The Best Comedy Specials of 2022
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After two years of filming stand-up specials in their closets and performing on Zoom, comedians were officially released back into the wild in 2022—and all of that pent-up energy made for some truly special performances. Jerrod Carmichael finally spilled his secret, Kate Berlant surrendered to the chaos, and Bill Burr called bullshit on everyone—and most importantly, himself.
This was the year comedy let out a collective scream. The year of the slap. The year that no one knew if or when someone was joking, making it very difficult to want to tell a joke at all. But jokes are sacred. Comedy is a right, just like speech. The best comedians enjoyed that right without exploiting it. They gracefully navigated the culture wars and invited audiences to stare down the real threats to comedy with them. As Jon Stewart pointed out during his acceptance speech for the Mark Twain prize, the best way to safeguard against comedy’s future isn’t by "changing how audiences think. It’s by changing how leaders lead."
In that spirit, here are the best comedy specials of 2022—featuring the very best jokes of the year, of course—from the comedians who threw themselves into the fray.
Jerrod Carmichael, Rothaniel
The best stand-up comedians aren’t always funny. In fact, the great ones do more than just sling jokes. They use stand-up as an opportunity to clarify something—either for themselves or the audience. In his latest HBO special, Rothaniel, Jerrod Carmichael does both. Stylishly directed by Bo Burnham, Rothaniel is a poignant exploration of Carmichael’s identity and his and his family’s propensity for keeping secrets. This is heavy stuff, but Carmichael navigates it with enviable grace and uncensored emotion. I won’t ruin it by saying more.
Kate Berlant, Cinnamon in the Wind
2022 has been nothing if not absurd, making the experimental improvisor and actress, Kate Berlant, all the more necessary. Her black and white special, Cinnamon in the Wind, which was also directed by Burnham (comedy’s reluctant kingmaker), defies categorization. Is it parody? Stand-up? A parody of a stand-up performance? It doesn’t even matter when the results are this good.
Part of what makes Cinnamon in the Wind so delightfully puzzling is Berlant’s own resistance to being understood, classified, and, ultimately, celebrated. You get the sense that she’d be more comfortable operating as a comic’s comic forever. But the success of Cinnamon in the Wind and her hit off-Broadway show, Kate, point to a future consisting of more mainstream success for Berlant.
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Taylor Tomlinson, Look at You
If we ever successfully destigmatize mental illness, it’ll be in no small part thanks to Taylor Tomlinson. In her new Netflix special, Look at You, Tomlinson mines her recent bipolar diagnosis for a show’s worth of perfectly crafted punchlines. The best moment comes when she compares having bipolar disorder to not being able to swim—“It might be embarrassing and it might be hard to take you places.”—and extends the metaphor into an elegant, 10-minute bit that includes likening her medicine to arm floaties and suggesting that adults who can float on their own must’ve had parents who supported them in the pool as children. It’s fucking hilarious and will probably make you want to hug the next child you see in arm floaties—a true win-win.
Ms. Pat, Y'all Wanna Hear Something Crazy?
I interviewed Mike Birbiglia earlier this year, and one of the highlights from our chat was discovering our mutual love and respect for Ms. Pat. Birbiglia said she's completely underrated. I hope that changes in 2023. As the title of her Netflix special suggests, Ms. Pat is equal parts stand-up comedian and storyteller. Like her hero, Richard Pryor, she fearlessly tells stories mined from her personal life that require audiences to "open their minds" (a phrase she repeats frequently throughout her latest special) and leave their judgments at the door.
Case and point: the three minutes she does on her Uncle Cecil towards the middle of the special. The story is problematic on multiple levels and touches on a variety of off-limit topics like sex work, disabilities, and sexual abuse. But it’s Ms. Pat’s story to tell and she does so in hilarious, scene-setting detail, with compassion for every character. It takes some courage to laugh with Ms. Pat about the past, but the reward is well worth the effort—because in laughing alongside her, it's clear the audience helps Ms. Pat heal too.
River Butcher, A Different Kind of Dude
River Butcher’s 30-minute Comedy Central special is a masterclass in culture war commentary. Watch as they bob and weave their way through a set that touches on topics as varied as white women’s performative allyship to their dad’s Google search history. Turns out, both Butcher and their dad are b00bs guys. The best joke of the set comes when Butcher mentions they got divorced during the pandemic. “Yes, queer people are getting divorced,” says Butcher, before pivoting to an impression of an outraged right-winger: “What’s next, divorcing your dog?” A moment later Butcher lets go of the bit and laughs. “I love that joke,” they say. So do I.
Sheng Wang, Sweet and Juicy
Stand-up comedian Sheng Wang is so damn good at observational comedy, I’m confident he could find something deeply true and hilarious to say about a salt shaker, or a rake, or a mason jar, or any other everyday item, for that matter. He’s like the beloved comedian Mitch Hedburg in that way. The two comedians also share a talent for premise and a deadpan delivery style, but Wang is warmer and more relatable than the famously idiosyncratic Hedburg. I laughed out loud and nodded in agreement on several occasions during Wang’s new special Sweet & Juicy, but nothing had me in stitches more than his extended riff on office printer paper: “Have you ever thrown away … warm paper?” Wang asks flirtatiously. “It feels wrong!” He’s right. It does.
Atsuko Okatsuka, The Intruder
Atsuko Okatsuka has been charming audiences all year long. First on Corden, then on Kimmel, and finally, in her debut special, which premieres on HBO Max on December 10. In Intruder, Okatsuka plays tour guide to her many sources of anxiety and awkward interactions, including that one time she licked a stranger’s dog. The best part of her act is her audience work. Okatsuka is a generous comedian who relishes other people’s idiosyncrasies as much as her own, making Intruder a true joy to watch.
Honorable Mentions
Ali Saddiq, Domino Effect
In an hour-long special released on Youtube for free, Houston comedian Ali Saddiq traces the time he spent behind bars back to a single decision he made when he was 10 years old. The ingenious design brings the audience deeper inside Saddiq’s journey, from “street pharmaceutical rep” to stand-up—and shows just how linear life can be.
Bill Burr, Live at Red Rocks
You do not want to miss seeing the angriest man in comedy have a heartfelt, hilarious realization about the origins of his temper. It happens halfway through Burr’s special, Live at Red Rocks, and follows a surprisingly tender story about the comedian’s two-year-old daughter. Turns out the wise guy from Boston has feelings too.
Nick Kroll, Little Big Boy
Toward the beginning of his recently released Netflix special, Little Big Boy, Nick Kroll does a play-by-play of his reaction to the “love of his life” dumping him because she wasn’t attracted to him. It is one of the best examples of goofy physical comedy I’ve ever seen, and it made me laugh harder than anything else this year. Watch it—preferably repeatedly.
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