I can’t remember the last time I couldn’t stop watching a TV show.
I live for moments like these. I mean, it’s one of the reasons that I launched an entire website devoted to pop culture (that includes ridiculously obsessive projects like the best 1,000 albums ever and all 351 Key & Peele sketches ranked).
Having that can’t-stop-watching feeling doesn’t need to be about stumbling onto the next great prestige drama or something that might make Pop Thruster’s best 100 TV shows ever one day.
Sometimes it can happen with a reality TV competition that weirdly becomes compulsively addictive.
I’m a sucker for things that showcase the creative process, and particularly love getting insight into standup comedy – one of the most difficult performing arts of all.
You won’t be surprised to note that I watched every second of Last Comic Standing back in the day, even when that show trended into cringy and baffling territory in terms of the comics it chose to advance in the competition. Most infamously on that note, while Dat Phan seemed like an affable kid in Season 1, he beat Ralphie May, who let’s just say was clearly superior.
I also feel the need to discuss Kill Tony, Tony Hincliffe’s long running podcast, for a moment. Stand up comics are invited to perform for a single minute, and then Hinchcliffe, his crew, and comedian guests critique, encourage, and/or roast the performance. Hinchcliffe is a diabolical and supremely talented master of ceremonies in this environment, and I was a huge fan of the show for years.
I also sadly felt compelled to shut Kill Tony out of my life due to Hinchcliffe’s hewing toward the manosphere and RFK Jr./MAGA-ish friendly politics.
Anyway, I was delighted to learn that Kevin Hart was slated to host Funny AF, a Netflix stand up comedy competition, with the winner slated to win their own Netflix comedy special.
And after the series’ first four episodes, I’m even more delighted to report that Funny AF is great and, as I alluded to up top, I couldn’t stop watching it.
There’s nothing innovative about the format, which is completely fine by me. There’s a refreshing sturdiness that emphasizes showcasing up and coming stand-ups and how Kevin Hart and his coterie of established comedian friends approach their craft and what it takes to make it in the entertainment business.
The format: the first three episodes feature Hart and a selected fellow comedian heading to a new city – New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago – whereupon a group of 14 aspiring stand-ups perform a five-minute set. A handful are then selected for the callback round, which is featured in the fourth episode (the latest available as of this writing).
Hart’s banter with the coterie – which includes Keegan Michael-Key, Kumail Ninjiani, Tom Segura, and Chelsea Handler – is another strong draw to Funny AF. The comedy vets lean into being generous with their critiques, and I particularly enjoyed Key’s over-the-top laughter during comedy sets, which often included repeating a particularly funny word or phrase and leaning over in hysterics.
If I have a tiny gripe with Funny AF, it’s that I felt the New York comedians were by far the funniest group collectively, whereas Hart and crew seemed most taken with the LA crop of comics. Therefore, you won’t be surprised to learn that my personal two funniest participants on Funny AF both hail from the NYC comedy circuit: Caitlin Peluffo and Usama Siddiquee.
I’m a bit of a “tough audience” when it comes to standup – especially when viewing from home as opposed to being in the visceral atmosphere of a tiny comedy club in person – yet both Peluffo and Siddiquee blew me away in both their initial audition and call back rounds.
My early take on who I think should win Funny AF and earn a Netflix special, it’s Siddiquee. He seamlessly blends his own life as a second generation South Asian American from Texas with a hilariously dirty take on race and culture. I had to pause the episode several times while watching his sets because I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t breathe. And then I’d immediately re-watch the set again as soon as it was over.
If it’s not clear, I’m all in on Funny AF, and hope that Kevin Hart and Netflix re-up for future seasons. And there’s the side benefit too of course of helping to promote worthy young comedians to a much larger audience.