Stand-up

~ MaryG

My family of origin has been upsetting me a lot since January. (I believe it’s unintentional, but still—not fun.) Thankfully, my own family are all doing well, except that my husband has been significantly challenged by his recoveries from two total knee replacements.

On top of that, I am personally upset by the shitshow in Washington. The absolute incompetence of the people running our country right now is downright frightening, as are the real impacts on all of our lives. My son inherited my mother’s gas guzzler SUV a few years ago when she upgraded and recently paid $75 to fill his tank. These prices are not sustainable for young people just starting out. And he and his roommates all sat down together to watch one of Trump’s incoherent updates on the war with Iran because they are worried about getting drafted.

Long way of saying, I could use a laugh. Maybe you could too.

Here are three stand-up comedy specials I’ve watched recently and truly enjoyed. I laughed out loud many, many times.

Marcello Hernández: American Boy (Netflix)

Julio Torres: Color Theories (HBO Max)

Ramy Youssef: In Love (HBO Max)

They happen to all be young men, but all grew up outside mainstream, straight, white American male culture. Their perspectives are unique and in many cases, hysterical. 🤣

15 thoughts on “Stand-up”

  4. Thanks for the recs. I’ve started a few comedy specials recently and nothing impacts because (I think it’s because) I’ve been so affected by the ridiculousness and sadness of ‘our times’. It’s hard to break through that, but maybe these will. 🙂

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  6. I hear you. We’re witnessing a clown show in DC, but they’re not making anybody laugh. Funny you mentioned that we all need to laugh—we’re planning to see Ron White this weekend, and I really like the guy.

    As for the draft that everyone is talking about, I mentioned to another blogger that I don’t see that happening. Our volunteer force: active duty, National Guard, and Reserve is sufficient. The only scenario where a draft might be implemented is if we were to go to war with China and Russia at the same time. We were able to engage in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars simultaneously for years without resorting to a draft. I just wanted to share my perspective and hopefully ease the minds of the young people in your family.

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    1. That’s awesome that you’re getting out to some live comedy! There’s nothing like the feeling of being in the audience and laughing with everyone in person.
      Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the military draft. I was actually surprised my son & friends were worried about it, but something about a change in registering for it was in the news.

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      1. We’re looking forward to it. We saw a Sinbad comedy show once, and it was awesome.

        The government is automating Selective Service registration, which all men must complete when they turn 18, so they won’t need to go to a website or post office to fill out a form. My son just did it a couple of weeks ago. Now it’s going to be automatic starting at the end of the year, so it’s one less thing for young men to worry about when they turn 18.

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      3. I did mine through the post office when I turned 18, but I remember questions about selective service while filling out college applications, so maybe they were automatically enrolled at school.

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