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Promotional art for End Times Fun
Cover image credit: via TMDB

End Times Fun

Marc Maron

Netflix · 2020 · 71 min

Marc Maron welcomes the apocalypse with a heavy sigh.

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Marc Maron spent decades perfecting the role of the neurotic, anxious contrarian, and this hour is the moment where the actual state of the world finally caught up to his baseline blood pressure. Filmed in October 2019 and released in March 2020 just as global lockdowns began, the set plays like an accidental, hyper-specific prophecy. Maron sits on a stool under warm lighting and filters the creeping dread of modern life through his usual lens of self-loathing, delivering a performance that feels less like a traditional stand-up act and more like a late-night bunker broadcast.

The special was directed by his partner, the late Lynn Shelton, at the REDCAT theater in Los Angeles. Throughout the set, Maron targets the minor absurdities of modern survival, from the suspicious marketing of turmeric supplements to the collective delusion that buying reusable grocery bags will reverse environmental collapse. His focus shifts toward larger targets as the hour progresses. He draws a direct line between the cult-like devotion of Marvel fanboys and religious zealots, pointing out that both mythologies were dreamed up by Jewish writers thousands of years apart. The show culminates in a surreal, hallucinatory fantasy involving Vice President Mike Pence, Jesus, and the Avengers during the Rapture—an uncharacteristically theatrical, graphic set piece that relieves the hour’s slow-burning anxiety with a chaotic explosion of blasphemy.

Released mere days before the pandemic shut down public life, the special received widespread critical praise and later earned a Critics’ Choice Award nomination.

The set list

4 bits
  1. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    A surreal, apocalyptic end times scenario imagining the literal end of days. closer

    Depicts the return of Christ, Marvel superheroes, skies on fire, and Vice President Mike Pence succumbing to illicit temptations and kneeling in prayer.

  2. Navigating Me Too, male anxiety, and personal masturbation fantasies.

    Describes an imaginary sexual encounter with a woman seen at Whole Foods that spins out of control when the fantasy woman becomes uncomfortable, tweets about it, and walks out.

  3. Comparing liberal political engagement during the Obama administration to reactions during Trump's presidency.

    Mocks progressive friends who disengaged politically to focus on self-improvement and yoga poses like downward dog instead of remaining vigilant.

  4. The frustration and absurdity of modern connectivity compared to the pre-cell phone era.

    Ruminates on the lost experience of waiting in silence, the irritation of not instantly knowing facts, and the obsolescence of Palm Pilots.

How it plays

Tone
Bleak, irreverent, sarcastic, raw, socially observant, and darkly funny.
On stage
An acerbically cranky, perennially fretful, and cynical 'equal-opportunity crank' and curmudgeon serving as a surly voice for powerlessness and angst.
Pace
Spends most of the hour hunched over on a stool delivering free-associative commentary punctuated with heavy sighs, before shifting to high-energy physical delivery, pacing, and character enactment in the finale.
About
Apocalypse and end times, Modern political angst and Donald Trump, Liberal narcissism and yoga, Vitamins and wellness culture, The Me Too movement and male neuroticism, Nostalgia and life before cell phones

What the critics said

Praised as one of Maron's strongest specials, lauded by critics for its uncannily timely apocalyptic themes, skillful balance of bleaker topics with humor, and sharp cultural commentary.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, vulture.com, metacritic.com, theatlantic.com, artsfuse.org, npr.org, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Taped in October 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and released in March 2020 amid the initial global pandemic lockdowns and heightened political anxiety during the Trump administration.

Details

Released
Taped
2019, REDCAT Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, Los Angeles
Runtime
71 min
Where
Netflix
Director
Lynn Shelton
Honors
Critics Choice Awards nomination
Topics
Before
Too Real (2017)
After
From Bleak to Dark (2023)

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