Sam Morril Talks About Navigating The Changing Landscape Of Streaming Comedy Specials And Viral Backlashes

Amy Schumer presented Sam Morril’s debut comedy hour for Comedy Central in 2018.

By then, Morril already had found some success on the small screen, as the native New Yorker hosted the sports talker People Talking Sports* (*And Other Stuff) for MSG, and performing stand-up once on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and multiple sets on Conan. Schumer cast him in her docuseries, Expecting Amy, as well as her shows Inside Amy Schumer and Life & Beth. You also heard him telling his own jokes before Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) took the stage in Joker.

In the past four years, Morril saw one special go straight to Comedy Central’s YouTube channel, filmed another for his own YouTube, got picked up for a third on Netflix (Same Time Tomorrow), and is releasing his latest hour (You’ve Changed) as an Amazon Original.

Morril sat down with Decider to talk about how much things have changed in comedy and how much they haven’t.

DECIDER: What’s the deal with comedians starting their own liquor brands?

SAM MORRIL: Well, who else is there? There’s not that many, there’s Bert Kreischer and Tom (Segura) have a vodka, (Mark) Normand and I have whiskey, and then who else, who else is there?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sam Morril (@sammorril)

Jim Gaffigan just came out with his own bourbon.

He copied us, you gotta talk to Jim about that. Like, I love Kreischer and Tom ’cause they were like, we don’t wanna step on their toes, we’ll go clear spirits. Gaffigan didn’t seem to care. It started as some limited-edition thing and now I think he’s going all in and we’re like, all right. He sent me a bottle. I’m not promoting it. If it was clear, I’d promote it 

What was the rationale behind you and Normand doing your deal with Bodega Cat? 

Mark and I are old drinking buddies. That’s why we started a drinking podcast (We Might Be Drunk). When we were young comics, that was the premise of the show, was that drink at the end of the night when you never get to see your friend, because that’s what happens. At first, you get to hang out, drink all the time when you’re an open mic’er, but then we started hitting the road that would turn into like one or two nights. And all that catching up is caught up in a one night. And every time it’d be like, all right, we should go. one more drink. and then that one more drink turns into like six more and we’re like f—, this is gonna be a rough Tuesday, but because the (Comedy) Cellar would just stay open, so It’d be blackout curtains, and you’re like, I don’t know what time it is and you leave it’s like 6 a.m., so we ended up doing a drinking podcast and we talked about all these celebrities who have their own liquor and it’s just like kind of cool to have your own liquor and Mark’s like, too bad what we can’t do that. Wait, why can’t we do that? We have listeners who run distilleries. I bet you we have like a good listenership of like drinking people, service industry people, distillery people, and sure enough we got hit up by so many people and it went from there. 

That ties into like the DIY spirit of the comedy that you and Normand have been doing since the pandemic, right? If you cannot rely on Comedy Central, and you cannot rely on the big streamers, then you have to do it yourself.

Yeah, I think that’s not just comedy. I think that’s the world we live in now. If you want to do something, there are ways to do it. You might have to do a little bit more of the work and it might be annoying. But I’ll tell you, sometimes you go with the bigger people and they don’t know how to do the do-it-yourself type stuff, and they could use a little more of that, you know? When things are all buttoned up and corporate, sometimes there’s 40 people on an email and nothing gets done. And when it’s just you, you have to make sure it gets it done. So, you know, there’s benefits to do-it-yourself but also to a point. It can be stressful both ways. 

Your new special, You’ve Changed, on Amazon Prime Video, feels like a proper special, what with you wearing a suit on a big theater stage at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre.

We did a small theater for the Netflix one, but this, you’re right, it’s like the bigger one and I haven’t done that. And it was a special that gave me a budget to play with. So I thought, I should probably use it and make it look nice. And it was, the backdrop is so cool, I think. I love the look at the special.

There’s a joke in the special about the streamers that might have passed on this. But I wonder, because you also executive-produced Dina Hashem’s Amazon Original, was it kind of like a foregone conclusion that you were going to go with Prime this time around? 

No, not at all. I didn’t think I was gonna go with them. I didn’t know who I was gonna be with at that point. Anything was open, could have been Netflix, could have been Hulu, could have been YouTube. I don’t rule out anything. So I think Hulu was interested, but they wanted to put it out next year. And I just didn’t want to wait. I want the material out. So no, there was other interests, but this was by far the best deal that I got. And the most enthusiasm I felt.

Right, Hulu’s plan is to do only one a month. And that’s not even starting for like another few months. 

And that was a problem, but they were nice about it. It’s also scary to be someone’s first, you know, I wouldn’t be the first one they put out, but like, in that first rotation. But yeah, I thought Hulu sounded good. I thought Netflix sounded good. And I thought Amazon sounded good. I just wanted to feel where the most enthusiasm was. 

