Noble Ape

Gaffigan starts the set by dealing with a serious medical crisis: his wife and co-writer, Jeannie, spent the previous year recovering from a large brain tumor. Instead of turning it into a solemn plea for sympathy, Gaffigan treats the ordeal as a comedy minefield. He details his own terrible caregiver instincts, like sneaking food into his mouth behind his wife’s back while she was restricted to a liquid diet. The resulting show is a rare shift toward the deeply personal for a comic usually known for safe banter about processed snacks and weight gain.

Filmed at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, the 2018 special was co-written and directed by Jeannie herself. At this point in his career, Gaffigan was branching out with a heavy slate of indie film roles and made the unusual industry decision to bypass Netflix, releasing the special instead to theaters and digital on-demand services. While the health scare anchors the first half, Gaffigan still finds plenty of room for his traditional, lighter topics. He riffs on the aggressive driving culture of the Northeast, his anxieties about international missile threats, and the specific indignities of getting a massage in Asia.