After workshopping his latest comedy show in approximately 100 cities and running it off-Broadway for four months, Mike Birbiglia has now brought Thank God For Jokes to small screens around the world. The one-man show, recorded on Nov. 5, 2016 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Harvey Theater, is the most recent pseudo-stand-up offering to arrive on streaming behemoth Netflix, which in recent months has become the go to place for all things comedy. In Thank God For Jokes, Birbiglia offers fans a solid hour (okay, 70 minutes) of laughs, told through a series of long-form stories, quick-witted jokes and bad puns. It is inventive, engaging, heartfelt and honest.
Thank God For Jokes begins with a video of Jimmy Kimmel from the 22nd annual Gotham Awards, where the late-night talk show host introduces Birbiglia, who himself acted as host of the awards show back in 2012. This lays the tracks for one of the hour-long’s core bits, which ultimately comes to a hilarious close in the final minutes of the special with an explosive encounter with director David O. Russell (who was in attendance to receive the lifetime achievement award). “You should never tell jokes to the people who the jokes are about,” warns Birbiglia early on, while explaining the potential dangers of upsetting folks with comedy.
Birbiglia devotes a fair amount of time in his latest special to analyzing this very topic of offending others with jokes. Within the first five minutes, the comedian finds himself discussing the tragic events at Charlie Hebdo while amidst a deep examination of comedy (which he admittedly calls “a volatile type of speech”). To his mother’s inquisition that maybe writers could just write jokes that aren’t offensive, he respectfully counters that it’s likely not possible because “all jokes are offensive to someone.” This point is later skillfully reemphasized through a much more light-hearted gag which sees the comedian recounting an airplane encounter with a woman who’s allergic to nuts.
Much of the laughs in Thank God For Jokes are sourced from but a handful of story-oriented bits (albeit with dozens of detours), one of which centers on Birbiglia’s being an “on-time” person as opposed to a “late” person (like his wife). “What late people don’t understand about us on-time people is that we hate you,” he emphatically states. “And the reason why we hate you is that it’s so easy to be on time.” The unlikely coincidence of a couple making a tardy entrance into his performance at that moment adds an additional layer of funny, thanks to some quick-witted opportunistic improvisation by Birbiglia.
Another highlight from Thank God For Jokes was Birbiglia’s bit drawing a comparison between Jesus Christ and Bernie Sanders, which made for a hilarious, and all too brief, Woody Allen-esque impression. The story surrounding his performance with The Muppets, which against all odds incorporates both drugs and profanity, also proved a hit with audience members.
Whether recalling the hymns of his childhood church-going days or sharing lame cat puns, Birbiglia has a knack for spinning personal subject matter into material that’s universally funny. He has a unique style and range that allows him the ability to move from ridiculous to realist at a moments notice, which he expertly uses to broaden the form of comedy itself. Late in Thank God For Jokes, Birbiglia presents an impassioned and heartfelt argument that jokes “have the ability to make us all feel closer” and, upon the arrival of the special’s closing credits, it’s difficult to disagree.
Thank God For Jokes, co-directed by Birbiglia and his longtime collaborator Seth Barrish, is available now on Netflix.