Hurt Like You've Never Been Loved
Netflix · 2016 · 64 min
A hostile, politically charged stand-up performance from Glasgow.
Frankie Boyle has always been a comic who invites you to detest yourself for laughing. For years, his reputation rested on a rapid fire of transgressive one-liners designed to make audiences wince as much as chuckle. Recorded at the Citizens Theatre in his hometown of Glasgow, this 2016 performance shows Boyle pointing his bleak perspective at systemic targets rather than just shocking for shock’s sake. The shift reflects his transition around that time into a political columnist, bringing a more focused indignation to his live work.
Rather than merely throwing out barbs, Boyle constructs routines that direct his hostility upward. He takes aim at austerity, British colonial history, and the moral vacuum of Westminster. One of the set’s most memorable routines targets American foreign policy, mocking how the United States will invade a nation and then return decades later to make award-winning films about how sad the invasion made their own soldiers. He also finds time to dismantle the cozy, harmless world of mainstream observational comedy, directly mocking a Michael McIntyre bit about swimming pool parasols to contrast his own nihilistic worldview with the low stakes of arena-level stand-up.
There are still plenty of those trademark, stomach-turning one-liners about historical abuse scandals and Jimmy Savile, and those who prefer him purely as a provocateur will find plenty to satisfy them. But the overarching feeling is of a comedian who once threatened to retire at forty realizing that the world’s actual horrors finally match the dark nature of his writing. His anger feels less like a theatrical pose and more like genuine exhaustion.
The set list
-
American foreign policy and Vietnam war movies
Argues that America invents movies decades later about how killing foreign populations made their own soldiers sad, likening it to a serial killer worrying about clutch wear from stopping for hitchhikers.
-
Defending offense in comedy and trigger words
Invokes the philosophical concept of phenomenology and compares objecting to a joke to telling a clown his car will not pass its MOT.
-
Westminster child abuse allegations and political cruelty
States he is unsurprised by abuse scandals among the ruling elite because their austerity policies kill children daily.
-
An encounter with an American police officer
Delivers a rare personal anecdote drawn from his past drinking days as a recovering alcoholic.
How it plays
- Tone
- Nihilistic, transgressive, dark, sarcastic, and bitterly angry.
- On stage
- Notoriously controversial, bruising, and unapologetic; a dark, cold-eyed satirist and self-described reflexively horrible comic delivering caustic social commentary with a Scottish accent.
- Pace
- Driven by rapid, biting one-liners with sharp, venomous timing and quick heckler putdowns.
- About
- economy and corruption, foreign policy and drone warfare, offence in comedy and censorship, austerity and media scapegoating, institutional child abuse
What the critics said
Critically praised for infusing savage, taboo-breaking one-liners with purposeful political anger and systemic social critique rather than relying purely on shock value.
In the room: Filled with enthusiastic fans though featuring less front-row audience interaction than his previous live shows.
Backstory
Reflects deep dismay over austerity politics, British political scandals, international drone warfare, and an amoral government as a father concerned for his children's future.
Details
- Released
- Taped
- 2015, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
- Runtime
- 64 min
- Where
- Netflix
- Director
- John L. Spencer
- Topics
- After
- Excited For You To See And Hate This (2020)
More from Frankie Boyle
-
Excited For You To See And Hate This
BBC iPlayer
If you liked this
-
Wyatt Feegrado De-Assimilate
YouTube
-
Jimmy Carr Funny Business
Netflix
-
Anthony Jeselnik Caligula
Paramount+
