Here Comes the Truth
Netflix · 2017 · 66 min
A raunchy blend of Southern stand-up and acoustic country songs.
Rodney Carrington leans hard into the indignities of middle-aged suburban domesticity, treating physical decline with a mix of acoustic guitar work and explicit locker-room humor. He spends a significant portion of his set diagnosing the struggles of maintaining a sex life in your late 40s, using catchy country tunes to soften the blow of punchlines about weight gain and physical deterioration. It is a show built for an audience that wants a direct, vulgar acknowledgement of what happens when the body starts to quit.
The set was filmed at the BOK Center in Carrington’s hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and released on Netflix in October 2017. At this point in his career, Carrington was a seasoned veteran who had survived the mid-2000s sitcom boom, having starred in the ABC show Rodney, and had settled into a highly lucrative independent touring hustle. Performing to a massive, packed arena, he walks a fine line between traditional Southern storytelling and explicit club comedy, showcasing why he continues to sell out large venues despite operating outside the mainstream critical radar.
Specific highlights include his acoustic songs “I’m Fat” and “The Marriage Advice Song,” alongside stand-up material about watching his ex-wife give birth, the quirks of internet pornography, and the cocktail of daily medications he relies on to stay active. Critical reception was predictable; reviewers noted that while his material relies on highly gender-segregated tropes about relationships, his crowd is fiercely loyal, and his delivery is perfectly tailored to them. As Carrington himself reminds the audience after a particularly blue bit, “These are jokes. If you learn anything, it’s a goddamn accident.”
The set list
-
Post-divorce weight gain and aging
Carrington jokes about figuring out how people get fat after gaining weight post-divorce and lacking the motivation to fix his health.
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Dating advice from his children vs. mac and cheese
He counters his kids' suggestions to get a new girlfriend by complaining he is still paying for the last one and questioning whether he'd rather have sex or mac and cheese.
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Encounter with an intoxicated Christian woman in a bar
He acts out being warned that he will face his maker for his sick jokes, feeling relieved because he assumed he would go straight to Hell without getting a chance to explain himself.
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Donald Trump and undocumented employees
Carrington mentions paying tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills for his undocumented workers, noting that while he loves Donald Trump, he would hide his workers in the basement like the Holocaust before letting them be deported.
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Show Them to Me
Carrington brings out his guitar to conclude his musical segment and end the performance with his signature comedic song.
How it plays
- Tone
- Raunchy, irreverent, and unfiltered, with reviewers noting an undercurrent of personal bitterness and sadness regarding aging and divorce.
- On stage
- Raunchy country comic and singing cowboy who leans heavily into crude, no-filter blue-collar humor and self-deprecating adult material.
- About
- Life in his 40s, Sex and relationships, Divorce, Weight gain, Aging and health, Politics
What the critics said
Critics characterized the hour as an unabashedly crude collection of dick jokes and country songs proving blue-collar comedy is not always family-friendly, while viewer reactions were polarized by its harsh tone and offensive racial jokes.
In the room: Filmed before an enthusiastic hometown arena crowd in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Backstory
Divorced four years prior and experiencing post-divorce weight gain in his 40s, marking his first original stand-up special for Netflix.
Details
- Released
- Taped
- BOK Center, Tulsa
- Runtime
- 66 min
- Where
- Netflix
- Director
- Brandon Jones
- Topics
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