Weirdo

Before he was an untouchable television auteur or a stadium-filling pop star, Donald Glover was just a guy on stage talking about Cocoa Puffs and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His 2011 hour taps into a hyperactive millennial nostalgia, blending an obsessive need to overanalyze 90s pop culture with a willingness to say incredibly out-of-line things about children. The standout bit remains his breakdown of the ill-fated internet campaign to get him cast as Spider-Man, but he spends just as much energy explaining why the Muppet Babies make no sense and arguing Charlie Sheen’s right to use racial slurs.

Filmed at the Union Square Theatre in New York City, Weirdo arrived at the exact moment his career was accelerating. He was twenty-seven, starring on NBC’s Community, and releasing his debut Childish Gambino studio album Camp the very same week.

The special operates as a time capsule of an artist who still cared deeply about winning over a room with punchlines. He paces the stage with relentless momentum, comparing playground bullies to tiny fascists and mining Destiny’s Child lyrics for dating advice.