Diane enjoys Jim Gaffigan’s brand of stand-up humor so we watched Gaffigan’s latest “Special” on AMAZON Prime Video. It’s 104 minutes long…mercifully. I knew we were in trouble when Gaffigan opened with Covid-19 and diarrhea “jokes.” Then he moved on to making fun of the people–baristas and customers–at Starbucks. There was a pointless story of Gaffigan and his family taking a hot air balloon ride in Mexico.
After watching Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale I belatedly read some of the audience reviews (which I should have done before I wasted my time watching this). Here’s a sample:
“The opening with the Covid references was not a good start. Timing wise maybe it made more sense when it was filmed but not now. I got about 10 minutes into and was sadly disappointed. Always bragged to everyone about this comedian who doesn’t need to swear to be funny and that part holds true but the material didn’t work this time. This should gave been tested before audience’s before it was released to TV.”
"Used to be a huge JG fan, have watched all specials and saw him live, he was amazing. But this…this was an utter disappointment. Turned off after 30 minutes. Don’t waste your time." So there you have it: Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale is an unfunny waste of time. Beware! GRADE: F
I couldn’t take his shouting every joke. Lasted ten minutes.
Patti, we stuck it out for the whole 104 minutes, hoping it would get better. It didn’t.
Wow! I was waiting for the twins (big JG fans) to get home before watching this, now I’m not so sure. I’ve always liked his humor, but an F from the usually-generous-on-his-grading-scale George Kelley is raising all sorts of red flags!
Deb, DARK PALE was a dud for us. We’ve enjoyed previous Jim Gaffigan “specials” and watched his series, The Jim Gaffigan Show, on TV LAND which we liked.
Whoa. Maybe he finally ran out of Dad jokes. We don’t need more diarrhea humor. A shame.
Fred, maybe I’m a bit of a humor snob, but I have never found “jokes” about diarrhea funny.
Totally disagree. Granted, it wasn’t his best, but it is definitely worth your time, Deb. He has always done bits where he drags things out, as if to test how long the audience will go along without rebelling. Granted, this time it was diarrhea, which was dumb. But I liked some of the darker material.
Gaffigan was never my favorite stand up guy. I’d go with Rodney Dangerfield, Robert Klein, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, and the late, hilarious Robert Schimmel, who was certainly as far from PC as you can get.
I’d probably give this about a C+ on the Kelley Scale.
Jeff, I’m fond of the stand-up comedy of Richard Pryor and Jerry Seinfeld. Gaffigan doesn’t come close to those guys!
Gaffigan at his best is in the same league with Seinfeld at his, I’d say, and I generally like his attitude better. But this doesn’t sound like his best effort, at all.
Jackie Kashian, Maria Bamford, Mary Mack, Jake Johannsen, Cathy Ladman, among those who don’t mind being “transgressive”–Dave Attell; Dana Gould, Paul F. Thompkins…among the heirs to Dick Gregory and Lenny Bruce for me…
Todd, I don’t mind “transgressive” but I really prefer funny in any shape or form.
All these comedians are funny, by me…only Attell strives to be transgressive in a Big way…though Sarah Silverman can be along that. path at times, and I like her, too.
Todd, I love Sarah Silverman.
Todd, Diane and I were both disappointed with DARK PALE.