best of 2022

The 100 Best Things in Comedy We Were Witness To in No Particular Order of 2022

2022 saw a much more open world (after January, that is) and, subsequently, much more active, live-in-person-focused comedy scenes than in 2020 or 2021. As such, there was thankfully more comedy for us to see (and way less staying trapped in our apartment) and that is one of a small handful of things we were thankful for in 2022.

Well, there are these 100 things that we loved in comedy too* (just like we did in 2021).

*as always, these entries are in no specific order and aren’t following any sort of ranking system whatsoever

1. the college debt joke in The Menu-for a dark thriller released in 2022, Seth Reiss and Will Tracy sure pack in a lot of jokes in The Menu, one of which we burst out laughing for a good 30 seconds in the theater.
2. Jordan Jensen‘s Roe v. Wade joke delivered at the Hollywood Improv right after Roe v. Wade was overturned-“I know I’m going to take a lot more cum shots to the face now that abortion is off the table”. For our money, that was the best joke of a very dark night in American history.
3. Kelly Bachman and Dylan Adler: Rape Victims Are Horny Too-Bachman and Adler pulled off what might have previously seemed impossible with a musical comedy revue about being a sexual assault/rape survivor that’s both deeply healing and fun.
4. Phat Tuesdays docu-series-May no one forget that Phat Tuesdays kept The Comedy Store afloat in the 2000s ever again because of this important series.
   
5. Everything Everywhere All at Once-the Daniels might have just made a comedy that features several sex toy gags, hot dog fingers on live action actors in dramatic scenes, and endless amounts of glue-on googly eyes that could win big during awards season. Even though it’s the opposite of Oscar bait, it would deserve everything it could potentially win, especially for a career defining performance from Michelle Yeoh.
   
6. Sarah Squirm on SNL-Sarah Squirm/Sarah Sherman should be allowed to be as weird as she wants to be on SNL as it’s one of the most exciting things happening with the historic sketch comedy institution these days. Have Sarah News take over Weekend Update ASAP.
7. Milan Patel-Original and offbeat in the best way possible, Patel is one of our go-to answers for “Who’s next?” in comedy these days.
8. This Fool-the best freshman comedy of 2022 should make stars out of Chris Estrada and Frankie Quinones and has some of the best commentary about class, mental health, race, and more wrapped up in some of TV’s sharpest writing from Estrada and the creators of Corporate.
   
   
9. Forget About Spaghetti Fest-The Elysian put on a festival of completely new, never before seen, entirely experimental comedy shows for several days and, honestly, it’s a comedy festival that LA can be very proud of.
10. Noah Baumbach’s White Noise-There is always a handful of things that make it worth waiting until the actual end of the calendar year to a “best of the year” list. Baumbach’s colorful, timely odyssey about collective panic and mortality where the lofty dialogue is juxtaposed with sheer absurdity is unequivocally one such thing.
    
11. Rachel Kaly-There is nothing quite like Kaly’s tall tales being delivered in her seemingly unaffected, low boil style. It’s pure silliness and yet so grounded at the same time and has us slapping our knees in laughter every time we see it.
12. All My Friends Hate Me-Andrew Gaynord lands the perfect crossing of comedy and horror with an expertly written movie about anxiety and insecurity eating away at you because your friends like “joking around” with you.
13. Maria Bamford set on grief on Corden-This set is as beautiful and dark and touching and hilarious as anything that Maria has done. So, give Bamford the Mark Twain Prize for Humor already.
14. That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them by Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx-Sienkiewicz and Marx do extensive and exhaustive research to remind us all that just because “right wing comedy” might not be funny to millions, there are millions of others who rally behind it. This insightful book gives an invaluable tour of how that came to be.
    
15. Gemma Soldati’s Poor Rich-Soldati’s solo show is the most fun you’ll have seeing how unsustainable late stage capitalism can be.
16. Sara June’s “Bathroom Time”-Sara June perfectly captures the existential conundrum that is the women’s bathroom at any and all offices in this critically acclaimed short film.
17. Lizzy Cooperman’s In Your Hands-Lizzy has created some sort of real life version of The Truman Show, which is all the more enthralling as Lizzy’s fate is absolutely put up for a vote every week. The result is daring and so damn funny since Lizzy fully commits to this premise, seemingly to the nth degree.
    
