Cole Hearted
Netflix · 2019 · 69 min
A conversational stand-up hour about outrage, awkward threesomes, and modern etiquette.
Deon Cole builds his hour around a simple premise: people have forgotten how to take a joke. He drives the point home by pulling out a notepad to test a series of increasingly questionable, dry jokes, using the crowd’s tense reactions to argue that live stand-up is the final venue for unfiltered expression.
Filmed at the Belk Theater in Charlotte, North Carolina, this 2019 release was Cole’s first solo Netflix special, capitalizing on his elevated visibility as a main cast member on ABC’s black-ish. Rather than delivering a lecture on modern outrage, Cole keeps things conversational, anchoring his cultural grievances with highly specific, ridiculous anecdotes.
He spends the hour detailing the mechanics of an awkward threesome, explaining why the word “welp” is a universal verbal white flag, and breaking down the exact social contract involved when a stranger offers you a mint. There are also segments on dining while Black, the actual meaning behind the name Arby’s, and why post-coital salutations deserve their own etiquette.
Director Ryan Polito captures Cole pacing the stage in a suit, bringing a veteran writer’s structure to what feels like an off-the-cuff club set.
The set list
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Asking white audience members what they hate about Black people
Opens by asking white attendees to state what they hate about Black people, pauses during the silence to playfully tease them, and later explains cultural sayings like 'Won't He do it?' to a white man in the front row.
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Testing jokes from a notebook
Breaks out a physical joke book twenty minutes into the show under the premise of testing unpolished thoughts, including a take on Arby's and a deliberate slur designed to test audience boundaries.
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Knowing the right time to thank Jesus and the wrong time to say 'welp'
Contrasts religious expressions and gratitude toward God with situations where uttering 'welp' is completely inappropriate.
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Observations on 'big girls' and dating
Discusses vocal pitch, sleep apnea, sexual dynamics, and calls out men who conceal their attraction to larger women.
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Affirmations on self-worth and social media
Shifts away from vulgar material to advise the crowd against seeking validation on social media, urging them to cut draining relationships and cherish their remaining summers.
How it plays
- Tone
- Witty, provocative, unfiltered, and inspirational.
- On stage
- Candid, provocative, and expressive performer who balances raw, unfiltered observations on modern culture and relationships with moments of grounded reflection.
- Pace
- Structured like an album with varied comedic tempos, moving from opening crowd engagement to deliberate notebook joke-reading, vulgar relationship material, and inspirational commentary.
- About
- race and cultural differences, dating, sex, and relationships, political correctness and comedy censorship, body image and 'big girls', self-love, aging, and personal success
What the critics said
Praised as funny, highly quotable, and distinctively paced with genuine inspirational moments, though critics noted that his routines challenging PC culture and joking about larger women flirted with controversy.
In the room: Lively and responsive mostly Black crowd in North Carolina that laughed hysterically and engaged directly with his crowdwork.
Backstory
Created during a cultural climate of heightened sensitivity and debate over political correctness in comedy, with Cole defending stand-up as 'the last raw form of expression.'
Details
- Released
- Runtime
- 69 min
- Where
- Netflix
- Director
- Ryan Polito
- Topics
- Before
- Deon Cole (2017)
- After
- Charleen's Boy (2022)
More from Deon Cole
-
Ok, Mister
Netflix
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Charleen's Boy
Netflix
-
Deon Cole
Netflix
-
Cole-Blooded Seminar
Comedy Central
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