Now StreamingPodcasts

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Marc Maron: From Bleak To Dark’ On HBO Max, The Comedian Shines A Light On Grief

When Marc Maron released his Netflix special, End Times Fun, in March 2020, he couldn’t possibly imagine the end times approaching quite so quickly and tragically. Two months later, Lynn Shelton, that special’s director and his lover, died suddenly. Now what? Maron has re-emerged back at HBO, where his TV career first began to blossom with a half-hour in 1995. How far he has come, full circle and now in full bloom.

From antisentism to “anti-woke” comedians, from how aging seems slower when you have cats instead of kids, to dealing with the death of loved ones, Maron uses his first HBO hour special to tackle subjects both bleak and dark, as the title suggests.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: At this stage in his comedy game, Maron really is settling into a new comfort zone as his generation’s George Carlin.

Memorable Jokes: He has a recurring gag about one-person shows throughout the hour, suggesting how he might’ve reframed it differently, which means we’re treated to snippets of Maron’s act as if he were hearing “Voices From the Future,” or mourning in a traditional Jewish Kaddish, or even as a TED Talk.

But he’s a stand-up at heart still, even whilst sitting on a stool, and even if the end times aren’t so fun, Maron is determined to have some fun at the expense of the grifters and the morons who not only buy into their grifts, but have become brazenly confident. Maron jokes about “waiting for the stupids to choose a uniform” but there’s definitely an implication made (more subtly here than in his previous special) that you can tell who they are by which podcasts and comedians they’re listening to these days.

He wonders why more men aren’t talking about abortion now that its legality is threatened, considering they have as much skin in the game as the women needing the abortions, and he has a pitch for Christians, fascists and Christian fascists alike on how to see the procedure as a fast track to Heavenly rewards.

But how can any of that help Maron process his own grief?

Our Take: This is comedy, catharsis and public service. Just by acknowledging his grief, when so many of us often choose to hide or gloss over or sweep it under the rug or shut up about it or just pretend it doesn’t exist, Maron is leading by example. We can try to deny the planet’s impending doom (for humanity, at least) and let Greta Thunberg handle the heavy lifting of activism for us, but tragedy will continue to hit much closer to home for all of us whether we accept that basic truth or not. When your lover dies without warning, when your parents begin to shrink in front of your eyes, or when you recognize the unspoken contract you have with your parents…it may at first seem to bleak to think about, but it doesn’t have to feel so dark.

As Maron says in this hour about finding humor in the darkness: “That’s why I got into comedy, because I’d watch comics, and they would take things that were complicated or horrifying, and simplify them and sort of make you see them in a different way and have a laugh. I think it’s a beautiful thing and necessary.”

Even the joke Maron claims is so dark he debated not telling it at all, turns out is just as funny and relevant for our times as when Carlin joked in his final HBO special about going through his address book to cross out the names of his dead friends.

Maron’s “Voices From the Future” bit feels sadly prophetic, as something we can only laugh about now when it’s not yet true.

And he’s really onto something with the “anti-woke” branding of some of his contemporaries in comedy, because it allows us to see these clowns for what they really are — anti-, not pro-. Not for things, definitely not for progress. They stand up in opposition, but not to oppose the powers that be; rather, they oppose any consequences for picking on the powerless. But enough about them, anyhow.

Maron has been active in recovery for all of this century so far, so he certainly has heard lots of recovery slogans that sound cliche yet prove themselves true time and time again. Among them: This, too, shall pass. It’s great to feel your feelings, but also, you have to feel your feelings. Asking for the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

With this hour, he allows us, too, to accept the inevitability of death and loss while also embracing the courage of feeling whatever grief or levity might come our way. Either way, we can put down the bat and pick up the feather. So to speak.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Last time around I compared Marc Maron to George Carlin, saying he had “Carlin level stuff,” and now? He’s still got it. If anything, as he gets older, Maron is only becoming both funnier and wiser.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.


Read the author’s full story here

Get Best News and Web Services here

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button