18. Sean Patton’s Number One and King Scorpio-If we were lucky for anything in 2022, it would be for us all being treated to two different hours in one year from the one and only Sean Patton, a comedian and storyteller who has been deserving of such a happening years ago.
19. Going Up with Sara Schaefer-In this solo show, Sara mashes up a stand-up class, several poignant insights/idiosyncrasies of comedy,  a self-help course, and a bit of the scamming of Scientology for an astounding, satirical inside look at the art and business of stand-up comedy in the 2020s.
20. Turning Red-Disney Pixar’s track record of family friendly comedies that have plenty of socio-cultural layers and jokes to unpack and enjoy for adults is alive and well with Turning Red, one of their best releases in awhile.
21. Bake Stuff with Lindsay Adams-Surviving to this side of the pandemic, Lindsay Adams reimagined her aggressively interactive cooking show at Junior High in LA and it remains the most delicious show in town.
22. Jena Friedman: Ladykiller-Ardent followers of this list will note that Jena is pretty much on all of them and we’ll tell you that she earns it every time. This year, with her Peacock comedy special Ladykiller, is no different as Friedman dishes out some of the best material on abortion while in her third trimester.
23. Max Beasley-When it comes to joking about being trans, Max Beasley might be on the very forefront of how to do amazing meta one liner jokes about it.
24. Depths of Wikipedia-Stemming from a project born out of COVID-19 lockdown, Annie Rauwerda has curated the funniest parts of Wikipedia, which is a multiverse on its own at this point.
    
25. Jen Kirkman: OK, GEN-X-Kirkman honestly explores generational differences, specifically between Gen X and Millennials and Gen Z with her comedically defending young folks. We called it one of the best albums of the year in March and, after nine months, we fervently stand by that claim.
26. Brianna Ahlmark‘s bad magician-Ahlmark has been a rising star in the clowning scene here in LA and her vision of a bad magician, specifically remembering tricks involving pulling someone’s chosen card had us howling.
27. Byron Bowers: Spiritual N**ga-Bowers very first comedy special is almost otherworldly as it’s delivered in a boxing ring and has as much poetic thrust to its imagery as it does comedic subversion.
28. The Rehearsal-Nathan Fielder’s latest comedy experiment that involves “rehearsing” for real life situations ends up finding the humor in Nathan (possibly) actually being in over his head for getting too meta.
    
29. Laura Peek-Peek got so many accolades for her comedy throughout 2022 (worthy of all of them) that one might not even notice that it wasn’t too long ago that she moved out to LA from Nashville. Also, Peek’s dirty jokes is amongst the best blue humor we have today.
30. Sabrina Wu’s debut on Tonight Show-Sabrina’s set here doubles as a truly great TV debut and a perfect introduction to the concept of intersectionality.
31. Bodies Bodies Bodies-This is a punk, post-modern reimagining of a “whodunit” and the cluelessness of every character is a devilishly satisfying laugh riot.
32. Ms. Pat: Y’all Want to Hear Something Crazy?-Thanks be to whatever you believe in that Ms. Pat survived her absolutely insane life to be able to share it on a bare stage as amazing stand-up.
33. Eating Salad Drunk Haikus for the Burnout Age by Comedy Greats-Littlefield’s Gabe Henry edited what might the best book for a coffee table (or any table for that matter) with one of the best collections of haikus from the best minds in comedy.
    
34. George Carlin’s American Dream-An American master gets his deserving ode (in two parts no less) from a duo of the most esteemed comedy historians/documenters, Judd Apatow and Michael Bongfiglio.
35. Stand Up and Clown with Chad Damiani-Damiani’s gauntlet of a showcase for stand-ups to take on the challenge of “clown” gets more and more foolproof the more unhinged it gets from month to month to month.
36. Barry season 3-The latest season of Barry holds nothing back and is as dark as a comedy can get and still very much be a comedy. Kudos to some of the best directing on television as well.
37. the ending of Tar and scene with accordion-Todd Field’s Tar isn’t a comedy per se, but the final reveal at the end and a miscommunication involving an accordion being too loud might be the funniest things that Cate Blanchett has ever been in (including Documentary Now!)
    
