Luckily for Jo Koy, there's always someone at his shows who finds it extremely funny: himself. Many comedians laugh at his own material, but Koy does it as if he were hearing it for the first time. He's not the only one laughing in his Netflix special Live From Brooklyn, but he's the one most consistently happy to be there.
There's a lot to this, about laughing, releasing endorphins, and being legitimately, biologically good for you. I found myself thinking, "Say something funny and I'll do it." Unfortunately, he forgot that part. The high school science lesson was not enlightening; Everybody knows; Other comedians have said it, but it was a reminder that the problem today is not not laughing enough, but not having enough to laugh at.
Director: Shannon Hartman
Star: Jo Koy
And Jo Koy is fascinated by “these days” in this special. The entire hour is about generational differences and rightfully contains not a single novel or moving observation on the subject. The giggles and excruciating repetition of Koy's punchlines are the soundtrack to one of the most conceptually lazy specials I've seen in a long time.
I mean, listen to this. Social media is bad. Emojis are dumb. Old school hip-hop is better than newfangled mumbled rap. Parents are too soft these days. This is out of date by a decade or two.
And it's not even delivered in an interesting way. There's no compelling bait-and-switch to the narrative or even a specific Filipino angle, aside from a few instances of him impersonating his mother (yes, he does the accent, as always). Audience interaction is present but minimal, ranging from highlighting who's laughing the most (something that's at least aggrandizing enough to be on brand) to pointing out how racially cosmopolitan New York is.
The race issue is strange, as I don't see how anything Koy said would have sounded differently to a white crowd. It's not like he was saying anything challenging or uncomfortable. The only time it's relevant is in a brief musical interlude where he compares Rich Gang's “Lifestyle” to Biggie's “Hypnotize,” which isn't exactly a smart observation since playing Biggie Smalls in New York will never fail to generate a reaction. , and he's comparing a ridiculous song that's been mocked into oblivion for being incomprehensible to one of the greatest hip-hop tracks of all time.
But a big underlying theme of Jo Koy: Live in Brooklyn is that it's old and out of touch now, and I have to agree with that. A final bit about childbirth framed from the father's perspective is so developed that I couldn't help but conclude that she is right. Koy is no longer the energetic and interesting comedian he once was and is now bordering on self-parody, apparently unaware that everything he talks about has already been covered in great detail.
If he wasn't laughing so much at his own things, maybe he would have noticed.
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