Matt Rife: Natural Selection

I think Matt Rife can be pretty engaging in his audience work that I see online. His timing is always on target and I generally laugh with enthusiasm. But this Netflix special is just not funny. His jokes are tired and pretty cliche. He tries so hard to be comedic but the whole mess just seems forced and boring. I really like observational comics. I thought that Matt would have that style but this feels like a bunch of jokes meshed together with lots of cursing and sex themes and horrendous timing that just are not funny if you are over 18 and have half a brain. Maybe this guy is just not really a standup comic at all.

This stand-up special was such a disappointment. The entire set consisted of Matt punching down and making fun of people. Misogyny, homophobia, fatphobia, telling people to kill themselves.. it was just a mess that he repeatedly tried to cover with "I'm a nice guy but..." as if that absolved him from all the messed up things he was saying. I used to watch Matt on Facebook and think he was a funny guy but not after this. I almost never give out a single star rating but this stand-up special deserved it. I didn't laugh once or even smile. I continued on watching until the end just to see if it would improve but it never did.

Having watched him on social media and seen his funny clips, I was surprised that there was a lot of backlash against this show, much of it about certain jokes that some said were misogynist. So, I decided to look and see. The jokes many claim were misogyny were rather tame compared to much of the harder hitting comedians out there, and I'd use Dave Chapelle as a comparison as he's said way worse about practically everybody in my view, as have many British comedians. The problem with Matt Rife's Netlfix special is it starts with a standing ovation, which is really odd and scripted it seems. Then he speaks and I didn't recognise him as the same person because he seemed to be doing an impersonation of the dudes in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, where every second word is dude and everything is rad. It's simply embarrassing to watch as he's trying to be something he's not: ghetto and hood. The nerves were evident and he wasn't natural or relaxed and probably had too much expectation placed on him by the audience, producers and most likely himself. If he's going to recover from this, he should do what he does well and rip the hell out of himself for this dud of a performance. And drop being a dude, dude?

Anyone who has to pick on special needs children is not funny. Referring to them as 'the kids who get to go to lunch 20 minutes early' and 'Naratu running down the hall.' Asking the audience if there isn't a nicer way to put it, how about not picking on a demographic that is unable to defend themselves? I turned it off after that. Bringing up how women who choose to have children later in life have to worry about their offspring being special needs. A lot of people are waiting until later in life these days. Jokes were cringe, not funny, and timing was terrible. Didn't he do a test run? Someone did him dirty.

This might of been the worst comedy special ever. Flat out The worst. Except for maybe the one that brought me to this one. Onlyfans, his current special on Youtube. This man is just not funny, He clearly has no idea what he is doing and he needs someone around him to tell him no. It is unfortunate that his inner circle encourages him in his comedy career. Please feel free to watch just to know that every other special ever recorded is better than this one. And if you choose to watch and think you've seen the worst comedy special ever, check out his new special on youtube. It is on par with this trash.

As we all know, Matt Rife is a viral sensation, whose entire fame exists on social media. He's established himself as the king of crowd work. And he really is masterful at it. Add to that, his good looks made him immensely popular with the female demographic. And that's where the problem lies. He went into this comedy special knowing full well that his base of fans is primarily female. Rather than construct this special with funny material, he decided instead it to pack it with material that he (mistakenly) thought would woo male fans. So, from the very beginning, he hits us with a barrage of jokes about domestic violence, feminine hygiene and mocking special needs children. I guess he thinks guys love that. Well, this guy doesn't. And I'm confident that most won't. Not because the subject matter is controversial. But because it's not funny. The jokes aren't delivered with irony or from a funny perspective, but instead from hate. The result? A comedian who presents as nothing more than a younger, prettier Andrew Dice Clay who giggles a lot at his own jokes. Controversy isn't the worst crime a comedian can commit. Being unfunny is.

I could barely make it through the first twenty minutes. The whole time I dont think I so much as smiled. When will comedians learn that making an observation on domestic violence is not funny?? Misogyny hasn't been funny since the 1950s and when society learns that, comedians like Matt Rife will stop using it as a crutch. There should be a bingo card for Matt Rifes Jokes as they are all so predictable, that I can tell exactly what he will say next. Another thing I noticed was all of his jokes are stolen from old internet memes, this guy is not funny. The only slightly funny moments I have seen from him is his crowd work from social media.

Matt Rife on his Netflix special: "One thing that I wanted to tackle in this special was showing people that despite what you think about me online, I don't pander my career to women. I would argue this special is way more for guys." Do you hear that ladies? Matt Rife is more for guys. Lol. Matt, sweetie, honey...did you not get the memo that your entire career was catapulted by women on Tik Tok who thought you were pretty? What a dumb way to kill your career. Male pick-mes will henceforth be known as "Matt Rifes" I hope they pick you Matt, and the women who made you relevant abandon you like your Dad did. (Don't worry, he'll enjoy this joke, he thinks suicide is funny)

Okay, I have laughed too hard with this guy on TikTok too many times but this is really bad, the first 20 minutes can easily make you turn it off, and beyond that it gets better but it's still bad. I can accept that some comedians can only shine in a smaller an warmer crowd, but I can't imagine someone writing this script and thinking "this will do well". The stories are so long, uninteresting, and barely believable, and by the time the joke hits you're just sitting there with a straight face. By the 40 minute mark you'll just be waiting for it to end. It's better that they stop promoting this and then try a second time next year, because I don't think many people will be watching a second special if they watch this.

If you're like me you may have considered paying to see him live based on what was seen on YouTube. But after watching this, there is no way that I would spend time and money to see him. As many others have stated, the delivery was rushed, the jokes were not funny. He is highly unlikely to pock up any new fans that were unfamiliar with his work and just caught this on Netflix and likely lost many of his existing fans, It almost makes one wonder if the crowd work interactions were staged. How can a guy be so funny and charismatic with an audience and so very unfunny when he is doing a stand up set?