Stream It Or Skip It?

What would a comedy special look like if it were directed by a Safdie brother? We find out as Josh Safdie reunites with his Uncut Gems star to helm Adam Sandler’s first comedy special in six years. It’s messy, but very purposefully so, and thankfully nowhere near as tense as a Safdie Brothers film.

The Gist: Fresh off of his 2018 Netflix special, 100% Fresh, Adam Sandler has been enjoying renewed levels of fame and adoration as both a comedian and as an actor.

Sandler’s gritty starring turn in 2019’s Uncut Gems won all sorts of awards (despite an Oscar snub), and critics and fans alike have warmed to his Netflix roles since then, including Murder Mystery and Murder Mystery 2, Hubie Halloween, Hustle, Leo, Spaceman, and You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.

The Sandler comedy formula remains the same, silly jokes mixed with silly songs, although it’s presented by Safdie in a much more chaotic way here and now than in Sandman’s previous special. All of the interruptions are purposeful, from the opening scene staged outside of the theater where Sandler interacts with fans and stagehands who are fans, to the onstage performance itself, where Safdie throws all sorts of obstacles at Sandler and his piano-playing accompanist, Dan Bulla, to see how they go with the flow as the stage collapses or the monitors freeze up.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: It’s kinda wild to think that even though Adam Sandler has many funny friends and cohorts from his Saturday Night Live days who still remain in his orbit while also continuing to make their own comedy specials and onscreen projects, that there’s still nothing to compare an Adam Sandler special to than to Sandler’s own past work. This very much feels like a sequel to 100% Fresh that builds upon the Sandler Cinematic Universe.

Memorable Jokes: Sandler always has been beloved, even since his SNL days showing up at the Weekend Update desk, for singing catchy ditties.

In this 70-minute performance, we hear him turn the mundane acts of household chores into a tune straight out of an Old West movie, where Sandler is muttering under his breath, said muttering broken up by hee-yahs and whip-crack noises. Later songs imagine him as a kid interrupting his parents having sex, or redefining what it means to be truly scared. At one point he picks out a guy in the audience to sing about, thankfully a good-natured fan who doesn’t mind Sandler depicting him as an unwelcome beach visitor operating a drone.

At another point, Rob Schneider makes an appearance performing as Elvis Presley (Vegas era).

And to close out the show, much as Sandler did in his previous Netflix special, he’s got a heartfelt tribute. Before it was specifically about the late Chris Farley. This time, Sandler shouts out his love not only for Farley and Norm Macdonald, but all of the comedy he has loved watching over his lifetime and been inspired by.

Our Take: The opening scene, backed by the sounds of Nicolette Larson’s 1978 cover of Neil Young’s “Lotta Love,” reminds us of the perils and sheer weirdness that come with immense fame. In pop culture this summer, we’ve seen how pop singer Chappell Roan has blown up to perform to record-breaking crowds at music festivals across America this summer, while also recently taking to her own TikTok to warn fans that their stanning already has crossed too many lines with her.

As staged by Safdie, we see how this plays out in Sandler’s life with autograph-seekers pushing photos in front of him depicting him in private settings, or a friend in the dressing room getting him to sign Happy Gilmore hockey jerseys for charity, or the security guard who pushes him to FaceTime with the guard’s adult son in a hospital bed.

Sandler’s own material plays off our notions of him and his fame, from a throwaway joke about how he couldn’t beat his kids with a belt because he’s always wearing sweatpants, to shaggy-dog stories imagining him getting into an argument with YMCA patrons in a locker room, or a genie he discovers in a stranger’s airport luggage. Sometimes it seems he’s much more comfortable carrying on conversations about his genitalia with a dog, a genie or even a balloon, than with another actual human being.

And then there’s the Schneider cameo. Every group has that one friend who makes them laugh by usually doing the most outlandish things, and that Schneider remains that guy for Sandler. He’s clearly amused by Schneider’s antics and not put off by including him in this special, which incidentally provides Schneider with his best PR since the last time Sandler lent him a professional hand.

The more curious cameo, however, comes in the opening scenes, where we see Sandler’s warm-up act is none other than Willie Tyler and Lester. Tyler’s now 83, but he and his ventriloquist act were ubiquitous in the late 1970s and early 1980s on TV shows and commercials. Seeing Sandler light up including Tyler here only buttresses the sincerity of his closing tribute song to the power of comedy.

Our Call: STREAM IT. What an amazing third or fourth act for Sandler, right?!? This is a fun show to watch, and all of the roughness Safdie throws at Sandler only just helps to show that what makes a comedy special special isn’t the big stage or production value, but the intimacy between the performer and their audience. And Sandler has that in spades. So to speak.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.