Doug Stanhope: The Dying of a Last Breed

I have suffered through a lot of garbage in the past year from comedials putting out lame specials where they yell (Iliza Shlessinger) to others that are seemingly in a contest to show they are the most 'woke' (Ilana Glazer) to people who jsut aren't funny (Adam Devine) to people who DO have a great talent but stand up not being one of them (Eric Andre). Yes, they give stand up specials to anyone and everyone. Burnt Chrysler has several. But they're just drivel or a waste of time. Stanhope has come through. I won't even allude to any material he has done in this special because nobody else can do it justice. It's worth the watch - it's Doug Stanhope and he doesn't disappoint.

Stanhope used to be the funniest, sharpest, most clever and invigorating comedian on the planet. However his last few specials have been a steady fall to the bottom and this is probably his worst yet. It feels like he's not even trying to be funny anymore and just strives to provoke strangers through excessive descriptions of death and decay. The problem though is that it would take much more to actually unsettle his fan group, and whoever might have been taken aback by this material will never ever stumble upon this special... so what is he trying to prove? The jokes are way too few and far between, and 99% of the show feels like rather boring filler. Nothing is worse than seeing your idols falter, and this special makes me rather sad.

Often I would find great specials like this one in the most obscure places, not getting the attention they deserve, yet the most garbage-but-convenient people get Netflix specials left and right these days.

I don't think Doug has a bad special, this one (at least the first half) was really funny and I mean well above the definition of "funny" Netflix has. The second half was kind of a drag, but it ended with a beautiful little story that almost teared me up a bit, so it was pretty rewarding too.

Doug Stanhope is one of those comedians people need to know about, just like Patrice O'Neal, Lisa Lampanelli and so many other great ones that have strong followings, but not as big as they deserve. I guess it just pisses me off how many lame, bad comedians can get a special on a major platform, yet this here comedic superhero only has one on Netflix - where most people are looking at.

In any case, very worth watching.