38. I Love My Dad-James Morosini unfortunately lived through the reality of this true story, but ended up making a movie strikes a rare balance of being viscerally upsetting and undeniably hysterical about a dad catfishing his son in order to stay in touch with him.
39. Blake Rosier‘s “sound speeds joke”-multi-disciplinary comedian Blake Rosier not only takes some of the biggest swings in comedy, but comes up with some of the most beautifully dumb bits we’ve seen, especially when he does “Blake Rosier’s Bad Show”. We’re not going to tip you off here by describing the joke; just go see Blake live ASAP.
40. Andrew Sleighter on Corden-Sleighter notched in the very first late night set in 2022 and executed it perfectly (even when Omicron was ruining everything again).
41. Roz Hernandez-Truth in comedy prevails yet again as Roz found herself as a woman (after performing as a drag queen for years) during quarantine and has emerged as one of LA’s best and brightest comics coming up right now.
    
42. Would It Kill You to Laugh? with John Early and Kate Berlant-Early and Berlant effectively cement their legacy as one of history’s great comedy duos by doing a special about being one of history’s great comedy duos.
43. Live comedy happening in Ukraine during war-yes, live stand-up comedy is still happening in the Ukraine while Putin whines about keeping his unprovoked war going (Letterman himself did a tight 5 in Kyiv) and that’s one of the most hope inspiring things we heard and saw all year long.
44. Brian and Charles-DIY robot/friend Charles Petrescu is funnier than any droid in any Star Wars movie.
45. PDA-In the hills of Altadena, not too too far from LA, is a newly built haven in a strip mall for comedians/clowns/improvisers/etc. to get really really weird.
46. Amy Miller: California King-Miller’s second album, on the week that it came out, was kind of the perfect thing to help counter balance the new reality that Russia just invaded Ukraine.
47. Jay Jurden on Tonight Show-Jurden is so good that every late night show should automatically give him a set (whether regularly feature stand-up comedy or not).
48. Return of Kids in the Hall-The legendary sketch group nailed their return on Amazon and their not-so-subtle ribbing of SNL head Lorne Michaels.
    
49. Mega the Podcast-Holly Laurent and Greg Hess’ satirical mega church podcast is the perfect listen for a time where thoughts and prayers seem just performative more so than anything else.
50. Atlanta seasons 3 & 4-Donald Glover knows, better than almost everyone, how to end a series on top.
51. Bad Play-the irreverence of Brad Beideman, Brian Fitzgerald, Lyndsey Kempf, and Eli Lutsky is undeniable and this is such an amazing “bad” play that you don’t even have to be a patron of live theater to join in on their mischief.
52. Eric Davis‘ bit with two whiteboards-More renowned as his creation Red Bastard, Eric Davis dazzled us with his clowning prowess with just two whiteboards set apart from each other, lots of tally marks, and boundless empathy.
53. Nick Vatterott: Disingenuous-If you ever wondered what a truly absurdist comedy special would actually look like, look no further than this genius special by Vatterott that blurs nearly every sort of line you could possibly think of when it comes to performing comedy.
54. Ariel Elias dodging a beer being thrown at her then going on Kimmel-What could have been the opposite of a feel-good story thankfully ended up being one of the best feel good stories (for a very deserving and very funny Ariel Elias) in both comedy and of 2022.
55. Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation by Hannah Gadsby-Gadsby endearingly takes us through every moment of her historical and meteoric ascent from Nanette with this memoir that we’d wager even strident critics of that particular special would probably enjoy.
56. Matt Rogers: Have You Heard of Christmas?-Thanks to the flair and wit (and golden pipes) of Matt Rogers, all other holiday specials have been put on notice to try harder from now on.
57. Joy’s Bed & Breakfast-Jessy Morner-Ritt’s wild variety show will make you want more out of any other B&B you ever stay at (especially when it comes to how outrageous Jessy’s outfits for this show are).
    
