Having a comedy special is a massive opportunity for comedians. It can help propel a comic's career to new heights. A perfect example of this is stand-up comedian Taylor Tomlinson. Her first Netflix special, Quarter Life Crisis, became so popular, that she landed two sequel specials, with another coming in 2025, and was chosen to host the late-night show @fter Midnight. Some of the best stand-up comedians in the world have a comedy special to thank for what it has done for their careers.
But just because you're funny, doesn't mean you can say whatever you want. Whether it was a joke in their comedy special, behind-the-scenes behavior, or a social media post, some comedians have fallen victim to the phenomenon known as "cancel culture." The trend became a popular way for fans to let comedians, movie/TV stars, politicians, and other public figures know that their actions are wrong and that they will no longer support them.
Sometimes it can be a mild case of cancelation, where people are upset for a short time. Recently, some comedians like Matt Rife, Bill Burr, and Amy Schumer have been under fire for their comments on Twitter or punchlines in their routines. But they continue to find steady work. Sometimes cancelations can have a more permanent effect lasting several years, but it doesn't seem to have deterred these comedians too much.
10 Shane Gillis
Latest Comedy Special - Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs in 2023 on Netflix
In an era where it can be polarizing for a comedian to make fun of either the left or the right, Shane Gillis finds a way to be neutral in his Netflix comedy special, Beautiful Dogs. Journalists could learn a thing about how to be neutral by watching this comedy special. Gillis takes an equal amount of punches at President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
What Happened & What's Next?
Back in 2019, Gillis was getting ready for a huge moment in his comedy career, becoming a cast member on Saturday Night Live. After a successful audition process, SNL announced he would be joining the cast for its 45th season. But not long after, a video clip from a podcast he used to host started trending. The video showed Gillis talking in an East Asian accent while using ethnic slurs.
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Days after the video was released, Gillis was canned from SNL.On paper, this would seem to be a major setback in his career. But it may have only been a speed bump. In 2020, he took his talents to the internet and found success with the web series Gilly and Keeves. In 2022, he released a comedy special on YouTube, and that's when his career started to take flight again. In 2023 he released Beautiful Dogs on Netflix, and in 2024 he got a leading role in the Netflix series Tires, then he returned to SNL to host the show.
9 Joe Rogan
Latest Comedy Special - Burn The Boats in 2024 on Netflix
Sometimes, it's easy to forget that one of the top dogs in podcasting used to be a stand-up comedian. Joe Rogan's Burn the Boatswas the podcast host's first comedy special in six years. He was a little rusty. Podcasting humor and stand-up comedy are two completely different types of art forms.
But fans got exactly what they expected from a Joe Rogan. Cracking jokes about the COVID-19 pandemic, aliens, racial slurs, and of course, China. Rogan also went on comedic rants about his days hosting the reality show Fear Factor, commentating UFC fights, and his podcast. At times, it's like watching a former high school football star at the bar reminiscing about the glory days. Entertaining, but not something you necessarily want to listen to again.
What Happened & What's Next?
Joe Rogan's podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, came under heavy fire during the COVID-19 pandemic. In many of the show's episodes, Rogan was accused of spreading misinformation about the vaccines on top of using racial slurs. Health officials and organizations were pleading with Spotify, which had exclusive rights to The Joe Rogan Experience, to take the podcast off its streaming service. It got to the point that legendary artists like Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen had their catalogs removed from Spotify because of their association with Rogan.
It may be a hard pill for some readers to swallow, but by the time the pandemic hit in 2020, The Joe Rogan Experience was basically too big to fail. Spotify stuck with their partner. The podcast is no longer exclusive to Spotify, but the company did agree to a massive $250 million contract.
Joe Rogan sums up his "cancelation" best in Burn the Boats. Saying:
"I'm a professional sh**-talker... Some of the things I say make sense. A lot of them don't. It's up to you to figure out what's what."
