The pandemic is long gone, but the world is still falling apart. There are wars on three of our seven continents, our future A.I. overlords are finalising their plans to take over the world, and we can’t even share our Netflix accounts anymore! What that also means of course is that standup comedians had even more material to work with in their attempts to make us laugh—sometimes at the helpless nature of our existence and sometimes… well actually mostly that.
2023 was a big year for Indian comedy, with some of our heavy-weights dropping their much-awaited debut specials—Abhishek Upmanyu and Prashasti Singh in particular. We also saw international comedians make a mark with some deeply personal material. While all these specials stood out for different reasons, they all remind us that comedy is a hard-hitting art form that can inspire change. And they all go, in the immortal words of inimitable street poet Emiway Bantai, “boht hard.”
Here are the specials released in 2023 that live rent free in our heads.
10. Prashasti Singh – Door Khadi Sharmaaye
“Begair bezzati kaisa pyaar?” That little line—from one of Prashasti Singh’s breakout performances on Amazon Prime Video’s comedy-reality show Comicstaan—might as well be the comedian’s personal motto. Over the years, Singh has become a quick-witted chronicler of the many absurdities of 21st century dating, and the many humiliations that we put ourselves through in our search for The One. Both absurdity and humiliation are plentiful on her debut special Door Khadi Sharmaaye, an ode to the struggles of finding love as a jaded adult.
Released in four parts on YouTube, the special takes inspiration from her childhood in Amethi, romantic Bollywood classics from the ’90s, her hostel days in Delhi and a decade spent on dating apps to tell the tragi-comic story of a single, mid-30s woman looking for love. Singh’s ability to breathe new life into these familiar tropes, and some excellent physical comedy, make this a must-watch debut from a natural-born performer.
9. Mark Normand – Soup To Nuts
Mark Normand’s comedy relies heavily on his ability to say horrible things but still coming across as eminently likeable. Every comedic performance depends on an unspoken agreement between the performer and the audience—that what’s happening on stage is a bit, a performance—but Normand excels at pushing that accord to its limit, his goofy on-stage persona charming his viewers into laughing along with the darkest and meanest of jokes. That’s exactly what he does on his Netflix special Soup To Nuts, to devastating effect.
It’s a no-holds-barred hour, with Normand spitting out punchlines about sexual and racial identity, political ideology and Barbie dolls at breakneck speed. These are all the familiar tropes of the ‘disaffected comedian’—think Bill Burr or Dave Chappelle—but Normand isn’t using them to push a particular worldview or ideology. It’s often hard to tell where he really stands on these issues, other than thinking that they’re the perfect subjects for his raison d’etre: to make people laugh. His single-minded focus on that mission—and the fact that even his most vicious barbs never really cross the line into bigotry—keeps us on-side even as his one-liners grow darker and darker. Normand has no interest in playing it safe, and we’re all the better for it.
8. Zainab Johnson – Hijabs Off
We’ve seen Zainab Johnson play Aleesha Morrison on the science-fiction comedy series Upload, as a semi-finalist on NBC’s Last Comic Standing, and performing on Late Night With Seth Meyers. But before the fame and fans flooded in, Johnson was one of 13 siblings in a Muslim household. That’s precisely what her special Hijabs Off—available on Amazon Prime Video—is all about.
During the first half-hour, we get to know more about Johnson outside of her professional life. She talks about her religious upbringing, takes aim at the “haraam police” and offers a glimpse of what it was like growing up as a Black Muslim in a post 9/11 United States. There’s a great bit about her name, which is ubiquitous in the Middle East but marks her out as an “other” in America, though she jokes that “I feel like the Johnson saves me.” The special’s emotional centre-piece is a story about the perils of being a 7-year-old girl in Harlem, with an old man luring her into dangerous territory with the promise of $5 and some candy. It’s an audacious special and a worthy entry into the emerging canon of comedy about the immigrant experience.
7. Ali Siddiq – The Domino Effect Part 2: Loss
Ali Siddiq caught our attention last year with The Domino Effect, a path-breaking hour of deeply introspective comedy that blurred the line between performance and confession. Seated on a chair, one arm draped over a stool, Siddiq painted a vivid portrait of growing up in the Houston projects, and the decisions, interactions and situations that led him to become a drug dealer—or “street pharmaceutical salesman”—who was busted by the FBI at the age of 19, spending six years in prison.
His followup The Domino Effect Part 2: Loss, picks up where last year’s special left off. Once again sitting in a chair, with a stool conveniently placed nearby for elbow support, Siddiq takes us through a series of losses he suffered in his late teens, escalating from young heartbreak and being fired to the unexpected demise of his sister (from an unspecified sudden illness) and his arrest by the FBI. For 90 minutes, the comedian walks a difficult tight-rope—keeping his audience engaged as he weaves elaborate scenes and digs into deeply personal revelations—with aplomb, showcasing his absolute mastery over pacing, choreography and the fine art of story-telling.
6. Abhishek Upmanyu – Jealous of Sabziwala
Over the past five years, Abhishek Upmanyu has cemented his reputation as one of India’s brightest comedy stars. The comedian has released banger after banger on YouTube, with an extensive list of punchlines that have made their way into our everyday vernacular. When he announced the release of his debut standup special Jealous of Sabziwala, Indian comedy fans awaited it with bated breath.