58. Atsuko Okatsuka: The Intruder-Okatsuka really elevated herself in 2022 and reach new heights right at the end of the year with a terrific hour special, showing off her charm and incisive comedy, on HBO.
59. Normal Gossip-Kelsey McKinney and Alex Sujong Laughlin’s delight of a podcast relishes in the maudlin minutia of regular, non-famous folks reminding us all that everyone (probably) has a funny story just waiting to be told the right way.
60. Jessica McKenna‘s record setting rendition of the National Anthem at Sports! Comedy Show-Though some sort of Guinness Book of World Records official wasn’t present for this, McKenna’s extended edition of the National Anthem just got funnier and funnier the longer and longer it went.
61. Billy Wayne Davis: Testify-It’s a hell of a feat to pose an existential quandary at the top of your special and then kill it after that, but then again, Billy Wayne Davis is one hell of a stand-up comedian.
62. The Fabelmans-Who knew that Steven Spielberg still had some of the best comedic moments in a movie up his sleeve in 2022?
63. The World’s Worst Assistant by Sona Movsesian-Conan O’Brien’s longtime, beloved assistant Sona reinforces the long held notion that truth, the place where so much of the best comedy comes from, is stranger than fiction and does so with glee in this grand memoir.
    
64. James Acaster on Seth Meyers-This is a perfect storm of James Acaster doing bits and being present and riding the wave of chaos throughout this panel interview.
65. Hasan Minhaj: The King’s Jester-Minhaj’s long-awaited follow-up to Homecoming King was well worth the wait, especially when he outlines his plot to seek revenge for his daughter through his old Netflix show.
66. Reshma Meister-Some of the most original and hysterical characters we saw on stage in LA this year were introduced to us thanks to Reshma (as well as learning that some company actually made sandals that have a bottle opener on the sole).
    
67. Next Slide Please-Many a powerpoint comedy show has come and go over the years, but Reed Kavner’s dedication to the concept is next level and so damn funny (ex. a powerpoint about trying Tinder in the Olympic Village).
68. Ali Siddiq: Domino Effect-Siddiq remains one of the best comedic storytellers this century has and this special is proof.
69. Jackie Kashian on Corden-Based off of this set, Jackie should get a TV show where she explains everything.
70. Catherine Called Birdy-Lena Dunham’s cheeky vision of the days of yore follows star-in-the-making Bella Ramsey as her own Ladybird of the 1200s.
71. Danny Jolles: You Choose: The Full Interactive Comedy Special-Through one of the more clever tricks we’ve seen pulled on YouTube, Jolles makes a comedy special unlike anyone has ever seen before. Spoiler alert: the material works no matter which choose you make.
    
72. Bill O’Neill: 1000 Ways to Slip on a Banana Peel/The Amazing Banana Brothers-Bill evolves the time-honored comedic bit of slipping on a banana peel to performance art (on top of repeating perfectly executed, classical physical humor).
73. Sheng Wang: Sweet and Juicy-Wang takes great care in perfecting element of every joke of every part of this special to the point where there is absolutely no fat in the whole hour.
74. David Cross at Netflix Is a Joke Fest-Cross’ rare appearance in LA not only had an hour of fiery satire next to a cemetery, but had one of the better Will-Smith-Slap-inspired bits of 2022, which just happen to include his former comedy partner-turned-celebrated actor, Bob Odenkirk.
75. Triangle of Sadness–The latest masterwork from comedy’s premier auteur, Ruben Östlund.
    
