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I love inside jokes.
Id love to be a part of one someday.
Anyone who has lived out this fantasy knows that jokes are interpreted differently by different audiences.
In instances where thesespecials are inaccessible to at-home audiences, its by design.
These viewers know who the intended audience for this material is, and they view it through that lens.
The canon is growing.
MoNique,I Coulda Been Your Cellmate!
Her accompanying act-out gets laughs while doubling as a reminder of the way the prison-industrial complex tears families apart.
The makeup of the audience transforms it into something else entirely.
Maria Bamford,The Special Special Special!
Theres a degree of laziness in it, she told theLos AngelesTimes.
In NetflixsStandup for Drummers, Armisen takes a subtler approach to examining the forms tropes.
But for any non-drummers without the necessary context, the material registers thin.
Siddiq, too, includes scenes of him interacting with prisoners offstage.
But where MoNique can only empathize with her audiences predicament, Siddiq relates thanks to personal experience.
InDomino Effect Part 4,Siddiq tells stories to illustrate how prison functions as a community.
InIts Bigger Than These Bars,the audience feels it firsthand.
Folie a deux, one hypothesizes.
Its a dissociative disorder where he believes in his own illusions.
Another thinks Quinn is perfectly fine.
Heres a few not-so-fun facts about my mom, he begins one joke that bombs.
Shes the person who told Rachel Dolezal she should do that, okay?
Its well written and performed, but it never stood a chance.
Watching the special on YouTube, it raises questions about what kind of comedy this audiencewouldrespond to appropriately.
It morphs into a fun thought experiment: What would a special look like if it wereactuallyfor the boys?