Once again, Upmanyu delivered. The self-released YouTube special sees the comedian in fine form, deploying his ‘straight man’ persona and poker-faced delivery in order to dig into his own vulnerabilities and emotional blind-spots. He masterfully tackles issues of anxiety, depression and self-worth, culminating in a beautiful 15-minute bit where he calls his father from his therapist’s couch. We won’t spoil that bit for you, but it’s worth the price of admission alone. Initially released behind a YouTube paywall, the comedian has now made Jealous of Sabziwala available for everyone to watch for free.
5. Mae Martin – SAP
Two years after the success of their Netflix show Feel Good—a rom-com series about a queer, nonbinary, ex-addict comedian—Mae Martin returned to the comedy stage with their solo show SAP. A self-reflective hour, Martin makes a case for enjoying the smaller, “sappier” things in life while illustrating how emotional health is directly proportional to a person’s confidence—something Martin has in the spades during the hour as they grab our attention and never let go.
Throughout SAP, Martin expertly walks the line between their social and private life, offering a fresh perspective on the need for empathy. They aren’t just criticising us for being glued to our phones all day (Martin is well aware that they’re guilty of it too), but use their time on stage to remind us that we’re all going to sink or swim together. Martin’s capacity to critically think about the world around us—and their subtle subversions of comedy convention—elevates this hour from being merely entertaining to nourishing brain-food.
4. Zakir Khan – Mannpasand
With his 2022 special Tathastu, Zakir Khan established himself as one of the most gripping storytellers in the Indian standup scene. Across the 90-minute special, Khan expertly blends comedy and pathos, letting us in on intimate details about the relationship he shared with his grandfather Moinuddin Khan. His followup special this year titled Mannpasand was equally personal, this time tackling the issues of middle-aged ennui, navigating friendships and caring for ageing parents.
While he does touch upon some emotionally loaded topics, Khan keeps things light by injecting his trademark sakht launda humour occasionally. With Mannpasand, Khan has proven once again that he can effortlessly oscillate between baring his soul and delivering the laughs, proving his mettle as a prolific performer. Khan knows precisely how he wants the audience to feel at every moment and has the chops to emulate the desired experience. Mannpasand is a testament to Khan’s evolution as a performer, signalling an exciting new direction for Khan’s comedy.
3. John Mulaney – Baby J
John Mulaney has had a tumultuous few years: drug addiction, rehab, divorce, constant paparazzi surveillance, and—in the middle of all that drama—fatherhood. All those trials and tribulations have undoubtedly taken a toll. But perhaps they have also made him a better comedian, at least if Baby J is any indication. Coming after a four year hiatus from the comedy stage, this Netflix special showcases a more confident and composed comedian making sense of his struggles with addiction, liberated by the loss of the “nice-guy” persona that first catapulted him to stardom.
The introspective 80-minute special offers a rare behind-the-scenes peek into one of pop culture’s most beloved story archetypes: the former angel, now fallen into disgrace. With disarming honesty and charm, Mulaney conducts a final autopsy of the character he once embodied on stage, readying it for a final burial. The new John Mulaney that emerges is a little darker, and a little less eager to please, but still just as committed to the art of comedy. His new fearlessness empowers him to dig deeper and play fast and loose with audience expectations, to fantastic result. “What, are you going to cancel John Mulaney? I’ll kill him. I almost did,” he says.
2. Kanan Gill – Is This It?
It’s been a busy year for Kanan Gill, who has had his fingers in all sorts of pies. He served as a screenwriter on Kannada-language film Aachar & Co, made his feature film debut in Norwegian rom-com Christmas As Usual (which released on Netflix on 6 December), and finished writing his debut novel Acts of God. In the middle of all this, we’re not sure how Gill also found the time to create and release Is This It?
Released exclusively on PayTm Insider for three days only, Gill’s third comedy special focuses on a very particular and very familiar form of existential dread—the bone-numbing despair that accompanies life under late capitalism. Gill’s boyish charm takes some of the edge off his dark, nihilistic explorations of hustle culture, consumerism and Silicon Valley spirituality. He boils it all down to a catchy three-part mantra that perfectly captures the aesthetic of our extremely online, sh*tposting generation: “Give up your dreams, death is coming, let’s party.”
1. Marc Maron – From Bleak To Dark
Comedians excel at mining personal tragedy for comedy gold. Sumaira Shaikh did it on Dongri Danger, Patton Oswalt did it on Annhilation and Daniel Sloss on Dark. Similarly, on his fifth special From Bleak To Dark, Marc Maron turns the heart-wrenching loss of his partner Lynn Shelton into the most insightful exploration of personal grief that we’ve ever seen on the standup stage.
Fans of Maron’s podcast WTF would know that the wound is still raw: the comedian speaks often about the many lives she made better, even tearing up at the mere mention of his deceased partner. But on From Bleak To Dark, he appears as a man who has come to terms with that tragedy, and mortality itself. As the title suggests, this is not a special for the optimists among us (“I think if you have hope, what are you, fucking seven?” he jokes). The material here deals with the stuff of nightmares: dementia, climate catastrophe, suicide, death, grief. But Maron’s brush with sudden death has transformed his cynicism, softened it with a touch of empathy and grace that makes his trademark dark punchlines hit that much harder. From Bleak To Dark is a testament to how the bravest thing a comedian can do is bare their soul on stage.
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