Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Its been five years since Michael Che released a Netflix special.
I think Hillary Clintons gonna win, he told that amped-up, August 2016 crowd.
Shes a white lady.
White women take whatever the fuck they want.
The show felt loose and bright.
The mood was running hot.
By comparison, his latest,Shame the Devil,is his roll-out-of-bed special.
Theres no obvious salesmanship or rather, theres the studied salesmanship of relaxed amiability.
You know how hard it was to put on pants with a waistband after the shutdown?
Just be happy hes in shoes.
And I am happy because it makesShame the Devila refreshingly downbeat experience.
Ive heard of criticism offered more in sorrow than in anger, but Ches latest iscomedyoffered that way.
He talks a little about a breakup and claims hes going to stay single forever.
What preoccupies him most, it seems, are the times when people have gotten mad at him.
Did you know periods makebroadstomatoesladies irritable?
I dont know why men are so obsessed with their dicks, he says.
Every dude in here has measured his dick before, and I dont mean just with a ruler.
Youre like,Why is the remote control in here?Cause we gotta get scale!
The use of the wordladiesis a tell.
Theres a whiff of Jerry Lewis (Hey, lady!)
and the Borscht Belt in these gags.Take my girlfriend hey.
His other dominant theme is criticism.
To his infinite credit, Che does not mention cancel culture even when hes addressing blowback.
Instead, he defends himself as well-meaning or swears ignorance.
He gives the sense of being genuinely vulnerable to such accusations.
I have gay friends; I work with gay people, he says.
But then I started to, like, look into myself, like,Well, damn.
Maybe theres something I dont know?AmI homophobic?
When you did that laugh, I thought,Thats a gay-ass laugh.
He takes a beat.
It was a joke.
I couldnt pass [it up].
Che deeply wants to c’mon.
delivered with Ches youngest-sibling-style pleading.
He pulls the same thing a few times.
You ever seen a bear?
An entertainer who wants to be liked?
A joke-teller who goes for the laugh?
Get out of here.
Ches not exactly the first to pander his word.
But at least I trust that its there sitting quietly on a stool in the dark of my mind.
Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism.