76. Kenice Mobley: Follow Up Question-The most anthropological comedy album in recent memory just happened to be delivered by one of NYC comedy’s finest, Kenice Mobley.
77. Courtney Karwal’s “Lipstick City”-If you thought you’ve heard and reveled in every nightmare audition story, please watch, cringe (in the good way), laugh, and enjoy Karwal’s outstanding short.
78. Caitlin Peluffo on Corden-If stand-up on late night were an Olympic event, we’re pretty sure that there would be no deductions in her score from this flawless set from Peluffo.
79. Ismael Loutfi: Sound It Out-Loutfi’s first half-hour special shows that there are still much more nuance (and comedy gold) to be had from representing the Muslim experience in America.
80. Hacks season 2-It’s rare that a comedy becomes a perennial Emmy winner in its first two seasons, but, then again, Jean Smart, Hannah Einbinder, Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello, and Jen Statsky are really that good.
81. Joel Kim Booster: Psychosexual-Booster had such a banner year in 2022 and his very first hour special is one of the crown jewels of it. Psychosexual takes such a unique and satirical approach to exploring intersectionality, especially when Booster keeps checking in with straight, white man and his thoughts on his material during the whole hour.
    
82. Robby Hoffman-Hoffman’s material on queer identity is so damn funny and spot on that you can leave Chappelle’s notions on that (and more) back in 2022.
83. What We Do In the Shadows-The funniest show on TV managed to up the ante on how ridiculous it is, even by its own wild standards, and still maintain its comedic glory.
84. Andy Haynes: The Coward of Gramercy-Haynes started off comedy albums in 2022 incredibly strong with this release and proved that there are still great COVID-19 jokes to be told (even during that Omicron surge).
85. The Pansexual Bachelor with Holmes-This parody of The Bachelor is so unrelenting with its jokes that if ABC actually wanted to have a pansexual version of The Bachelor, they should only consider adapting this version of it.
    
86. Ian Karmel on Corden-Karmel set a new precedent in doing stand-up while on late night by hilariously going through his wedding thank you notes while doing a whole set about getting hitched.
87. Norm MacDonald: Nothing Special-Despite death’s spectre floating above him and no audience around a self-taped stand-up set at home, MacDonald reaffirms how he was one of the funniest that comedy has ever had.
88. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On movie-Dean Fliescher-Camp pulls off the very difficult feat of adapting the viral sensation of Marcel the Shell on to the big screen and somehow finding even more magical charm than any of us thought possible
    
89. The ending of Cat Cohen’s The Twist…? She’s Gorgeous-Cohen’s extended number finishing off her first hour special is such an epic, hilarious journey that it’s almost a special unto itself.
90. W. Kamau Bell’s We Need to Talk About Cosby-Kamau assembles a crucial and devastating conversation about now infamous comedy legend Bill Cosby that hopefully will buffer against such a thing ever happening again.
91. Moses Storm: Trash White-Considering that this special was supposed to tape right as quarantine was put into place, Storm made sure to make the most out of this first hour special, reimagining the aesthetics of a comedy special along with craftily talking about class and mental health through his childhood.
    
92. Reservation Dogs Season 2–Reservation Dogs used the creative license from getting a second season to have the humor be more honest and vulnerable and original than in its critically acclaimed first season.
93. Andy Sandford: Basket Case-Sandford shows that a pandemic and its aftermath can’t dull his masterful joke writing skills.
94. The Worst Person in the World-The only other movie more unconventional than this brilliant romantic dramedy had to literally go to the multiverse to be more outside the box.
95. White Lotus season 2-Between Enlightened and two seasons of White Lotus, Mike White has cemented his legacy as a TV powerhouse.
96. StraightioLab-George Civeris and Sam Taggart’s painstakingly nuanced dissection of straight culture is, at the same time, and sharply cut mirror on what the straights hath wrought and some of the best irreverent riffs and asides on a podcast.
    
97. Ziwe Season 2-For our money, Ziwe is the late night world’s icon now.
98. Aidy Bryant and John Early go public with their relationship on Seth Meyers-John and Aidy raise the bar for late night appearances going forward with this stop at Late Night that’s equal parts PDA, shouting, and being brilliantly camp.
99. @ohsewnerdy-Thanks to Derek @ohsewnerdy, there is cross-stitch for all of us clever, pop-culture obsessed folks.
    
100. Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel-In revealing his true self, Jerrod made one of the most groundbreaking specials for the art form of comedy.