Where Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, amongst several other layers, deconstructs comedy in a way that points out some natural flaws, Ryan Stout takes a stand to defend the art and craft, effectively reconstructing it with his latest hour, and album called Man In The Suit. 

Throughout, Stout manages to make his case for jokes being taken at face value as jokes (as opposed to being censored for offensiveness by anyone) on this record all while doing what he does best: play mental chess vs. the audience with his incredibly clever and dark jokes. Like Bill Burr, he hits points that you may disagree with, but usually gets you laughing anyway because that is what he primarily cares about. Stout might even be more calculated than Burr on Man In The Suit with how he pushes and pulls his audiences right to where he wants them. 

The discourse between political correctness and comedy will never end (what subjective arguments in art are ever truly over?), but, at the very least, Stout gave us another fine hour of comedy in the process. 

Man In The Suit just dropped today and you can (and should) get here.