What’s On? For the Class Clown
Looking to hone your comedy skills? With this next lineup, you’ll be able to experience some hilarious TV & film performances and maybe pick up a few jokes for yourself.
1. Middleditch & Schwartz (2020)
This comedy special series is a masterclass in improv, and you don’t even have to go to a comedy club to experience its hilarity. It stars duo Thomas Middleditch (from Silicon Valley & some genuinely terrible Verizon ads) and Ben Schwartz (Jean-Ralphio Saperstein in Parks & Recreation) as they listen to an anecdote from a random audience member and use the information to come up with the rest of the show. In short, the whole thing is made up on the spot so that Middleditch and Schwartz have no idea what will happen for the duration of each performance. This all culminates in a perfect bubble of chaos and skill—the duo switch in and out of multiple crazy characters, and know just how to bring a joke back to tie the whole set together. There’s also an element of bromance that elevates the show. In the end, you’re having fun, and they’re having fun, and that’s a beautiful thing.
2. Conan Without Borders (2018)
Conan O’Brien has got everything you want in a talk show host: manic energy, excellent conversation skills, and a very tall hairstyle. Essentially, he’s hilarious—and he loves to learn. That’s why Conan Without Borders is one of the best comedy TV shows out today, and especially on Netflix. The premise is that Conan is sent out into the world to explore a variety of different countries and their cultures, engaging with the locals and taking part in their national pastimes. Each episode is a different country and experience, but Conan’s quick wit and wild personality make them all absolutely hysterical. Our favorites include the South Korea episode, which also features Steven Yeun (from The Walking Dead & Burning), the Mexico episode, featuring Diego Luna (Rogue One & Y Tu Mamá También), and the Italy episode, which features Conan’s uber-pretentious Italophile producer, Jordan Schlansky.
3. Oh, Hello (2017)
You may have heard of John Mulaney, from his series of Netflix specials or his writing stint on SNL, or Nick Kroll, creator and voice actor in his series Big Mouth. They’re both stellar comedians, and best friends since college, so doing a show together was only a matter of time. In Oh, Hello on Broadway, they recycle a pair of their most iconic characters: Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland, who came into being during the sketch comedy series, Kroll Show. Gil and George are a couple of crazy septuagenarians living in New York. They’re not fashionable (unless you love corduroys), they speak in bizarre cadences, and one of them is in love with a raccoon. Despite these eccentricities, or maybe because of them, they make for one hilarious show. Equal parts fever dream and Broadway smash, watching this is an experience unlike any other.
4. Airplane! (1980)
We think that the legacy of Airplane! lives on today through the sheer amount of jokes that it crams into its runtime—it also helps that most of them are hysterically funny. Right from the start, the audience can tell that this is the definition of an absurdist comedy, and throughout the movie we are privy to some genius wordplay (don’t call me Shirley, anyone?) and excellent slapstick. In our opinion, it’s the random nature of the jokes that makes the rapid-fire comedy so effective. There are strong performances from the whole cast, but Leslie Nielson (The Naked Gun) really shines as Dr. Rumack. If you love corny comedy, this one’s for you.
5. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
Let’s go ahead and get out of the way—John C. Reilly really is an excellent singer. Which is why he’s the perfect choice to play made-up music icon, Dewey Cox, in a biopic that parodies every biopic ever made (but more specifically Walk the Line (2005), which illustrated Johnny Cash’s rise to fame). This movie is entirely smart in that respect, capturing the little nuances that make biopics so predictable, but is never pretentious about its critique of the genre. What this results in is a consistently funny film populated by a million cameos from early 2000s comedy royalty, but ultimately held up by a great performance from Reilly. Also worth mentioning is the moments we get to see Dewey interact with iconic singers from across the decades, like Elvis (Jack White of The White Stripes) and the Beatles, John, Paul, George, & Ringo (Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Justin Long, and Jason Schwartzman, respectively, who play the Liverpudlian accents to exaggerated perfection).
