In his 2014 guest appearance as himself on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Adam Sandler—American comedy’s most popular oaf—insists that he’s a serious person. “I collect antiques and I’m writing a movie about the Russian Revolution,” he declares, and then reveals that he’s casting Kevin James as Trotsky, and that “Trotsky’s got a wife who never wears a bra.” This bit—unironic sincerity bookended by waves of lowest-common-denominator populism—sums up basically the entirety of Sandler’s latest standup special Love You, released on August 27 on Netflix. 

You’ll see an older, slower Sandler, ‘the Sandman’ having sanded down the rough edges of his juvenile humour. There are plenty of wholesome jokes here about ageing, parenthood and the tricky terrain of living with a significantly younger spouse. But Sandler never lets you forget what made him a household name—poop humour and dick jokes, albeit delivered with a nice-guy veneer for effect. There are multiple jokes about shitting yourself, multiple jokes involving a comically large penis—and one where both these unlikely elements are combined, with a wish-granting genie for good measure.   

The best parts of the show are the musical interludes, which are on occasion quite funny, covering a range of styles like country, disco and funk. Frequent crony Rob Schneider shows up in an Elvis costume and surprisingly acquits himself rather well. I suppose the worst thing one can say about Sandler’s stuff is that it comes across as aged and cringeworthy on occasion. The bar is so low these days that I’ll take that any day—a regular, middling special that doesn’t go out of its way to target already-persecuted groups (or perceived critics).