You mentioned having a little bit more of a budget. How have the economics of making, producing and releasing a special change just in the past four years?

For me or for just everyone? 

From your experience, because you personally watched the process from doing one for Comedy Central that they put on YouTube in February 2020 (I Got This) and then took down. It’s now on Paramount Plus. then you put out your own special, then you made one with Netflix and then you made one with Amazon, so you’ve had four completely different experiences over the last four years.

Yeah it’s crazy. Everyone does it differently. But I think Netflix, I was one of those acquisition deals, so the budget wasn’t huge and I kind of had to be creative with it and that was OK. It was kind of done on more of a shoestring budget, but I thought it looked pretty good for what we were working with. But yeah, I’m playing with different toys here. I got a lighting guy who’s state of the art. I got a set designer who actually did Positive Influence, Tom Lenz. They’re phenomenal. They’re like the best at what they do. So I kind of was like, let’s spare no expense. If I go a little over what they’re giving me to spend on this, I’m OK with it. Let’s make it look awesome. I mean, s—, I got a f—ing Strokes song to open on. I was like, let’s make this cool, you know? 

That Strokes song costs money.

Yeah, these things cost money, but I thought, I was like, let’s make this really good. I want this to be really cool and feel official. And it’s the first time, the Comedy Central one, they put money on, but like it’s on Comedy Central in like 2018? No one’s watching TV, it was tough. It’s like, you do essentially feel like you’re flushing this hard work and material down the toilet. So that was tough. And then, there’s not a ton of specials on Amazon, so I do hope people watch, but I do think, well, at least everyone has Amazon.

The 2018 special that Amy Schumer presented that aired on Comedy Central back when Comedy Central was a broadcast network with archives of clips and things. They recently reposted your special to YouTube and at last check it has attracted 2.9 million views. 

Isn’t that funny? Do you know many people watched it when it came out on Comedy Central? Like 350,000. The crazy thing is I was ahead of the curve back then, though, because I knew they wanted to do an extended version for their website at the time and I said, OK, but you’ve got to give me a six-month window where people who don’t have your f—ing dumb app that no one had. I was like, “Give me a six -month window where they can watch it ad free without the app.” And they said, “OK.” And then they put it up with ads. And when I say there’s an ad like every three minutes, and not like practically planned. So it’d be an ad mid-story or something. And I’d be like, “You know I’m going against Netflix where people don’t have ads.” So they screwed me, I felt, so that’s why I felt no guilt putting up these clips illegally when they didn’t want me to do that. Because I was like, I don’t care. I want people to see the special, you know? 

There was that period where Comedy Central, because they were doing broadcast, your hour would be cut down to 44 minutes with ads on TV. 

Isn’t that crazy? You could do the uncensored version. Three cuts, three cuts. It’s a long time in the editing room because I’m doing one cut that’s extended for their website, 55 (minutes), maybe one cut that’s the first play, limited commercial, 50, and one cut that’s like 40. 

Of course now Amazon inserts ads for subscribers who don’t want to or cannot pay extra.

Yeah, I’m not excited about that. I mean, we’ll see. Netflix is doing it too, though, now, aren’t they? I mean, I think everyone’s doing ads, so. 

I’ve talked to some comedians who left Netflix specifically because they felt like they just weren’t being served. Unless they were a huge name, they were just kind of lost in the shuffle.

Exactly, it’s like you hit that Netflix Top 10 for a minute and then you’re immediately out, right? Because they put out a special every week. So as you just said, not special, so sure. I mean, for me, I didn’t leave, I would have entertained Netflix if it was a more substantial offer, but the offer was like very low or they said they’d make one with me in 2025, and I’m like OK well that’s nice, but it’s ready now. I mean I have no issue with Netflix or Hulu or any of them. I mean Netflix is obviously the big name but sure, oversaturation is a problem. Like, I mean, YouTube specials aren’t doing what they used to do, Netflix specials probably aren’t doing what they used to do, because there’s so many. Like, not everyone got that Tom Segura-Ali Wong bump when it was a desert over there and they got to just hang on that home screen forever. So, yeah, there’s a lot of s—. I do think if you make a good thing, it’ll hopefully get shared. But I think you just have to work. When in doubt work harder, because it’s a lot of competition. I don’t mean comics in competition, I mean like all forms of entertainment.

Like you said like putting a special on YouTube, like you and Mark did in 2020, was a lot different than someone who’s putting a special on YouTube now in 2024 when they’re numbering in the hundreds.

Yeah, I mean, I have a podcast and when I tell you how often I get hit up by a comic I’ve never heard of, who’s got a special. I’m like, holy s—, you know, it’s like there’s a lot of specials. 