8 Ellen DeGeneres
Latest Comedy Special - Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval in 2024 on Netflix
This may have been the most anticipated comedy special of 2024. Ellen DeGeneres takes the stage for what is supposedly her final act in show business. For Your Approval dives into what Ellen has been up to since the final episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show aired in 2022. Spoiler alert, it's not much, but Ellen doesn't need much to work with to get a crowd laughing.
Some comedy fans may view this special as an hour-long ramble about how her show ended. They aren't far from the truth. But it does offer some fun, cathartic laughs. We knew she would make jokes about her cancelation, but the way she went about it was funny.
What Happened & What's Next?
Ellen saying that she was canceled for "being mean" technically answers the question. Back in 2020, a group of former employees of The Ellen DeGeneres Show came forward, accusing the Finding Nemo star of creating a toxic work environment, failing to address sexual harassment towards female employees, and wrongfully firing employees for taking sick or bereavement leave, among other issues. But they decided to take those allegations to BuzzFeed instead of a credible news source, so it took a while for the ball to get rolling. Warner Brothers Entertainment conducted an investigation and found The Ellen DeGeneres Show did have a toxic culture.
After the investigation in 2021, Ellen announced that she would not be returning to the show once her contract was up in 2022. Ellen issued statements apologizing to her crew for poor work culture and then on May 26th, 2022, she took her final bow after 19 seasons on the show. Ellen then said that she planned to finish other projects she was already committed to, and then she was going to retire from show business. This means For Your Approval may have been the last time we see Ellen DeGeneres on stage.
While some comedy fans say the special is just an insincere goodbye rant, it doesn't erase everything Ellen accomplished in her career. Ellen inspired millions of people across the world to be comfortable with their sexuality after coming out on her self-titled sitcom Ellen. In Finding Nemo and Finding Dory, she made kids laugh and remember to just keep swimming. For over 40 years, Ellen has been making people smile and laugh. It's a bitter-sweet goodbye.
7 Kevin Hart
Latest Comedy Special - Kevin Hart: Reality Check in 2023 on Peacock
A lot of comedy acts these days feel like they have a checklist. Making fun of politics, religion, the media, sexual orientation, race, and whatever foreign country the U.S. is making angry. But in his 8th comedy special, Borderlands star Kevin Hart reminds us what makes a good comedian: authenticity. Kevin Hart: Reality Check is genuinely authentic with its tone, comedic timing, and stories.
One minute Kevin Hart is taking shots at Space Jam: A New Legacy star LeBron James for lying about his hairline, the next he is honoring his dad who died ten days before the special was filmed by telling funny stories and laughs they shared. It's one of the more relatable comedy special moments in recent years.
What Happened & What's Next?
According to Kevin Hart, he has been canceled "three or four times." The Central Intelligence star's most recent cancelation came back in 2018 as he was preparing to host the Oscars. That's when someone went digging into the depths of Hart's Twitter feed. They found several homophobic tweets of Hart using derogatory slurs towards the LGBTQA+ community and joked that one person looked like "a gay billboard for AIDS."
After the tweets resurfaced, Kevin Hart stepped down as the Oscars host. But that was basically the only consequence. Since 2019, Hart has starred in 11 films, including Jumanji: The Next Level and The Secret Life of Pets 2, made a few dozen TV show appearances, and three comedy specials.
To be fair, Hart has admitted that he took the time to educate himself about why what he did was wrong. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Hart said:
"Sometimes it's OK to step back and be educated... I got a crash course. It was one that was necessary and needed."
6 Roseanne Barr
Latest Comedy Special - Roseanne Barr: Cancel This! in 2023 on Fox Nation
Roseanne Barr: Cancel This! was not the triumphant return the She-Devil star thought it would be. Instead, it turned out to be a mess of a comedy special. Sloppy is probably the best adjective to describe what goes on here. Occasionally, some of Roseanne's jokes will bring out a devilish laugh, but overall her comedic timing is just off.
Speaking of jokes, a lot of her jokes feel more like she is just thinking out loud and seeing if the audience thinks it's funny, tackling a number of taboo topics in a way that makes it glaringly obvious that this show was sponsored by Fox News.
What Happened and What's Next?
