July 4, 2025

The Best Comedy Specials Of 2025....so far...that I have seen

Show Notes
Transcript

Simple enough - a list of the best comedy specials of 2025 so far.

00:38 Defining Comedy Specials
01:44 Top Tier Comedy Specials
02:50 Must-Watch Standup Specials
04:31 Best of the Rest
06:39 Skippable Specials

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WEBVTT

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Calorogus Shark Media. Hey there, I'm Johnny mag and we're

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halfway through twenty twenty five and it's July fourth, so

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I thought today it would be a good day to

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take a look at what I'm calling the best comedy

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specials of twenty twenty five so far that I've seen. Now,

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it's a list, and I always like to preamble, it's

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just a list. Don't get upset. You don't have to

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flame me in the comments. You can disagree. You could

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say my list is perfect. You can send me a

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list is stupid. It's all good. We have a Facebook

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group where we can discuss this daily comedy news podcast group.

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It's just a list. While I'm on the soapbox. A

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couple things I've talked about this in the past, the

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use of the words special. There was a time, and

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I'm an old man, now there was a time. What

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a special was George Carlin on HBO at Carnegie Hall.

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That's kind of special. Now a special might be your

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friend shot your Tuesday night set at the Chuckle Hut

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and you threw it up on YouTube and you promoted

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on social media. Hey, check out my new special. As

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a programmer, I have always tried to come in at

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eye level. I was emailing with a friend last week

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and I said, I try and do Jim Gaffigan more

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than say Jimmy O Yang, although candidly I love Jimmy

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O Yang and talking about him. But the casuals know

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who Conan O'Brien is. The casuals know who Jim Gaffigan is.

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So what this list is not is me spending eight

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hundred hours deep diving YouTube looking for the uncovered gems. No,

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this is like the mainstream. Here are the ones that

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they were put in front of you on Netflix and

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Hulu and HBO and Amazon and the others. These are

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the eye level specials, and the ones that I think

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are even more better than the others. Haven't seen them all.

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I haven't even seen Jim Norton's new special yet, and

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I love Jim Norton. Okay, by top tier, the must watches.

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The funniest thing of the year so far Conan O'Brien's

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Mark Twain Prize. It's not a stand up special, but

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in terms of comedy, nothing funnier. The whole hour and

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a half just totally rocks by a mile. Is It's

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the equivalent of the Tom Brady roast from last year.

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This is like the shiny object in the comedy space.

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Highly recommend it if you haven't seen that already. And

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the other two things I have in my must watch

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top tier neither are stand up specials, but they're from

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stand up comedians and they're fantastic. Tom Sigora's bad thoughts

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I can't get enough of. Just please just mainline it

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into my brain. He could do that totally not Garth

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Brooks thing all day, every day, and I will continue

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to laugh at it. It has been renewed for a

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second season on Netflix. I am happy about that. The

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other thing that is fantastic Season two of Shane Gillis Tires.

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At times it reminds me of the Office at its peak,

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and I don't say that lightly. I hope Netflix picks

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that up again. Shane Gillis he is just naturally funny.

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He can be funny just making a face for the camera.

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Shane Gillis Tires fantastic. Okay, John, get to the stand

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up specials all right? Well yeah, sure I will. Again,

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It's just a list. Your list is just as valid

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as mine. Don't freak out. But here's the order I

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have in the top tier of stand up specials. Justin

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Wilman Magic Lover. Now, is it the funniest thing I've

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ever seen? No, But in terms of like a guy

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in a recliner watching an hour of comedy, it is

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charming as hell. It's a magic show, but it's really

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not a magic show. It's just a great, solid hour

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of TV that I've been telling people to watch, and

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so far everybody I've put that in front of has

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been like, Hey, good recommendation, So you want to check

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out on Netflix. Justin Wilman, Magic Lover. Next up, Bert

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Kreischer is lucky. It's just funny. Kreischer knows his lane,

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he stays in his lane, and sometimes that's exactly what

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you want Bert doing. Burt things fantastic. I really liked

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Brett Goldstein The Second Best Night of Your Life that's

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on HBO Max, the nice solid hour, and I found

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him just to be nice company. Again, a dude sitting

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in a chair watching something. I enjoyed it. Same note

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on Sarah Silverman's post Mortem that's on Netflix. It's not

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her funniest, but there's something just genuinely touching about this one.

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Sarah of course, a good storyteller and I have it

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in my notes here. Nice company for an hour. I

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really liked him with Tel Lane's Al Dente that's on Hulu.

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You need something light, that's it. He's got tremendous energy.

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And Tim Dillon's I'm Your Mother on Netflix. I've been

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evangelizing for Dylan for a few years now, and I

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think he's kind of hit the mainstream now. If not,

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he's pretty close. Comedy fans definitely know who Tim Dillon is.

