Dec. 29, 2024

2024 Comedy Specials Not on the Best Of List - and WHY

Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode, Johnny Mac discusses a variety of comedy specials that did not make his top list of the year. He explains his criteria for ranking, noting the importance of originality and genuine humor. The specials mentioned include works by Jo Koy, Pete Davidson, Jackie Novak, Kevin James, Rory Scovel, Neil Brennan, Jenny Slate, Nikki Glaser, Anthony Jeselnik, James Acaster, Jim Gaffigan, and Jamie Foxx.

Johnny emphasizes that his list is subjective and encourages listeners to share their thoughts in the Daily Comedy News podcast Facebook group.

00:26 Criteria for Comedy Specials
01:10 Specials That Didn't Make the List
01:27 Detailed Reviews of Notable Specials

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WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media. Be there. I'm shunning back with your

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daily comedy news. If you've listened last few days. This

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is two days ago I did my top specials of

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the year. Yesterday I did the next best specials of

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the year, and today is and I want to keep

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it positive, but today are some specials that are just

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not on the list. Some of them I liked a lot,

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but just not on the list as so as I

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make the list. Tier A are the things that I

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feel like just nailed it, like really funny comedian trying

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to do something not just as special by the numbers,

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just it's got that little certain something. Then the next

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group of things like you know Seth Meyers doing Seth

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Meyers things and if you're sitting on a couch for

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an hour, fine solid special, you laugh, but like there's

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nothing special about it. Well the capital lests, you know

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what I mean. And then today are some other things

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and I'll share with you why they didn't make the list.

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And I'm all proud of myself. After having weeks of

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voice trouble, my voice is pretty strong today. This is

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the third podcast in a row because I've done all

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these list episodes back to back to back, and I've

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got my large iced coffee with caramel and Millik can

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go to buy me a coffee. Dot com slash Daily

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Company News to support the show, but voices holding up,

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which is good right. Not on the list, and there's

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no particular order to this list. Maybe a slight chronological

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as something came out and I added it to the bottom,

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But don't read anything into the order in which I

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discuss the following specials that are not on the list.

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Not on the list Adrian Applelucci's Derk Queen, and I wrote,

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I didn't buy the premises of the jokes. They felt

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like all untrue premises. I'll compare that to Ronnie Ching.

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Ronnie has that big opening sweep about freezing his wife's eggs,

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clearly told for comedic effect, but I believe the underlying story,

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whereas with Adrian, I just didn't believe anything she was

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saying and it takes me out of it. I need

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something to be at least a little bit reality based,

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unless you're going like full Stephen Wright. Not on the list.

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Ali Wong's single Lady for Me. You know not all

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comedian is targeted at a fifty five year old Mary

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dude sitting in a basement with kids recording a podcast.

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You know, I'm not the target audience there, so I

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wasn't feeling it at all. Doesn't mean it's bad, doesn't

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mean it's not funny, doesn't mean you won't like it.

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Just not on my list. And I can't say this

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enough times. It's just one dude's list. Let's not get

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angry about the list. The list doesn't made to make

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people feel bad, doesn't mean anything. What it really means

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is John wanted to take three days off after Christmas,

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and everybody else puts out lists, so why shouldn't I.

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That's what this really means. Also not on the list

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Joe Coy, Yeah, he had a special this year, remember

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that one? No me neither. I wrote down all energy,

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no jokes. Very disappointing by Joe Coy. Perhaps Taylor Swift

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really rattled his game. Who knows. Not on the list

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Ronny Yusef's HBO special from March, and I wrote I

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didn't like the direction. I couldn't focus. I know some

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folks have had this on their top tens, but just

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the way it was edited kept taking me out of it.

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You know, comedy directors, how about you shoot the camera

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at the comedian and you leave it there. I'm getting old,

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but all this fast cut stuff I just don't like.

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Ronny had weird lighting, so the direction just ruined it

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for me. The material might be amazing, but I don't know.

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I bailed. Pete Davidson had a Netflix special in January.

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Remember that one. I wrote terrible and then I wrote

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even more damning fake laughs question mark. That was a

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note I had on a lot of specials this year

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that because of what I do for a living. I've

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worked in radios professionally since ninety two in college radio

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before that. I've listened to a lot of audio over

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the years, and weird edits will get my attention. Even

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Ronnie Chang special, which I loved early on, there's some

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weird video jumps that I was like, Eh, that didn't

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seem natural, But as I watched Pete, I felt like

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they added laughs and boy, there's nothing more damning than

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that Jackie Novak Get on your Knees on Netflix in January.

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I've seen that on a lot of other people's top

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ten lists. I lasted four minutes with that special, and

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like I said earlier, not every specials targeted at me

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wasn't for me. You might like it. Kevin James, irregardless

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was on Amazon in January. I lasted seven minutes. He

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was doing this weird dancing thing and no thanks. I'm out.

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Rory Scovell had one on Max and I wrote the

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same note I did with Pete. The laughter has me suspicious.

