Old Yeller: Live at the Borgata

The trademark anger is intact, but the target has shifted. Instead of aiming his shouts at a specific political administration, Lewis Black uses Old Yeller to grapple with a society that feels structurally broken and aggressively distracted. He directs his vitriol at the mathematical impossibility of Social Security, the collective failures of the Baby Boomer generation, and the exhausting reality of having to understand the internet.

Filmed at the Borgata in Atlantic City for EPIX, his ninth hour captures a comic in transition. The Bush years that fueled his highest-profile work are in the rearview. He is left to vent his frustrations at Mark Zuckerberg, Farmville, and the general speed of modern life. His parents are in the audience, and his father’s artwork serves as the stage backdrop.

While the frantic finger-pointing and lock-jawed delivery remain, reviewers at the time noted a distinct resignation creeping into the performance. The screaming is less about righteous indignation and more about the weariness of navigating a self-sustaining bureaucratic mess.