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But a nice, solid hour out of Tim Dillon. Okay,

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next group, Best of the Rest, drud Carmichaels Don't Be

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Gay HBO. Max. I thought the opening twenty minutes was

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really strong, stronger than I was expecting, and I was like, oh,

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I'm in on this one. And then it kind of

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flamed out. And he's a good storyteller, but I was

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just like, all right, I'm good here. Roy Wood Junior

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at Your Age that was back in January on Hulu.

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Solid Wood knows how to build a bit, deliver a punchline.

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Totally fine hour. If you're a casual, if you're a civilian,

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put that on. You'll enjoy it as a bit of

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a common I'm like, eh, it was okay Otsko at

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Cotska's father. I love Otsco. I do feel her previous

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special was better than this one. Totally worth your time,

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but not her best. Ari Shaffer America Sweetheart. It's fine

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Ari Shafir doing Ari Shafir things. Nothing wrong with that.

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You know what you're getting. I like Ari Shafir, Gabriel

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Iglesias The Legend of Fluffy. It's funny, but it is

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too long. Can you guys edit this thing down? I

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mean part of it. When I sit down and watch

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a special, if you tell me like it's like an

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hour and forty minutes, I'm like, oh man, that's that's

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like a commitment. That's not just me making that up.

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Comedians have said that what they've been doing in their

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specials is moving what would normally be their closer up

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into the first twenty minutes because people have TV add

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and make it twenty minutes in and punch out. I

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know I do that on comedy specials all the time.

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So you got to make sure your specials not too

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long these days. One of the best last year was

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David tel special, which I think was like thirty seven

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minutes but it crushed, got in, got out done. Mike

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bro Bigley The Good Life. Civilians are gonna love Mike

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Berbigleia of the Good Life. That storytelling style out of

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Mike specifically hasn't really clicked with me. I tend to

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start fidgeting with my phone. If you know what I'm saying,

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He's got his audience. I'm not really into it. But

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that's a solid special if you're not a comedy snob.

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Jessica Cursons I'm the Man from Hulu. That is another

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one that I recommend to the civilians. I have a

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listener to the podcast who text me on the side

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is like, what should I watch tonight? And that was

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the one I put in front of him the other day.

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So check out Jessica Cursons, I'm the Man. All right,

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I'll take the break here and I'll come back and

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I'll talk about a bunch of big names that are

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not on the list. All right, some other specials that

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have come out this year that I feel are skippable.

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I put this out as a sub stack, and within

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five minutes I was getting text from people going, how

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did you not like Andrew Schultz's special? I just didn't

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feel the storytelling. I like Schultz, this one just didn't

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click with me. He went for it. I think he

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accomplished what he wanted to do. Just one idiot in

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the basement with the podcast and just wasn't feeling Andrew

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Schult's life on Netflix. But I can tell you I

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got texts about that opinion. That's fair Again, it's just

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a list. Rosebud Bakers. The Mother Load had the gimmick

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of switching between a set when she's pregnant and one

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from after having the baby. I felt the premise war

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thin pretty quickly and it was just fatiguing to watch.

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I punched out on that. Christa Stefano's It's just unfortunate.

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I don't want to get flamed in the comments, but

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I've used a word that rhymes with tack for that one.

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That one who George Lopez mie Katalako I have in

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my notes horrific. It might be the worst stand up

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special of all time. George is great, but skip that

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one and watch his old stuff instead. Eliza Treeger's Night

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Owl on Netflix. I really liked her energy, but I

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didn't think the material was there to support it. Eliza

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Slessinger's good on Paper was on Amazon. I felt like

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she wasn't surfing the crowd, Like the crowd was reacted

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in such a way that disconnected with how Eliza was

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performing on the material, and thus it didn't work. It

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was like, I have material, I'm going to recite it

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in this order. In the crowd, you guys can clap

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or boo or be bored or be silent, and it

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just there was a disconnect there. Bill Burr The Drop

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Dead Year's Hulu not Burr's Best. Sorry, I didn't even

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make it all the way through. That one. Just out. Recently,

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Steph Tolev's Filth Queen too filthy for me. Now it's

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in the title filth Queen. She's trying to be filthy.

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She accomplished what she wanted. I could see other people going,

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I loved it, it was great. It's just not my

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cup of tea. So I personally passed on Steph Filth Queen.

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And then there's probably two hundred other specials, including your

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favorite special that I didn't even mention. But again, it's

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just a list, and it's July fourth. Let's take another

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look at this list. In December, usually the stronger specials

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come out in the second half of the year. That's

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been the pattern in the last three years anyway, So

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we'll see and we'll take another look at this list

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in December. If you would like to come in to

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join us in the Facebook group, won't you It's Daily

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Comedy News podcast group. We'd love to know your favorite specials.

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You can tell me which ones I missed. You can

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tell me my Andrew Schultz opinion is just plain wrong,

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and that's all fair. Like I said several times, it's

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just a list, all right. Back tomorrow with a normal

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episode of Daily Comedy News. See you then.