Written by Jack Alano
If you had asked me what the highest accomplishment a comedian could achieve was when I started doing stand-up five years ago, I would have likely said “getting a Netflix special.” If you had asked someone else five years before that, they might have said “getting a show on Comedy Central.” I don’t know, I’m not them, I wasn’t really paying attention back then, but these shifts happen. I believe that we are experiencing another major change in long-form stand-up publishing, a trend that rivals Netflix, Max (the streaming service formerly known as HBOMAX), and all other competitors. That is the trend of high-quality, independently-released, full length stand-up specials being dropped on YouTube. This enormous collection of newly released stand-up has me the most excited I have ever been to be a comedy fan.
Although the prestige and paychecks of getting published on a major streaming service are still very much the pinnacle of the industry, I haven’t been watching the majority of my stand-up on Netflix. In fact, the last time I subscribed to a month of Netflix was to watch their “Verified” collection, which featured comedians that I have grown to love from their TikTok videos and YouTube sets. Watching sets that I had already enjoyed for free on YouTube, but this time for $18/month on Netflix, rang strangely hollow. For the first time in my memory, it feels like Netflix is playing catch-up with the avalanche of comedic talent that has been overwhelming the YouTube algorithm.
As an older member of gen-z, I grew up watching YouTube as my number one source of entertainment, for better or worse. Whether it was the endlessly clippable antics of JonTron or the deranged diatribes of Internet Comment Etiquette with Erik, I had no end of comedic content at my disposal. Still, for years stand-up was relegated to fringe viral videos and official late-night show clips. Full length stand-up specials have only started being recommended to me within the past few years, and now if you search “Full stand-up special” you will inevitably be greeted by hours of comedy released in just the past month. It made me wonder what has changed and how the comedians releasing these specials view what is happening.
I was lucky enough to interview three comedians with Netflix-caliber YouTube stand-up specials about the phenomenon. Neil Rubenstein (@neilrubenstein on IG), Liz Miele (@lizmiele on IG), and David Drake (@daviddrakecomedy on IG) have eight full-length specials between them on YouTube. Most recently released are Have Some Dignity, MURDER SHEETS, and That’s It! respectively, all of which I highly recommend for the average comedy fanatic like myself.
The consensus between the comics was clear, YouTube has opened the floodgates for comedians looking to release their work. “It’s just the Wild West right now,” says Rubenstein, “The goal posts have been taken down completely. Everyone’s scrambling to see what’s next and in the meantime, here is something we can do on our own.” Miele echoes his sentiment, adding that the motivation comes from artists growing tired of the entertainment industry’s arbitrary taste-making choices that determine who gets seen where. “Creatives of all types,” she notes, “but especially comedians and I think musicians, are frustrated that they need to be plucked… by someone else’s determination of if you have value.” It seems that being chosen for success by the YouTube algorithm has become more appealing than hoping to be discovered by these established entertainment-industry institutions.
Along with the artistic freedom that the internet provides, another sentiment shared between the comedians was that the internet has changed how audiences expect to consume comedy, making YouTube the obvious choice for independent publishing. David Drake mentioned that he released first comedy special on audio platforms in 2015 because “Albums were what people were doing. It was just like the thing that we all grew up with. Whereas by 2020, if you wanted eyes on your work, it had to be visual.” Miele also touched on that, saying “Albums used to be the thing, and then specials were if you were super famous, but now… TikTok and what-have-you have pushed us into a visual medium.”
This is a stark contrast to my experience of being introduced to stand-up mainly through Netflix specials and old Comedy Central clips on YouTube. In my lifetime, stand-up has always been a primarily visual medium. I have never considered recording an album, but the prospect of filming a special dances through my mind daily. If I ever am able to do so, I would be happy for it to join the ranks of such great works already available on YouTube.
