dnadiyah Reviews

Def Comedy Jam 25 (2017 TV Special)

A 1 hour, 21 min ego stroking exercise.

[17 December 2017]

If you're expecting any stand up, walk on. This is just 1 hour, 21 mins of everyone congratulating each other. It's like a roast, where everyone gushes about how amazing everyone else is. I think there was one joke.

Chris D'Elia: Incorrigible (2015 TV Special)

Just... no!

[1/10 · 21 May 2017]

I knew this was going to be bad when I realised, two minutes in, that D'Elia has that desperately annoying habit of saying "like" in the way normal people use commas. He'd said like, so often, that I couldn't hear anything, it became white noise. It didn't help that it seemed he'd taken 80s comedians' advice and, presumably, snorted a couple of lines before taking the stage. Frantic, sweaty, incoherent does not make for the best stand up.

Maz Jobrani: I'm Not a Terrorist, But I've Played One on TV (2015 TV Special)

Can just anybody be a comedian nowadays?

[1/10 · 30 March 2017]

This is like a really unfunny, language lesson. 10 mins in and Jobrani is still doing his really unfunny bit about language quirks amongst people of colour. Bored senseless, I skipped 20 mins ahead and Jobrani is still flogging the dead horse of being raised by first gen immigrants. Skip forward another 10 mins and now Jobrani thinks it's funny to trot out 90s humour of enjoying Sex in the City because he'd been drinking soy milk that was high in oestrogen. Even worse, Jobrani can't do accents, but he tries them with alarming frequency. At this point I gave up, there's no way it was going to get better.

Steve Byrne: Champion (2014 TV Special)

Time Warp!

[1/10 · 27 March 2017]

If you miss the 70s then this is the stand up for you. The only thing missing was mother in law jokes. Or maybe they were in it, I couldn't continue watching after a while. Byrne is probably one of those comics that vociferously defends comedy's right to joke about anything, that is the mark of a really poor comic. If all you can do is offensive, gross out humour, you're not funny. This is the Amy Schumer of male comedians.

Your Family or Mine (2015)

So unfunny it's cringe worthy.

[1/10 · 2 June 2015]

I desperately watch each new sitcom in the hopes of discovering something that can fill the Friends sized hole in my heart. Or maybe another Seinfeld or even a That 70s Show. Even though it's a long shot I watch at least 5 episodes to get past that teething point just in case it's a good comedy that's started shakily. With this show, I couldn't even get past two episodes and, even then, it was hard work. Thoroughly predictable writing (who hadn't guessed the Grandmother was in the drawing and not the mom, two seconds after the premise was revealed). This is so pathetic I feel sorry for the actors who have, in the past, been in some top notch stuff. A lot of comedies fall below mediocre. Your Family or Mine is worse than mediocre.. it is just thoroughly, thoroughly bad and this show deserves being cancelled. However, knowing how mediocrity is celebrated in the States this will probably run for nine seasons and syndication.