Eight-time Grammy nominee Jim Gaffigan is the first comedian with their own “Hulu Original” special, as the streaming platform debuts their Hularious brand, launching one big-name stand-up special each month exclusive to them. It’s a new look for Hulu, and coincidentally, a new look for Gaffigan, as he shows off and jokes self-knowingly about his dramatic weight loss.
The Gist: Over the course of 11 stand-up specials, Gaffigan has bounced around, from Comedy Central to self-releasing on his own website, back to Comedy Central, then to Netflix, then self-releasing on multiple platforms, then Amazon Prime Video to Netflix and back to Prime Video, and now Hulu. But now they might be available anywhere at any given time.
After recently co-headlining tours with Jerry Seinfeld (and this year’s Netflix Is A Joke festival with Seinfeld, Nate Bargatze and Sebastian Maniscalco at the Hollywood Bowl), co-starring in Seinfeld’s Pop-Tart movie for Netflix, Unfrosted, and starring as wannabe VP Tim Walz on SNL, Gaffigan is back with a new hour that makes light of his newly lightweight body, offers some observations about the potential of AI, and as always, examines his plight as a husband and father of five growing children.
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: There’s good reason why Gaffigan tours with Seinfeld these days, and that’s because their senses of humor and sensibilities match up, even if Gaffigan tends to make himself the butt of the jokes while Seinfeld’s bits express his comedic frustration out toward everyone else.
Memorable Jokes: Gaffigan cuts straight to the bone, as it were, noting the two most popular reactions to his weight loss. Either you’re the type who approaches his wife to ask if he’s OK and not sick, or you’re the type to accuse him of cheating by taking the weight-loss drug Ozempic.
To all of you, he jokes that he’s fine, and it’s not cheating because he’s not on Ozempic. “I’m not. I’m on a different one.” But even if the Mounjaro injections sound like he’s dining out at an Italian restaurant, he defends himself against cries that it’s not fair. “Neither is balding and being born with no pigmentation. But I’ve learned to deal with it.” Besides, he now can crack wise about his fellow thin people, claiming he knows their real secret: “You don’t forget to eat: you’re dead inside.” Besides, he adds: “I know I’m going to be fat again. This is not sustainable.” And his fat clothes remain in his closet, taunting him and anticipating his return.
Of course, Ozempic and Mounjaro were designed to combat diabetes, and Gaffigan has fun exploring and re-enacting the similar conversations that must’ve been had by scientists when they discovered that their high-blood pressure pills also cured erectile dysfunction.
And it wouldn’t be a Gaffigan special without a section revolving around his place in his family’s universe, playing second fiddle to his wife and even lower on the totem pole as far as his five kids are concerned.
He slyly acknowledges the influence of Jeff Foxworthy’s classic “you might be a redneck” routine when running up his own series of you’re not an adult parent gags (sample: if you’ve never looked at a stain and hoped it was chocolate…you’re not an adult). He notes that parents face a painful transition when they go from having their kids embarrassing the, to them embarrassing their kids. And he likens himself to the backup QB on an NFL team in his family. He’s still on the team, he quips, but when he’s called into duty, everyone gets nervous.
Our Take: “It is great to be here. I look good,” Gaffigan proclaims right at the outset, adding: “But since I’ve lost all that weight, now I’m just arrogant.”
Truth be told, though, he’s not that arrogant. Although along with the weight loss, Gaffigan seems also to have lost his doubtful inner voice, the quieter higher-pitched commentary he used to provide much more often in his earlier specials.
And as much as you may think this hour will focus on America’s weight obsession or even Gaffigan’s own health, it’s even more about how easily we as a culture are willing to accept whatever we’re told is the new standard. That holds true, Gaffigan claims, when it comes to the promise of Artificial Intelligence and our computers generating “strong passwords” for us and telling us they’ll remember the passwords for us. The tech has already become too smart for us? “Just tell the idiots they’re cookies,” and we’ll accept them, too!
He extends the theme of acceptance to how we just shrug at how apps listen to our conversations to sell us things, to even in low-tech situations, where we’re still somehow willing to let a complete stranger touch our feet when it comes to selling us shoes. “We’re so accepting of all of it,” Gaffigan notes. But he can trace that willingness all the way back to Biblical times, too, reminding us of the story of Abraham, so quick to trust the voice of God to sacrifice his son.
And even though Gaffigan loves to paint himself as the victim or the hero in his family, depending upon which seems funnier, his closing story reveals just how much of an accepting hero his wife continues to be in the Gaffigan household. After all she has endured, he asks what her biggest challenge has been. Her reply? “Being married to you.”
Jim takes it all in stride, and then some. “I have to tell you. I take pride in that.”
Our Call: STREAM IT. Gaffigan is a proven comedy commodity who gives just about anyone a good reason to check out Hulu if they’re not already regularly on that platform.
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.
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