Stand-up specials worth rewatching

Sets that hold up on the third watch, when you already know every punchline coming.

Bookmarks

1. John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City

   5/5

   2018. Structure so tight that callbacks land twenty minutes later.

2. Bo Burnham: Inside

   5/5

   2021. Made alone in one room; less a set than a year of being indoors.

3. Hannah Gadsby: Nanette

   5/5

   2018. Takes self-deprecation apart, then declines to release the tension.

4. James Acaster: Repertoire

   5/5

   2018. Four hours that turn out to be one story. Watch them in order.

5. Mike Birbiglia: The New One

   4/5

   2019. An hour on not wanting a child, and then the rest of it.

6. Ali Wong: Baby Cobra

   4/5

   2016. Seven months pregnant on stage, and not gentle about any of it.

7. Maria Bamford: Old Baby

   4/5

   2017. Starts in front of one person and grows to a theatre. Nobody else does that.

8. Nate Bargatze: The Tennessee Kid

   4/5

   2019. No edge, no volume, just very good jokes told slowly.

9. Taylor Tomlinson: Look at You

   4/5

   2022. Grief and a diagnosis, written as jokes that still work as jokes.