Cinco
Netflix · 2017 · 73 min
Jim Gaffigan riffs on autumn leaves, parenthood, and daily pasta.
Jim Gaffigan has always excelled at personifying inanimate or helpless things, and his bit about the changing seasons in Cinco is a prime example. Hearing him voice a dying autumn leaf screaming for chlorophyll and demanding to know why passing drivers are smiling at its death is the kind of absurd, specific observation that elevates his cozy, food-and-family material.\n\nFilmed at the Palace Theatre in Columbus, Ohio, and directed by his wife and writing partner, Jeannie Gaffigan, the set caught him at a highly productive peak. It was his first special to debut directly on Netflix, arriving at a time when he had recently wrapped his autobiographical TV Land sitcom. Critics noted that his formula was firmly set, but his delivery remained reliable. He works his self-deprecating audience-alter-ego voice to mock his own weight gain, riffs on a New Year’s resolution to eat pasta every day, and delivers a spot-on parody of the gravel-voiced narrators in truck commercials.
The set list
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Cable news anchors acting like modern town gossips and needing to be attractive
Compares 24-hour newscasters to high school loudmouth gossips who sensationalize information, questioning the superficial cultural requirement that news deliverers be attractive.
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Binge-watching television as a modern romantic relationship
Examines how streaming TV and algorithm recommendations resemble romantic dating relationships that judge, comfort, or tempt viewers away from real human connections.
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The hypocrisy and thrill of driving pickup trucks and SUVs
Explores how Americans openly acknowledge the environmental damage of gas-guzzling giant vehicles yet feel exhilarated behind the wheel.
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The pointlessness of hiking
Debunks outdoor recreation from the perspective of an unathletic couch potato who thinks hiking should go take a hike.
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Jesus multiplying bread and fish
Examines the biblical miracle through a food-lover's lens, wondering how disappointed disciples would have been if Jesus had multiplied pumpernickel or Melba toast.
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Getting stopped by TSA with food gifts
Reveals that his food jokes resulted in fans giving him boxes of doughnuts at tour stops, forcing awkward interrogations by airport TSA officers.
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Losing a child in a museum and self-image at the Holocaust museum
Recounts the panic of losing a kid and having security return them, coupled with self-effacing jokes that his pale, blonde appearance makes him look like a culprit at the Holocaust museum.
How it plays
- Tone
- Comfortable, non-judgmental, escapist, self-effacing, and lighthearted.
- On stage
- Self-deprecating, clean observational comic adopting the persona of an unathletic, food-obsessed family man who frequently comments on his own act using an unimpressed audience inner voice.
- Pace
- Steady and joke-dense, jumping from premise to premise and digging deeply into everyday topics with rapid observational punchlines.
- About
- food and eating habits, fatherhood and parenting, laziness and weight gain, binge-watching and streaming TV, cable news and media gossips, automobiles and SUVs
What the critics said
Regarded positively as comfortably hilarious, intelligent observational humor, likened to a 'steak dinner' of stand-up specials where Gaffigan excels by sticking to his reliable formula of clean, self-effacing, and non-judgmental comedy.
In the room: Enthusiastic and warm Columbus theater audience, with minor awkwardness during a pejorative joke about TV show recommendations.
Backstory
Filmed during Gaffigan's Fully Dressed tour and released alongside an unprecedented deal where Netflix acquired his previous four standup specials; co-written and directed by his wife Jeannie Gaffigan, featuring an opening sketch with their five children.
Details
More from Jim Gaffigan
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The Skinny
Hulu
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Dark Pale
Prime Video
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Comedy Monster
Netflix
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The Pale Tourist
Prime Video
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Quality Time
Prime Video
-
Noble Ape
Comedy Dynamics
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