I appreciate Ari Shaffir for the artistry he tries to bring to standup comedy, but there is a level of self-aware pretension that often puts me off his work. It’s present here, in his Netflix special America’s Sweetheart, but he brings it full circle by advising the audience to “focus on the jokes [they] liked, not the ones [they] didn’t”.
The best bit was Ari’s expansive analysis of the word “retard”. The language police—whoever they are—have tried to take it out of the popular lexicon for years. For all the reasons Ari outlines and more, I’ve never stopped using it. It’s such a great, Swiss Army-knife kind of term. And I’ve never used it as a slur against a handicapped person. We can still say handicapped, right? I most often use it to describe myself now that I think about it. No one’s taking that away from me.
This special is a solid performance by a divisive comedian who spends just enough time self-depricating during the show to make even the most squeamish find something endearing about him. Apt title, Mr. Shaffir. Well chosen.
2025.01.17