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Filmed at both The Punchline comedy club in Atlanta and nearby Gas South Theatre, this special offers Jeff Foxworthy, at 67, a chance to craft one final hour of stand-up while also reflecting on the gratitude o fhis life and career in comedy.
JEFF FOXWORTHY: THE JOKE’S ON ME: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Jeff Foxworthy’s resume includes millions of records, almost as many “you might be a redneck jokes,” and TV credits hosting Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? and The American Bible Challenge, judging the NBC comedy contest Bring The Funny, and being the frontman for the Blue Collar Comedy Tour and TV specials.
Unlike his previous specials on Netflix or Comedy Central before that, this hour includes documentary footage of the comedian working on his new jokes, alongside interviews with Foxworthy, his wife, and his childhood friend and manager.
FOX NationWhat Comedy Special Will It Remind You Of? Starting a stand-up hour from scratch and documenting it will always remind a comedy fan of Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedian. But seeing Foxworthy’s extensive note card collection of jokes, and hearing him reflect on a life and career in stand-up, evokes the same kind of tribute status that we saw in Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.
Memorable Jokes: These days, people who stop him to ask,“Do you know who you look like?” are likely to mistake him for the actor Sam Elliott. Which, as Foxworthy concedes, “You could do a lot worse.” Except for the fact that Foxworthy is 67, and Elliott is 81.
This leads into a bit about how the comedian is “just trying to age gracefully” unlike his cousin whose “lips looking like the business end of a plunger,” or another woman who got her breasts done at age 60, which he likens to “building a giant deck onto a condemned house.” He jokes he’s not going to undergo plastic surgery or take drastic measures to extend his life, knowing that those extra years might only make him a burden on his children and grandchildren.
He’s much happier knowing he doesn’t have to dress up. That he has exchanged his fear of missing out to hoping he’ll miss out. “I’ve gone from FOMO to HOMO. And if you’re not OK with that, that’s your problem.”
He knows he’s too old to be in a Victoria’s Secret. Besides, in one of his biggest laugh lines: “Just because they sell a thong in your size doesn’t mean you should buy a thong in your size.”
He finds plenty to laugh about concerning how he and his life cannot hear each other so well anymore, and how aging allows him to say what he thinks (or fart when he needs to) without fear of consequence.
And Foxworthy finds time to muse about when he got bit by a venomous snake. But don’t worry. Some 36 years after his first special unleashed the running joke that made him rich and famous, Foxworthy has one final slew of “you might be a redneck” jokes, perhaps the best of which was inspired by a real-life incident involving his grandson.
Our Take: In an opening voiceover, Foxworthy laments how brief the time is he can celebrate a special once filmed, knowing it’ll take years to do it all over again before he can reap the “harvest of years of hard work.” And yet, paradoxically or not, he ays it’s all worth it because the payoff is so great, and “you never have to get a real job.”
It’s one thing for him to joke about wanting to age gracefully and enjoy “this season of life.” But seeing it documented offstage with the sincere love he still has with his wife, who first saw Foxworthy in a comedy contest at the same Atlanta comedy club, where four decades later, he’s testing out new jokes and asking The Punchline audience to rate them as either Gold, Silver, or Certificate of Appearance. That’s the real gold.
Foxworthy tells these crowds he wasn’t interested in filming a new hour unless it did offer this behind-the-scenes making-of quality, because he figures it would take him or any great comic “a minute a week” to build up enough laughs for a true stand-up special. Watching him, you see that it’s not just actual work, but that he takes pride in the work. And that he’s grateful and amazed that his childhood friend and manager is still by his side 57 years later.
If there’s one bit of his I’d love to see him explore further, it’s the routine about bumper stickers. The bit works as is, earning an applause break even with the implication of how he doesn’t want to know all of your opinions. If only we limited our opinions these days to the rear of our cars. If only.
Our Call: Foxworthy claims: “I don’t want to be the old guy onstage who’s not funny anymore.” He might not have the desire to write a full hour of new jokes, but the ones he writes are worthy of a Gold or literal Silver Fox, and not reduced to “certificate of appearance.” If this truly is his last special, he’s going out funny. STREAM IT.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
English (US)