Joe Mande’s Award-Winning Comedy Special

Joe Mande built his first hour of stand-up around a fake trophy. Tired of the standard formula where a comedian walks on stage after a generic walk-up shot, Mande framed his debut as a mockumentary about his desperate quest to win the “American Humour Award,” a fictional accolade supposedly coveted by comedy greats. It is a highly meta conceit, featuring consultations with past “winners” like Bo Burnham and George Wallace, and even a three-person judging panel planted in the crowd at the Highline Ballroom to score his performance in real time.

The stand-up itself holds up without the gimmickry. Mande, a veteran writer for Parks and Recreation and The Good Place, delivers his material with a relaxed, dry cadence that makes the most of some highly specific premises. He riffs on the absurdity of the retro MTV dating show Next, details a pitch for a questionable Shark Tank sex toy, and recounts a chaotic childhood diarrhea incident at a Jewish summer camp. There are also darker turns, including a prolonged look at the HBO documentary about the NYPD “Cannibal Cop.”

Filmed at the Highline Ballroom in New York City, the special arrived in July 2017 when Netflix was releasing new stand-up nearly every week. Mande’s meta-textual framing and cynical tone helped the set stand out, eventually landing on Time’s list of the best specials of the year.