In 2018, Roseanne Barr was close to completing a massive comeback after years away from the limelight. Her self-titled sitcom Roseanne had such a successful revival that ABC decided to renew it for an 11th season. But Roseanne's Twitter feed had a different story. Roseanne sent out a tweet criticizing Valarie Jarrett, then a senior advisor to the president, on her appearance. The tweet was viewed as extremely racist. Roseanne tried to defend the tweet many times, stating that she thought Jarret was white and that she sent the tweet while she was on Ambien.
In the fallout, Roseanne lost her job and her show was canceled despite it being one of the biggest hits of the year for ABC. But late-night host Jimmy Kimmel jokingly threw out an idea about keeping the show going, implying that they could just do the show without Roseanne and focus on the Connor family, particularly Dan Connor, played by John Goodman.
Less than a month later, ABC announced plans to rebrand the show as The Connors, which has become one of the network's most popular shows.The power of late-night TV. Roseanne's character was officially killed off and aside from her podcasting career, the demand for Roseanne doesn't seem to be growing in Hollywood anytime soon.
5 Dave Chappelle
Latest Comedy Special - The Dreamer in 2023 on Netflix
At this point in Dave Chappelle's career, comedy fans knew what to expect when The Dreamer was released on Netflix. Fans of Chappelle's may be disappointed with how predictable the routine is. Once again, Dave goes after transgenders and the LGBTQA+ community. But he also takes to time to poke fun at himself and dives into the pop culture moment of 2022, the slap heard around the world.
What Happened & What's Next?
This wasn't the first time Dave Chappelle poked fun at the trans community. His 2021 comedy special, The Closer, also included jokes that many people considered to be transphobic. The backlash was bad enough that it inspired a walk-out by Netflix employees, who were demanding the streaming service take down the special.
Like Spotify with Joe Rogan, Netflix stood in with Dave Chappelle. It's safe to say Chappelle is not overly popular in the LGBTQA+ community, but it doesn't seem to have slowed the comic down. Chappelle earned Emmy nominations and went on to win a Grammy Award in 2023 for his work on The Closer, before dropping The Dreamer on Netflix. While Chappelle seemingly doesn't have anything planned moving forward, that doesn't mean he is being shut down. Since the mid-2000s Chappelle has become famous for his infrequent comedy projects. So despite a quiet 2024, who knows what we can expect from Chappelle moving forward?
4 Ricky Gervais
Latest Comedy Special - Ricky Gervais: Armageddon in 2023 on Netflix
Armageddon is not Ricky Gervais at his best, but it's certainly far from his worst. That being said, when you have a reputation like Gervais, going through the motions can feel like a letdown for fans. Many left the show feeling The Office star was trying too hard to be offensive while lingering on the same joke for too long. But the laughs are still present, especially when he talks about how parents and teachers should educate children about pedophiles.
What Happened & What's Next?
In this instance, some of Gervais's jokes in Armageddon did not sit well with a general audience. (Shocker.) Particularly ones regarding inappropriate behavior at a child's funeral and people seeking asylum. But if we had to pick the moment that upset the most people, it was likely when he started cracking jokes about terminally ill children. Referring to some as baldy. Then claiming that he tells kids through the Make-A-Wish Foundation to wish to get better instead of meeting him.
At this point in Gervais' career, these types of shock factor jokes are just par for the course in his specials. His fans and haters have realized that. While the Night at the Museum star did face some backlash for his special, it ended with Gervais winning a Golden Globe for Best Stand-Up Comedy Performance in Television. Ironically, Gervais' next comedy special is called Mortality.
3 Louis C.K.
Latest Comedy Special - Louis C.K. at The Dolby in 2023 on louisck.com
Louis C.K. decided to ditch the streaming services and release a duo of comedy specials exclusively on his website. At The Dolby is a classic Louis C.K. comedy. There are times when it feels like Louis is kind of going through the motions, and the whole affair is nothing special, but at the end of the day it will please long-time fans.
What Happened & What's Next?
