer and Chelsea Handler in their most recent Netflix specials, Madigan is amazed and grateful that today’s youth, and young women in particular, aren’t willing to put up with abuse just because it was systemic and thereby ingrained for Generation X and those who came before.

What some people are calling quiet quitting, Madigan offers an alternative for Millennial workers: “I think their union should be called Yeah, No…And good for them. It never occurred to our generation that we could just leave here.”

A minor quibble, perhaps, but Madigan seems preoccupied with Millennials, singling them out time and again, imploring them to step up even more than they already have. That’s fine, but some of her protestations feel as though they’re targeting 20-somethings, who are more likely to be Gen Z.

There’s a bit in this hour where Madigan describes how social media makes her feel now that gives you a snapshot into understanding her. Facebook is for old people so impressed by Mark Zuckerberg that they fail to see how he has used them to get rich. Twitter is too aggressive, too soon to make you feel small. TikTok is too much, she says: “I feel like I sat down next to someone who just did an 8-ball.” Instagram is more her speed. Is someone going to tell her Zuckerberg owns that, too, tho?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Madigan is the mischievously friendly person you might meet in a bar who responds to a political debate with zingers such as this: “I will only discuss the Second Amendment if you can name another amendment.” Did you know that George Wallace was Madigan’s opening act for this taping?!? I only found that out in the end credits, but Wallace’s participation here serves as a testimonial that if you’re looking for a funny time, Madigan will provide you with the laughs and the giggles and the whatnot.

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.