The Jester’s Privilege ~ Ronny Chieng: Speakeasy
Ronny Chieng and I agree on a lot of things. He likes comedy in America, I like comedy in America. He is very conscious about politics, I am very conscious about politics. He hates people who review comedy and think they should get a real job, and I… wait what did he say?
I’ve been a fan of The Daily Show before Trevor Noah was even at the helm and had Chieng on as a correspondent, so all of his American work, including his first Netflix special, “Asian Comedian Destroys America!” is all relatively fresh in my memory. Since all of that, however, he’s been all over the place in show business, becoming a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a supporting character in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, as well as co-writing a martial arts action-comedy with the director of his new special Sebastian DiNatale. Conversely, The new special, “Speakeasy,” provides a more familiar sight for fans of Chieng, and if I may be so bold, Chieng himself: onstage, in New York City, telling jokes.
The most impressive feat of this show was his versatility of comedic styles. From unforgiving observational humor to bizarre anecdotes to classic bait-and-switch, he is clearly somewhat of a jack of all trades in terms of genre. In terms of content, you kind of get what you expect, some topical political humor, some content of his multicultural upbringing, etc. Nevertheless, the sharp usage of all kinds of comedy overshadows that and nothing ever seems stale.
The irony of the special’s main message is hard to ignore as well. With bits about COVID deniers, hecklers, and yes, comedy reviewers (shame follows me everywhere apparently), the theme of this hour was creating in a world of complaints. Chieng is not subtle about his disdain for the complainers, either. He made sure every dumbass D-average internet troll knew he had his fill of them “asking for evidence” they clearly did not really want. By the way, those are his words, not mine, so please cancel him if that’s triggering for you.
The irony, of course, and especially with Chieng, is that comedy is often a person with a microphone complaining about shit. Yes, you have to do it for a fairly long time, and I’ll be the first to say it is an achievement to make it interesting to listen to. But where is the line? Am I creating enough or am I part of the problem? Is Ronny Chieng? Am I just an English major who spent real time analyzing dick jokes for metaphoric and thematic value? Everything is possible, and that last one is depressingly probable.
Overall, this is the first special I’ve watched in a while where I could see myself going back to it, or at least wouldn’t mind watching it again with friends. Some of the setups are long, and some of the content is a bit outdated since it was clearly taped in late 2021/early 2022, but these are nitpicky things. Chieng is a skilled funnyman with an arsenal of stylings to hit you with, and I would be remiss to ignore the beautiful cinematography DiNatale made possible. I’m behind on specials, but comedy routinely gets brushed under the rug on Netflix. If you missed the boat on this one, try it out for yourself.
But what do I know? I’m just a guy who reviews comedy.
8/10
