Barstool Best Of - Comedy
It’s officially 2016, and another year has come and went. By any standard, it was a weird, weird year in sports and pop culture. So we at Barstool decided to document the best moments of it for you, broken down into seven blogs by seven categories. Best can mean a lot of things: Our favorite, most memorable, most significant, and most important. This list isn’t meant to be comprehensive or exhaustive, just some of what we’ll think of when we look back on the year 2015.
Comedy
Blind Mike (@BlindMike_) : Barstool Boston
Pick: Jim Norton, Contextually Inadequate
My boy Jim Norton is one of the most underrated comics out there, and it’s time to give him some credit. The funniest shit of 2015, for me, was Lil Jimmy’s stand up special, Contextually Inadequate. I went to the live taping in Boston so I just saw a blurry haze spewing hilarity. But the rest of you should check it out to see the most lovable, Neo-Nazi looking creep a boy could hope for. Norton’s been in my top 5 comics for a while ever since I heard him as the 3rd mic on the Opie and Anthony radio show. He’s brutally honest and isn’t embarrassed or afraid to go in any direction.
Stoolies would love this guy. He’s an even bigger pervert than any of you and Contextually Inadequate covers shit that made headlines on Barstool over the last year. He starts by bashing Bill Cosby. He rails against the PC Police, talks about race and gun violence. Best part is hearing a guy who isn’t scared of all the PC bullshit we deal with. My favorite specials of all time are Bill Burr; I’m Sorry You Feel That Way and Dave Chappelle; Killin’ Them Softly, and honestly this one isn’t far off that level. Watch Contextually Inadequate legally so this motherfucker gets the recognition he deserves.
Charlie (@CharlieWisco) – Barstool New York
Pick: Stunning and Brave, South Park
In it’s 19th season, you’d expect South Park to start to go a little stale. Maybe the characters get a little old, some of the running jokes run their course and start to feel forced, the writing becomes predictable. It’d be totally understandable if that was the case; after all, a 21st century television show lasting 19 seasons is as common as a Bigfoot sighting, let alone a comedy which is a notoriously difficult genre to maintain.
But somehow, improbably, South Park just keeps on being as hilarious as ever, in large part due to it’s reinvention of itself as the most biting and brilliant current events show on TV. This entire season of South Park has been incredible, but the most memorable moment of it without question has been it’s first episode, Stunning and Brave. Trey Parker and Matt Stone come hot out of the gate with two middle fingers to everyone who thought that they’d tone down to better suit the current PC social climate (and maybe some Comedy Central executives?) and reaffirmed the driving philosophy of the show: Either it’s all OK, or none of it is. Mix that with the absurdly hilarious image of a bunch of frathouse douchebags funneling beers while acknowledging their privilege, you have comedy gold. In a world constantly trying to neuter and sterilize comedy, it’s comforting to know that at least one show is never going to change.
JJ (@BarstoolJJ) – Barstool New York
Pick: Anthonony Jeselnik, Thoughts and Prayers
I’m a big stand-up fan. Anyone who can string together an hour of entertainment on stage alone, I’m in awe of. With that being said, my top Stand Up special of the year Anthony Jeselnik: Thoughts and Prayers on Netflix. Jeselnik has never really been on my radar before but this special delivers. Jeselnik is controversial, but unlike what many of his critics think, not just for the sake of being controversial. In a world where everyone is trying to be a little more PC, Jeselnik shows that he isn’t afraid to state the obvious and spends the 2nd half of his special explaining exactly why he feels the way he does. Anyone who reads Barstool will agree with him. There is no better example of someone keeping it real than this:
Banks (@BarstoolBanks) – Barstool DMV
The Brink
The Brink, for my money, was the most underrated new show on television this year and it wasn’t even close. If you didn’t watch it, it’s because you threw your TV out the window during Ballers, which preceded The Brink on HBO’s Sunday night slate. (And I don’t blame anyone who did. Ballers was a steaming pile of goat shit.) But it’s also the reason why the show won’t be returning to HBO next season. Which is the biggest injustice in television since Arrested Development was cut a decade ago.
Anyway, The Brink was a comedy focused around a political crisis in Pakistan. It featured 3 great storylines that meshed well together and all came to a head in the season finale. It featured stars you know very well, such as Jack Black and Tim Robbins. And some lesser known stars that you’d recognize as well, like the Indian guy from the Daily Show and that brunette babe who was Vinny Chase’s manager/fucktoy that one season in Entourage. The show was funny, it was clever, was consistently full of great drama, and needs to be picked up by another network ASAP. It had all the makings of being one of the best shows on television for a long time and it got cut short way too soon.
Previously:
Upcoming:
January 3rd Morning: Sports Moment
January 3rd Afternoon: Movie
January 4th Morning: TV Show