Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Heather McMahan: Son I Never Had’ On Netflix, Another Comedian Instagram Success Story

Are you a McManiac? Do you even know what “Tiramasu, bitch!” means? This may sound like gibberish to you, but to hundreds of thousands of others, they’re code words that they’re fans of Heather McMahan, a comedian from Atlanta who now has her first Netflix comedy special to reach the global masses.

HEATHER MCMAHAN: SON I NEVER HAD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Heather McMahan went from small New York City comedy clubs to Instagram star to guest host on the fourth hour of the TODAY show in 2019. When the pandemic hit, McMahan moved back to Atlanta and became an even bigger star on Instagram, and when clubs reopened, she found herself touring larger and larger theaters, and booking big guests on her podcasts such as Jennifer Lawrence because they were big fans of hers.

Netflix viewers first saw McMahan either in a small role in the 2021 rom-com, Love Hard, or as part of last year’s Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival’s Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin: Ladies Night Live showcase. Now with her first solo hour in the spotlight, McMahan takes on Adele, Rebel Wilson, and Khloe Kardashian for letting her down with their surprise weight-loss regimens, how she was the titular “son I never had” for her father, and her misadventures in IVF treatment.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Imagine a Millennial offspring of Brett Butler and Caroline Rhea who can whip up the inspirational energy of Chris Farley’s motivational speaker character, Matt Foley.

Memorable Jokes: McMahan may be confident in her self-image. As she says early in the hour: “I’m a proud size 14, and I really get annoyed with this whole body positivity movement” But she’s got bones to pick with the societal peer pressure of maintaining “toxic positivity” no matter what, because everyone has an “emergency weight,” and if you don’t know what that means, then you still recognize yourself in the mirror. As for Adele, Rebel “f—ing” Wilson and Khloe “K Money,” McMahan feels these women “did us raw dog dirty” because there’s a code among “members of the chub club” to alert the others before you lose massive amounts of weight.

If you’re wondering where McMahan gets her outlook and personality from, then you’ll find it not only in the title of her special, but in her jokes about going through a “power lesbian” phase in her pre-teen years. Note: There’s a description of McMahan seeing her parents in the yard doing “Israeli military drills” which may hit either weirder or harder due to what’s going on in the real world right now.

Not that anything hit harder for McMahan than losing her dad suddenly to pancreatic cancer, just a week after he received his diagnosis. That said, she found plenty of humor in the hot doctor who had to deliver the news to her and her family, in the local funeral home who tried to gouge them out of an additional $30,000, and in McMahan’s own choices for delivering the eulogy and other funeral planning.

But it was in her grieving her father that she found her comedic voice and fans by putting it all out on Instagram, where she said she never intended to become an influencer. “I’ve never influenced anybody for good, only evil. So never take my advice.” Yet somehow, Lululemon invited her on an all-expense paid retreat to California, in which she regales us with stories about bonding over edibles with NBA stars, and the rude awakening of her big break getting called in to guest host TODAY next to Jenna Bush Hager.

Her newfound fame has had other side benefits, too, albeit mostly from fans clueing McMahan in on big blunders she has made in the process of her taking hormones and trying and failing with fertility drugs.

Our Take: The hour opens with McMahan giving herself a pep talk into her dressing room mirror, only to be interrupted by her mother (“my mom is like Judge Judy with a Boston accent”), who brought the urn containing Heather’s dead father (presumably) which she carries with her to the side of the stage. It’s great that she literally has kept her family close, as McMahan has more than tripled her IG fan base in four years, from 237K when she showed up on TODAY in July 2019, to more than 771K today.

Then she immediately demonstrates why she’s popular by receiving a huge ovation from the theater crowd in Lexington, Kentucky, falling to the floor and posing, then upon getting back up, says: “I ripped my pussy, Kentucky. Hold on.”

If you find her too sexual or gross, she has a retort for that, too: “A male comedian could get up here, drop trou, do the f—ing helicopter for 45 minutes, and get invited on Joe Rogan.”

Getting invited repeatedly to join Hoda and Jenna on TODAY might work just as well, though, right?

Our Call: STREAM IT. As a member of the Dead Dad Club and the son her father never had, McMahan wisely already is following his dying advice to her. Following her dreams. Never living with regret. The only thing left is an all-star intervention at the Cheesesteak Factory.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.