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And if I don't trust that you haven't added laughter,

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I don't trust your special and I'm out. I have

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that same note about Neil Brennan's Netflix special back in April,

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I wrote, material was good, but fake laughs. Just don't

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do that. Four specials that came and went, I have

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no note on them. Donalll Rawlings Netflix February, Jenny Slate

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Amazon February, Steve Travino Netflix in March, Liz Neely on

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YouTube in April. Nikki Glazer is HBO special. I've seen

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some people put her way up on the list. I

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think she crushed at Tom Brady, but I didn't think

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that special was all that. Again, maybe I'm not the

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target audience for it, but I watched that. I was like,

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all right, I mean it's fine, it's fine. I'm not

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gonna throw a pie at you if you like it,

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but it's fine. Some more specials not on Johnny Max's list. Again,

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I can't say enough. It's just a list. Let's not

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get upset about it. I'm just talking. Hada Einemander had

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a special on Max and I wrote, is she even

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a good stand up? Boy? It must have been craiky

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when I wrote that one down, but that's what I wrote.

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It's not how I feel right now, but I did

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write that sentence A looking at my note right here

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under other projects best of twenty twenty four, and it

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says is she even a good stand up? Question work?

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Ron In Hirschberg had a special on YouTube. I wrote

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generic comedian, Generic comedy. Christina Catherine Martinez had how to

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Make a Cake and I wrote weird and not funny,

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and I usually like weird. Natasha vain Blatt had one

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on YouTube and I wrote, it's fine, nothing special. Dan

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Licatta for the Boys on YouTube, but his old high school.

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I saw what he was trying to do. He went

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back to his old high school. He got some teenagers

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in the audience, but there's like a fake teacher being like,

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you shouldn't be doing that kind of material, Like I

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see what he's trying to do, but it just didn't work.

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I actually wrote the sentence not good Hannah Berner July Netflix.

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I just wrote not for me again, some specials are

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not for me. All good, Langston Kerman in August on Netflix,

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I wrote fine, Anthony Jessnick Netflix in November, I lasted

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seven minutes and found it not funny. I have seen

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people on the intergwebs disagree with that sentiment, but I

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don't know. I just wasn't feeling it. And maybe the

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whole Jessinic character is cooked now, and I don't know

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where he would go from here unless he just did

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a total different pivot and became a different kind of

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stand up. So I don't know. Also that week James

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Acaster's HBO special, and I wrote, I'm not sure what

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he's doing. The premise there was that hecklers were allowed

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to interrupt him. Okay, good premise, and then maybe you

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should have some hecklers in the show if that's the premise.

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So I don't know what. I know what he was

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trying to do, but he didn't do it. Jim Gaffigan

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had a special in November on Hului lead off of

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the hilarious specials, and I wrote boring Jim doing Jim things.

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Jim had a pretty good year, you know, the SNL

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thing helped him a lot. He has stepped up in classes,

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I like to say, but I don't know. He's had

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some pretty good specials. But this one was just like,

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all right, Jim kind of heard this already, so we're

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to But if you're Jim Gaffigan, what do you do

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this far in? Like, do you come out and just

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do like the I'm gonna rant against Trump special for

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an hour and then lose your audience? So you just

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come out and tell more Dad jokes and just do

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that for another twenty years and retire. Probably the latter,

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But all right, my former coworker, Jamie Fox, I almost

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bailed really early. Then he did a very good Cat

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Williams impression, which kept me. But then he went into

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a preachy part that to me seems like it was

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added in later. It seemed to me like the audio

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from the theater was too dead, and it was a

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close up of Jim, So that makes me think they

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shot it in an empty theater and dropped that in later.

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I say that because I feel like somebody would have

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yelled out we love you, Jamie or something like that,

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or you would have just heard something. Somebody would have

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coughed or sneezed or something. The room's too dead. I

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see what Jamie was going for, and I think for

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what he was going for, it's a good version of that,

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but not on the list. And like I said, today's

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episode is not The specials are turable and I hate them.

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These are just the specials that also existed that didn't

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make the other two episodes and the other two lists.

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That's all. This is today Fortune Fimester. It was on

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Netflix in December, and I wrote, fine, Matthew Brossard, who

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was a guest on this show, I had a special

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on YouTube, and I wrote, funny, it's just not on

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the list. It's probably, you know, if I had to

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rank this group, maybe it's number one in this group.

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But I haven't ranked this group. This is just, you know,

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not on the list. Maybe it's the number thirty one

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special of the year, if you want to look at

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it that way. And I want to be fair to

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some specials that I haven't seen because I am recording

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these on December eighteenth to accommodate my skin, I have

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not seen Rose Mattafeo on Max Apergatsy's Christmas Eve special,

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which I imagine would be way up on my list.

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To Nate is solid and tends to be somebody that

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I am predisposed to like, So I imagine I'll write

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that in on pencil at some point down the road.

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The Netflix End of the Year roast thing haven't seen

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as I record Michelle Buttou's coming up on New Year's

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Eve and Alana Glazer on Hularius because why would the

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Hulu publicist ever get back to me about anything? So

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maybe it was good, maybe not, but they don't want

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to promote it. I'm fine not promoting it. So what

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do you think? Join us in the Facebook group, which

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is Daily Common News podcast group. You can agree, disagree,

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you can hate on me. You could love me. You'd

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be like John you nail that you got everything right.

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I agree with what was that fifty specials? And I

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agree totally on every word you said, and you have

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them all ranked appropriately. We concur and I would appreciate

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such notes. It's just a list. Don't get upset. It's

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just a list. Best of the year roast to Tom Brady.

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If you don't want to count that best of the

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year is David Tell's thirty five twenty seven minutes special

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that he put out. Those were my favorites, all right,

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see you tomorrow.