There’s matching calamity with serenity, after which there’s what comic Marc Maron has pulled off, which is taking a lifetime of hysteria and using it to its most comedic impact.
The Gist: Maron met the second each personally and politically in his first HBO particular, From Bleak to Darkish. For his follow-up, he expands on a number of the themes he has been joking about because the first Trump administration in Finish Occasions Enjoyable, permitting us to chuckle at seemingly hopeless or tragic circumstances whereas additionally mocking these in comedy who’ve capitulated to energy as a substitute of talking fact to it.
And he’s discovering an excellent bigger viewers now than maybe ever, thanks not solely to his long-running hit podcast, WTF with Marc Maron, but additionally to a string of mainstream roles onscreen in initiatives from GLOW to Joker, and most just lately this 12 months in Apple TV+’s golf comedy, Stick, and the animated big-screen sequel, The Dangerous Guys 2.
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: I beforehand known as Maron this technology’s George Carlin, and whereas no person would accuse the late nice Carlin of being an anxiety-ridden Jew, there’s no denying that there are few high-profile stand-up comedians prepared to really level the finger at themselves and their occupation fairly like Maron proper now. Though Invoice Burr can also be rising to this specific second. In that respect, Maron’s 2025 hour shares some commonalities with Burr’s latest particular.
Memorable Jokes: Maron wastes no time going after the present political powers in Washington, D.C., calling Trump a “sociopathic huckster clown king,” Elon Musk an “autistic billionaire technofascist,” and “one way or the other managed to seek out an precise Jewish Nazi for deputy chief of employees” in Stephen Miller. “I had no thought simply how nice it was going to be?” he opens sarcastically concerning the MAGA motion, and saying Trump has “actually obtained an eye fixed for expertise” “his supporters…military of shills and stooges, and grifters, collaborators, unf—ready hate nerds, white nationalists, crypto dorks, wack job christian fascists,” after which “there’s about 50 million individuals who determined I identical to the man!”
To the comedians with even perhaps bigger podcast platforms who determined they wished to platform Trump and his minions, Maron seems to be upon them with disdain, suggesting their protection of free speech actually amounted to nothing lower than the truth that “they wished to say the r phrase with impunity.” And these podcast bros didn’t care or suppose to care concerning the bigger penalties of Undertaking 2025. Which he nails them with a callback that he is aware of he’ll get some grief about: “Was it price it, you fucking retard?”
Maron’s hour isn’t all concerning the powers that be, nevertheless.
He additionally digs into his personal psyche for a deeper examination of his intrusive catastrophic considering, questioning: “I don’t know if that’s the place all my creativity comes from…mining for gold in a river of panic.”
So as a substitute he gives an alternate: “Marc, why don’t you simply be entertaining?”
His thought of entertaining, after all, entails discovering sitcom situations amid nice tragedy, similar to what to do about his housepainter exhibiting up within the top of January’s fires spreading throughout Los Angeles? How does Maron evacuate his three cats when he lacks the right cages for all of them?
He will get actually animated impersonating one other comic, Theo Von, imagining how Von may’ve approached an interview with Hitler. And Maron will get much more into character for a shocking characterization of a male babysitter in Alaska who seemed over Marc and his brother once they have been little boys. The babysitter might or might not have abused them, however in Maron’s head, that man grew as much as be an “anti-woke” stand-up himself. “It takes every part I’ve to not do a full one-man present as that man,” Maron jokes throughout the prolonged act-out.
And only for an actual shock, he finds a technique to tangle up his grief and his mortality on a hike when he lastly decides to seek out out what all the children discover so alluring about Taylor Swift’s music catalog.
Our Take: This isn’t the primary time nor the final that Maron will maintain his comedy friends’ ft to the hearth. On this second, he fortunately takes them down a peg or two by declaring that they’re utilizing their substantial podcasting affect “talking energy to fact … now that fact can not defend itself.”
Which is the other of what a real comic ought to do.
Not that Maron has all of the solutions. He even cops to it, saying: “And look, I don’t know what to do.” And but, he’s rising to the event, anyhow. He may additionally rankle some progressive feathers by claiming that the left has “aggravated the typical American fascism,” however he’s actually speaking extra about classical liberals or neoliberals than he’s precise progressives right here.
He additionally has sufficient self-awareness to inform us: “I’m not completely delusional. I do know there’s no joke that I’m going to do this’s going to go viral and simply make all these new younger Nazis simply be like oh man, I’m simply mad at my dad, I feel.”
And but, he may be extra proper than he realizes when he imagines them additional admitting “that Jew’s joke actually f—ed with my head.” The extra Maron speaks out, the extra the message can unfold. And it’s a message that must be heard now greater than ever.
Our Name: STREAM IT. Maron’s on the high of his recreation, and we’re all the higher for it.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He additionally podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin tales: The Comedian’s Comedian Presents Final Issues First.