Louis C.K. had a power problem and he abused it. Since 2015, rumors about the comedian's personal life started bubbling. Then in 2017, The New York Times published a story, with five women as sources claiming that C.K. masturbated in front of them or offered to do so. C.K. later admitted that the article was true and that he was guilty, after denying the allegations for two years.
After confessing, his self-titled show, Louie, was ditched by FX, with Netflix and HBO also cutting ties with the comedian. It's also reported that it cost C.K. $35 million in lost income. Louis has spent years slowly working his way back to the good graces of comedy fans. Over the last five years, C.K. wrote and directed the movie Fourth of July, has been going on stand-up tours, and releasing specials on his website. Public opinion seems to be split on C.K. Even comedians seem split on his slow return.
In an interview with the New York Times, Amy Schumer said, "I laughed at a lot of it," (referring to the Sincerely Louis C.K. comedy special).
"But it's hard to not think of what he has done, what he has and hasn't learned, but I definitely laughed."
2 Aziz Ansari
Latest Comedy Special - Aziz Ansari: Night Club Comedian in 2022 on Netflix
He's the man who helped make Netflix one of the top distributors of comedy specials. In 2013, Aziz Ansari released the first Netflix Comedy Special, Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive. In his latest special, Nightclub Comedian, Ansari delivers a truly authentic comedy routine that reminds fans why they love to come to his shows. While he does hit a couple of modern issues like COVID-19 and vaccinations, the best moments are when he is talking about how fast the world has changed, using flip phones as an example. But he also gets surprisingly personal, making tasteful jokes about the importance of checking in with your family.
What Happened & What's Next?
While many of the reasons for "canceling" a comedian are black and white, Aziz Ansari is one case that delves into a gray area that even today isn't talked about much following the #MeToo Movement. In 2018, a woman accused Ansari of sexual misconduct. The original report says that the woman told Ansari she didn't feel comfortable, to which Ansari responded with an apology, stating that the encounter was consensual. While some may say this pales compared to others on this list, at this time in history, it was enough to cancel the Parks and Recreation star.
Aziz Ansari was crushing it before the allegations. His hit show, Master of None, won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. But after the allegations, Netflix has yet to green-light any future plans for the hit show. Ansari has mostly been doing stand-up shows and releasing the occasional special.
Many fans, fellow comedians, and experts have weighed in on Ansari's case. NPR weighed in on the issue with an article titled, The Fine Line Between A Bad Date And Sexual Assault. The New York Times also published a story on the issue, with a provocative title, Aziz Ansari Is Guilty: Of Not Being a Mind Reader.
1 Kathy Griffin
Last Comedy Special - Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Story in 2019 by Fathom Events
Unlike Shane Gillis, Kathy Griffin has no problem picking which side she is on when it comes to former president Donald Trump. But A Hell of a Story is not Griffin bagging on the former president. Well, it is, but there are other punches thrown too. Griffin throws punches at other politicians and the Kardashians. Griffin also includes documentary-style elements, to illustrate how conservative America has treated her over the years.
What Happened & What's Next?
It's pretty simple. In 2017, the My Life on the D-List star posed for a picture holding a mask that looked like former President Trump's decapitated head. In today's age, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Griffin was going to be canceled for that picture.
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Almost nobody wanted to touch Kathy Griffin after she posted that photo. In fact, when she announced she was making A Hell of a Story, no TV network or major streaming service wanted to pick it up. Griffin had to go to the South by Southwest film festival to premiere her comedy concert special, although after its premiere, it did get a one-day theatrical run and is now available on free streaming services like Tubi and the Roku Channel.
Griffin experienced issues flying across the country as well. The picture sparked enough controversy that Griffin was put on the No Fly List in 2017. Griffin also says she was put on the Interpol list and was detained at every airport she was at while touring.
After Trump lost the presidential election in 2020, Griffin recreated the severed head picture. In 2022, she had her Twitter account banned for impersonating Elon Musk, but it has since been restored. Griffin still makes appearances on talk shows and has landed small gigs on TV shows like Search Party and Futurama. It's safe to say Griffin isn't sorry for what she did and is enjoying her "cancelation."
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