Just Joking: Five Hilarious Stand-Up Specials To Stream in Time for Comedy Season

Disney+ has been bulking up its comedy cred lately, adding stand-up specials with some big names and topnotch bits to its streaming roster.

Here are five released in the past six months that you won’t soon forget. Get in the mood for Australia’s autumn comedy boom – when events like Melbourne International Comedy Festival bring the sharpest wits from around the world to our stages – with these little blasts of humour and joy.

Broad City co-creator Ilana Glazer isn’t quite as over-the-top as their character in that classic modern comedy, though they do suddenly break into song and silly voices during Human Magic. Much of the material across this special is surprisingly grounded, focusing on their first two years as a parent. That includes everything from iffy birth-control methods and having their child delivered by a fan to raising a bossy toddler and gleaning hidden lessons from Sesame Street. Glazer takes a genuine, confiding tone with the audience, especially when skewering the manipulative emo boys in high school and – most memorably – sharing an anecdote about discovering that their holiday rental had been used quite prolifically as a porn set. So, of course, the next thing Glazer does is go hunting for all the videos that have been filmed there.

Released in mid-March, this is the newest of these five offerings. Captured on what’s been called Bill Burr’s most personal tour to date, Drop Dead Years is intimate even by 21st-century stand-up standards. The comedy veteran opens up about losing a friend, and from there meditates on death, male depression, America’s intractable gun problem and the attraction of certain forbidden words. Compared to other contemporary comedians, Burr always feels more willing to push people’s buttons. He has said in interviews that he prefers a potentially hostile crowd to one that claps and laughs on cue. But behind his provocations, he remains funny and honest, with impeccable timing and a delivery all his own. Burr is about to make his Broadway debut in Glengarry Glen Ross alongside Kieran Culkin and Bob Odenkirk, so the timing of this special is even better.

Gaffigan’s 11th stand-up special takes its title from the comedy veteran’s recent weight loss, which he mines for some withering wisecracks: “All I needed was a weekly shot that killed all of the passion inside of me.” The self-owns don’t stop there, as he gamely pokes fun at his age, complexion, hair loss, fashion sense and more. Gaffigan touches on wider topics too – from paranoia-inducing internet tracking and how tech is making us “delusional”, to the infantilising aspects of shoe shopping and the sad truth that he studied finance at uni for three years and still doesn’t understand the stock market. He also holds forth about sharing a New York apartment with five kids, a dog and his wife – who is allergic to dogs. Describing the attitude that his three teenagers have towards him at the moment, he quips: “My kids see me as an Uber driver, and they’ve requested a silent ride.”

“We ain’t gonna make it” is the opening line of Lonely Flowers, a stand-up special that doubles as plea for connection. Alternating between comically harried and ambiently worried, Roy Wood Jr digs into the social complexities of shopping in-person, feisty fast-food employees, account security questions and that time he accidently hired a white photographer. Talking specifically to his Washington, DC audience, Wood also riffs on the long history of major protests there, suggesting an “ally lane” for drivers trying to get past a march. Yet it all comes back to that central theme of isolation and loneliness – from making friends in your forties to trying to find a romantic partner with similar interests, and seeking service with a smile at the gun range. Best of all is an extended bit about taking his girlfriend and her young son to see an expensive “bubble show”. He’s sceptical at first, but the episode culminates in a surprising testament to true love.

Distefano gets a lot of mileage out of his family in this punchy special, between the travails of parenting three kids with his Puerto Rican wife and the off-colour exploits of his late father. The popular comedian and TV host also wrestles with political correctness – including his inadvertently offensive coffee order – and the waning cultural dominance of white people. Distefano is good at getting everyone on-side, laughing along with the crowd while sharing a long, winding story about passing as a “special needs kid” while jacked up on hotdogs and Mountain Dew at a baseball game when he was 12. Produced by late-night royalty Jimmy Kimmel, It’s Just Unfortunate puts Distefano’s discomfort as a white man in 2025 front and centre. When asked a difficult question about dating by his stepson, let’s just say his response won’t win him Father of the Year.

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