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Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

You Let Me Down

Joe DeRosa

Comedy Central · 2017 · 65 min

A frustrated, cynical stand-up hour filmed inside a cemetery.

Joe DeRosa performs in a venue that fits his career-long obsession with grimness: the Masonic Lodge at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. This hour-long release captures a distinct kind of mid-2010s exhaustion, targeting online mobs, Tinder sociopaths, and the general letdown of humanity. He is at his best when he is leaning into his own self-loathing, admitting he is too stupid to be tweeting at public figures, or taking down Olympic athletes for dedicating their entire lives to niche sports.

Taped in October 2016 and released in February 2017, the special sits in a bizarre historical window. DeRosa addresses this immediately, telling the crowd that if Donald Trump won the election, they have probably found his dead body by now. He was juggling a recurring role on Better Call Saul and a writing gig on HBO’s Crashing at the time, but on stage, he remains dedicated to the role of the neighborhood cynic. His bits on open-casket funerals and unexcitable homicide detectives ground his political irritation in comfortable, morbid territory.

The set list

8 bits
  1. Taping the special in October 2016 prior to the presidential election results.

    Compares Hillary Clinton to HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey and jokes that if Donald Trump won, his body has likely already been found.

  2. Tweeting at politicians and social media discourse.

    Targets right-wing gun nuts and left-wing coffee-house morons alike, insisting he himself is an idiot who shouldn't have access to tweet at the president.

  3. Public outrage over misbehaving Olympians.

    Questions why society acts shocked when an Olympian urinates on a Brazilian gas station and behaves like an asshole, given athlete history.

  4. Bringing back punching people in the face.

    Argues that people saying terrible things should face the consequence of getting punched in the face.

  5. Culture's obsession with watching sports.

    Mocks sports viewership, stating that very few people can do astrophysics either, but he wouldn't watch that for three hours on Sunday.

  6. Online dating on Tinder versus eHarmony and Bumble.

    Discusses using dating apps to filter out creeps, psychopaths, and sociopaths, accepting that crazy is just another way a person can die.

  7. Porn stars working without labor unions.

    Contrasts calls against the grotesque behavior of celebrities with sympathy for un-unionized adult film performers.

  8. Criticism of the state of Arizona.

    Unleashes trademark exasperation on Arizona as one of the country's most politically unenviable states.

How it plays

Tone
Dark, satirical, macabre, uncomfortably funny, and cynical.
On stage
Cynical, darkly satirical, unapologetic, and exasperated, examining the creepy and grotesque underbellies of human behavior.
Pace
Starts out firing immediately with grievances, blending rage and amusement with honest, aggressive punchlines.
About
2016 presidential election and political madness, social media culture and Twitter mobs, online dating, Tinder, and sociopaths, obsessive sports culture and athletic reverence, celebrity behavior and Olympians, death, murder, and mental health/Prozac

What the critics said

Praised as dark, wonderful, and uncomfortably funny, with reviewers noting his razor-sharp targeting of irritating cultural figures and prophetic handling of the looming Trump era.

In the room: Performed before a sold-out crowd in the historic Masonic Lodge surrounded by macabre Night Gallery-inspired paintings.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: tv.apple.com, theinterrobang.com, eponymousreview.com, mymoviefinder.net, thecomicscomic.com, pastemagazine.com, en.wikipedia.org, 800poundgorillamedia.com.

Backstory

Taped in October 2016 right before the 2016 US presidential election and released in February 2017 amid the onset of the Trump era and 24/7 news cycle anxieties.

Details

Released
Taped
2016, Masonic Lodge at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles
Runtime
65 min
Where
Comedy Central
Director
Joe DeRosa
Topics
Before
The Half Hour (2013)
After
I Never Promised You A Rose Garden (2025)

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