I’ve already counted more than 250 new “hours” (350 including half-hours) released just in the first half of 2024. 

So you’re dealing with there’s probably at least two or three other comics releasing one when I’m releasing one  Isn’t that crazy? That’s a lot.

It is crazy. So at this point in your life and your career, is it more important to you to have validation from your peers or to have validation from the industry or validation from like the media, or is it the fans that matter the most?

They all matter. I mean, it’s hard to rank them. They all matter. I mean, obviously, I want comics I respect to think I’m funny. That means a lot to me. Fans are so important because they keep you going and they keep you writing. I mean, if I went back to when I couldn’t sell tickets on the road, it would be very hard for me to write new hours because that was hard. You’re playing the video game on Hall of Fame mode when you’re young, you know, and then you kind of move up, it gets a little easier. You’re busy, so your brain is a little bit more mushed a lot of days, so you don’t have that time to write, but, yeah, but having no one there, like, papered rooms on the road, that was tough. That was tough, too, because you want these club owners, they’re booking you based on your reputation as being a decent comic. You’re not being booked based on selling tickets. So they expect you to go up and kill, but you have to work on new s— in between. And then the crowd is like, a lot of them, who the f— is this guy? So you’ve got to prove to multiple people that you’re funny. But you want the industry and the media to think you’re good. You want them all to think you’re good. But then you also have to be OK with certain people just thinking you suck. Because if everyone loves you, something’s I think kind of wrong. I mean, I don’t even think I can think of anyone who everyone loves. It’s not possible. So you just have to be OK with pockets being like, not for me, and you hope the people who say not for me also say but I think he’s at least a real comic, it’s just not my cup of tea. You hope those are the people that don’t like you. 

I’ve known you at least since 2013, when you did get blowback from the internet and you bring it up, not by, you don’t name the person who kind of tried to get under your skin way back then, but you do bring up that episode, and that’s probably part of the reason your special is You’ve Changed, right? 

I thought it was a really funny joke because it’s real. I mean, it’s a real story and the fact that all the things are actually true and the fact that you can go through something like that and still be unforgiving or not understanding is so fascinating to me. So I think there’s a double standard and some people are gonna just go through life with blinders on and have no awareness. So for me, that I mean, that joke, that’s not in the special if it’s not a killer joke. It’s not something that lives in my head. It was just like, it’s funny. When people get upset with a joke, it fuels other jokes.

So that was from my last special, a joke that went viral about trans people. It was a positive take because I saw all these comics kind of in my mind, just doing like cheap trans jokes and it kind of annoyed me. And so I was like, well, I want to think of a different angle. And then someone said something to me that kind of annoyed me, and that was a joke. It was something that, you know, if something happens, you roll with it. Why did that not sit right with me? OK, that joke went viral. Someone got mad about it in the response. Because again, you’re pissing off, no matter what take you take, if you have a strong opinion in a joke, you’re gonna alienate people. So that joke goes viral. And then the person who hated me in 2013 pops back in. And I’m like, what the f— are the odds? So to me it was like, “you’ve changed” is something I always say comically to friends. So it just felt perfect. So you get to change, but I don’t. That’s really the theme of it. So you’ve changed. also I’m wearing a suit. I’ve changed, too. It just felt right.

You cleaned up your act.

I cleaned up. And “you’ve changed,” it’s a funny thing to say to people. There’s not much you can say back. It feels very final and judgmental. And I think it’s a funny thing to say. So it just felt perfect for the name. 

Do you feel like having gone through that when you were younger and unknown, that’s helped you deal with all of the more trendy kind of criticism, fan criticism or online criticism that every other comedian seems to be obsessed about? 

I don’t take it that seriously. I think getting obsessed with it is really stupid. I think giving them power, to me, that’s in the special because it was a good joke. As I said, not because I was like, I need to get back at this, I don’t care. You know, it, to me, it was just funny. But I think when you get obsessive and self-righteous as a comedian you forget why you’re here. You’re here to entertain people, make people laugh. So when you become obsessive about like we can’t say anything anymore, you can literally say f—ing anything. I’m shocked. my annoyance comes in forms of you know the social media companies moving the goalpost in, and not allowing us to say certain things or burying certain posts because of trigger words that make no sense. You know, maybe I say the word Nazi in a joke, I could be condemning Nazis, but they see the word Nazi, and this is like a robot algorithm that’s like that word’s bad, buried now. So now I can’t be sarcastic. Now, you know, it’s a form that can’t be toned. That’s what bothers me. It’s not like a person just, you know, saying you suck.

TikTok is such a weird place as people speak in different language, they change words around to try to game the algorithm. Like saying “unalived” instead of “dead” and “SA” in place of sexual assault. 

