My Review of Arsenio Hall: 'Smart and Classy'
Arsenio Hall is back but this time in his own comedy special on Netflix. This is what I thought of it.
I'm not familiar with any of Arsenio Hall's stand-up sets so I wasn't sure what I was going to get into when I chose to watch his new special on Netflix. This could very well be his very first comedy special because it really feels like it because it could have went through a few more tweaking before being released. It didn't seem as polished as it should have been.
I only remember seeing Arsenio Hall's old talk show and seen some of his appearances on movies and TV shows. He's never known to be raunchy or controversial so I wasn't expecting too much. I remember his show was always clean and respectable. He's one of the few public figures in Hollywood that has kept a clean image of himself throughout his career. I hope he keeps his reputation.
Fast-forward to 2019, it seems like Arsenio Hall is sort of going through a career resurgence. He's got a few high profile movies coming up and he's got this new comedy special is just icing on the cake. I guess this comedy special is kind of the start of his reemergence. It's too bad, because I don't think this is the way he should start it off.
His comedy set starts off a little slow. You can tell he's setting up jokes for later on in his set because some of the things he talks about doesn't really fall in naturally and really random. It really felt out of place but I went with it because I knew that some comedians do this to set up their show. It's too bad, there could have better transitions to set up his first few jokes.
When he eventually gets to the meat of the show I found that there were a few laughs. I didn't find any bust your gut laughter moments but there are some funny jokes there. I found that much of the show was very safe. He didn't get into very controversial topics. In his set he even tells the audience that he steers away from politics and that he was afraid of saying the wrong thing. After working on his talk show and being a public figure in Hollywood for so long I'm sure he picked up this habit of staying safe.
Another issue I had with a lot of his jokes was that they seemed a bit dated. He referenced a lot of things that either happened in the 90s or were fairly popular back then. I wonder if he had held onto these jokes from back when he had his own TV show and only decided to release them now for his special. I could see how some of these jokes may have been more topical in the 90s than today. It kind of also kills the jokes for general audiences because even though I remember some of the references a lot of the younger generations will not know what he's talking about. Even people my age may have forgotten about some of the references that he was referring to.
Despite the fact that there weren't huge bust out loud laughing moments in the special, there were some chuckles. There are some funny moments and this special does have an audience. The audience that would really like his new special are people that don't like to be offended because nothing in his set would really trigger anyone. At least I don't think.
Overall, I had some fun with Arsenio Hall's new comedy special. It wasn't something that I would say is a must see. If there wasn't anything to watch.. I don't know if I'd recommend this comedy special either. I would have to give this comedy special a 6 out of 10. It's somewhat adequate as a diversion if you're cooking or cleaning but that's about it. I wouldn't watch this stand up special again or even recommend it to anyone.
About the Creator
Brian Anonymous
I have tons of opinions that change constantly. I watch a lot of movies and play video games. There are some articles on my struggles with languages and dance as well.
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