The Best Comedy Specials to Stream Right Now (Critic’s Picks)

Before Cristela Alonzo utters a word in her third Netflix special, Upper Classy, she stops to take a sip out of a glass perched on a stool stage right. “I had to make sure I drank some water,” the first generation Mexican-American comedian explains. “Room temperature — because I hate ice.” The Dallas crowd roars its approval.

And about 40 minutes into his debut special for HBO Max, Model Comedian, Caleb Hearon shares that his favorite straight guys right now are conservative Republicans: “I love em! I think they’re so funny, because they all hate gay people so much and they’re such f—ots.” (On JD Vance: “Have you ever seen a man need that much mascara to look compelling? Not even handsome. Just compelling.”)

Politics is more an undercurrent than a focus in both of these hours, both of which were taped in June, about three months before Jimmy Kimmel’s brief albeit chilling suspension from the ABC airwaves. But it’s there, and it’s as unmistakably oppositional as it is funny.

With industry chatter continuing about a possible acquisition of HBO-Max parent company Warner Bros. Discovery by the newly right-leaning Paramount — well, it’s fair to wonder just how long the major streamers will continue to deliver comedy as smart, funny, and progressive as the specials that follow in alphabetical order.

Speaking of smart, funny, and progressive, Thief of Joy finds Gianmarco Soresi worrying about pronouns: “I just don’t always feel like I fit the specific box that society has laid out,” he says. “I don’t always like the feeling of meeting someone for the first time and being like, ‘Gianmarco Soresi: he, him.’ I think it would be more accurate to be like, ‘Gianmarco Soresi: he, him — but I’ll smile if you call me girl!’”

And if Take Me With You is your introduction to Jordan Jensen, buckle up: you are in for a wild ride, as well one of this year’s best hours of comedy to date. Find more on our favorite comedy specials of October below.