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Brick Wall Comedy
Promotional art for Weirdo
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

Weirdo

Donald Glover

Comedy Central · 2011 · 65 min

A hyperactive time capsule of pop culture obsession and millennial nostalgia.

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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.

The set list

7 bits

  1. Kids are like little Hitlers and having a baby vs. AIDS

    Argues children are awful 'tiny Hitlers' after witnessing a playground dispute, jokingly rationalizing why having AIDS would be preferable to having a child.

  2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premise

    Observes that the plot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sounds like a homeless person's fever dream.

  3. Home Depot experience as a child

    Describes being dragged to Home Depot as a child as feeling like 'Auschwitz for kids'.

  4. Kix cereal

    Calls Kix cereal the 'hand job of cereals'.

  5. Charlie Sheen and the N-word

    Comments on Charlie Sheen using the N-word and riffs on using the word during sex and on the iPhone.

  6. Internet campaign for Spider-Man

    Addresses the controversy and viral online push proposing that he audition to play Peter Parker / Spider-Man.

  7. Childhood love for Cocoa Puffs and Toys'R'Us

    Shares nostalgic stories of unrequited love for Cocoa Puffs and desperate desires to visit Toys'R'Us.

How it plays

Tone
Enthusiastic, expressive, silly, and playfully raunchy.
On stage
Charismatic, extended-adolescent persona delivering cheerfully raunchy humor with an innocent, childlike grin and expressive storytelling.
Pace
Fast-moving and lively with youthful exuberance and high comedic momentum.
About
childhood memories, kids and parenting, race and racial language, relationships and sex, pop culture nostalgia

What the critics said

Praised as a solid and hysterical debut hour driven by compelling storytelling and relatable millennial humor that balances vulgarity with undeniable charm.

In the room: Eager, packed room at two sold-out performances.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: gvd.swanlibraries.net, imdb.com, thetvdb.com, villagevoice.com, vulture.com, okgazette.com, exclaim.ca, alibi.com, en.wikipedia.org, prnewswire.com.

Backstory

Filmed during the height of viral internet buzz around him, including the '#donald4spiderman' fan campaign to cast him as Spider-Man; draws on his upbringing in Stone Mountain, Georgia in a foster home family.

Details

Released
Taped
Union Square Theatre, New York City
Runtime
65 min
Where
Comedy Central
Director
Shannon Hartman
Topics

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