From The Comic's Comic

New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman has joined me every year since 2015 for our own traditional December To Remember the year in comedy. On the one hand, I try to pin Zinoman down on who we might vote for if comedy, like sports, awarded an MVP for the Most Valuable Performer.  But we always also get into the meaty issues, themes and headlined the year. So what made 2023 special for comedy? And which comedians did the most this year?

How did the overlapping strikes by the Writers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America, and SAG-AFTRA influence which comedians stepped up to the plate to become even more valuable in 2023? Where do we place Matt Rife in discussions of this year? We talk about the TikTok of it all (as I wrote this month for The Daily Beast). We also wrote this fall about what to make of the fallout from The New Yorker‘s takedown of Hasan Minhaj and revisited what that means for comedy.

Of course, Zinoman named Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale as his top special of 2023, while I chose Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark. We both loved what Beth Stelling had to say this year. We both thought Marlon Wayans had the better special about “The Slap” (sorry, Chris Rock). Alex Edelman’s Just For Us stage show jumped to Broadway in a year where we didn’t know just how much anti-semitism would become even more of an issue. What do we make of how many specials came out on YouTube this year? Shane Gillis has become one of the most popular comedians in America.

And how about the year Nate Bargatze had in 2023?! From his move from Netflix to Prime Video, to touring arenas, hosting Saturday Night Live (despite not having out this fall to promote) and also starting his own Nateland Entertainment banner, putting out specials for other comedians such as Mike Vecchione, Greg Warren, and Joe Zimmerman.

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