12 hours ago
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Joe Mande may open his new hour by exclaiming, “Minnesota in January! I’m an idiot.” But that just means it’s easier for the comedian and TV writer, who spent his formative years in St. Paul, to literally live up to the title of his stand-up comedy special, right?
JOE MANDE: CHILL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: His previous hour, Joe Mande’s Award-Winning Comedy Special, came out on Netflix in 2017. This new hour premiered on Hulu as part of a licensing deal the streaming platform has with 800 Pound Gorilla Media.
Mande had a recurring role as “Ben” on Modern Family over seasons 6-9. You may be much more familiar with Mande’s work behind the camera, though. He’s a writer and co-executive producer on Hacks, and before that he wrote for The Good Place, Parks and Recreation, and Kroll Show.
In this hour he’s not looking to win an Emmy or a Golden Globe, so much as to demonstrate how cool, calm, and collected he is. Despite any jokes or stories that may prove otherwise.
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Friends and former colleagues of his such as Nick Kroll and Chelsea Peretti showed up in bit parts to support his previous special on Netflix, and you can see why they’d work well together.
Memorable Jokes: Some of Mande’s most memorable routines involve act-outs or thought experiments that may find some viewers asking for trigger warnings.
He walks us through every sordid step of his horrific experience in the rare instances where he gets nauseous, which results in him getting black eyes, a toilet-bowl-shaped bruise on his chest, and fluids bursting out all over. “And yeah, at some point I start crying,” he adds, matter-of-factly.
He cops to writing perhaps too many jokes involving having sex with animals, but tries to defend himself by claiming, “at the very least, it’s a topic we’re ll capable of thinking about,” and then proceeds to try to get us to think about it.
It’s not all Not Safe For Work material, however. Mande devotes a chunk of time to questioning the need in modern society for a sheriff (while reserving even more ribbing for the sheriff’s deputies). He mocks straight women for being shallow when it comes to dating men for their height, equating their love of “tall” with mens’ love of “boobs.” And he has a plan for gun control in America, claiming the key to getting rid of guns is finding something that men love more than shooting a gun. “I think the answer is sex dolls,” he says.
Our Take: While Mande takes pains to take down superficial women and gun-loving guys, he also is willing to poke fun at himself through his own self-awareness. He acknowledges that he’d give anything to swap his 5-foot-9 frame for an extra foot in height, all so he could finally dunk a basketball. And he realizes, also, how it looks for him to love hoops so much that his Instagram feed is full of tall teenage boys.
And even when he finds himself choosing a basketball player over his own mother, Mande is willing to concede the foul, so to speak.
Because whether he’s trolling his friends in real life or, in the past, trolling corporations on Twitter, Mande acknolwedges: “I know I talk a lot of shit onstage. I don’t know what that’s about.” Getting beat up at the Minnesota State Fair as a high-schooler by a worker at the fair didn’t deter him from a life of smack talk. Why should he let one weirdly obscene premise or punchline stop him now?
And yet, no matter how awkward he may make the audience — and he certainly delivers some unsettling observations at times — Mande remains comfortable in those silent, tense moments. You might even say he’s chill.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Not all of his routines may be in good taste, but if you can stomach those moments, then you just may find yourself laughing through the awkwardness.
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)