Yeah, but that’s something I won’t do. I’m not writing for the algorithm. I’ll bleep a word if I have to, but I’m not gonna write jokes based around this algorithm. I mean, how gross is that? I mean, it just sounds disgusting to say out loud. 

Do you feel like we’re past that intense phase of TikTok being about crowd work. I know you kind of like fed into that with aspects of your Netflix special.

Sure, I mean, here’s the thing with that. I think comics get annoyed with crowd work because they think any comic can do it. And I think there’s truth to that. If you’re funny, you should be funny, you should be able to do it. I think comics are judged on their joke-writing and ability to put together a good hour. So to me, crowd work is, it’s gravy, it’s extra. It’s fine, but it’s not like, there’s a reason I didn’t really put crowd work in this special. I want it to stand on just material. Because I don’t think that many comics can turn out a good hour. So I look at crowd work as like, if this is basketball, crowd work is dribbling. It’s cool, but it’s not really getting you anywhere without a jump shot and, you know, being able to pass and do other stuff. So it’s extra. It’s not good or bad, it just is. It’s fun. I like doing it at a live show and riffing on the city and doing other stuff that I probably don’t want to put in specials at this point, but I’ll still put it out because who cares?

Right, rolling someone’s ankles is fun to watch, but you don’t score any points on it. So did you film this hour before or after October 7, 2023?

I filmed it in March.

You mentioned being able to talk about anything, and you do mention being Jewish. But I don’t hear that many comedians even touching on Israel and Palestine. Do you feel like that’s one area that, even more than Biden and Trump, that you kind of try to like steer away from? 

Well, I think Biden and Trump is the opposite. I feel like every comedian talks about that. Whereas Israel and Palestine, it’s funny, I posted one joke about it and it was on this PunchUp app I use to get emails. It’s like a paywall, but for emails instead of money. And it got more engagement than anything I’ve ever posted, because I think people wanted to hear my opinions. And now I’m like, I should just post “Comedian Dissects Israel Palestine.” And it’s just me being like, thanks for signing up for my email list. But I won’t do that. Look, it’s something that’s so, It’s got to be a killer joke. That’s really what it comes down to, so like my thing is well I’m not gonna go there unless it’s worth taking them there. I think the audience begins to trust you like I’ll touch on issues that are maybe a little like I don’t know if I want to laugh at this and then I hope that by the end you’re glad you did, but with that topic, it didn’t feel right, and the right thing hasn’t hit me yet. It’s so new and so horrible and it’s ongoing. I mean, 9 /11, there’s a reason people didn’t joke about that the day after, you know what I mean? This is ongoing. So I think it’s difficult. Now I won’t say it can’t be done. But for me, it’s been difficult.

There’s that idea of too soon, right? And if it’s going like when is the right time? But then you can also you can get yourself like twisted and circled because then you can never do a mass shooting joke because there are so many shootings it’s always going to be too soon?!

That was a problem with Conan. They wouldn’t let me do a mass shooting joke because there could be a mass shooting today and it’s like every day, right, so you can’t roll the dice at 4 p.m. and there’s a man shooting at six and now it’s on the news. But you know what? I mean, I think good jokes are good jokes, but as I’ve said, you can do an Israel/Palestine joke. It’s just got to feel right. I just don’t like the edgelord stuff for the sake of being an edgelord. Like it’s got to feel authentic to me and it’s got to feel like it’s coming from an honest place because I don’t want to just shock people to shock people. I don’t like that. I like it to be thought out. 

Speaking of shocking, how do you think your alter ego is doing in the Joker-fied world that now includes Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn?

I don’t know. I wish I was in the second one.

So you’re not even in it? 

I told Todd Phillips the second movie should just be Joker walking into a comedy club and watching me do 60 minutes. That’s Joker 2, just he watches a Sam Morril special and it just cuts to him laughing, pans out. Yeah, directed by Todd Phillips. 

Oh man, because I got a big kick out of seeing and hearing you and Gary Gulman both in the first one. 

It was fun, that was a great experience. I had a lot of fun shooting that 

Damn, I really wanted you guys to still have a role in the Joker Cinematic Universe. 

Maybe (Gulman’s) in it. Tim Dillon is in it.

Tim Dillon belongs in that universe.

He’s perfect. Yeah, Greer’s (Barnes) in it. A lot of comics are in that movie.

Do you not sing? Because I know the second film is a musical.

You know what? I don’t think I can, but I feel like Phillips didn’t know that. You know, maybe he didn’t know I couldn’t sing.

Well, we’ll have to put it out there, since he could always add some audio of you in post-production.

 I know. Brando can’t really sing in Guys and Dolls. You just fake it and people buy in. 

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.

Sam Morril: You’ve Changed is out now on Amazon Prime Video.