Whatever Threatens You

Barry Crimmins is angry, but mostly he is tired of how stupid everything has gotten. In his only filmed stand-up special, the veteran political satirist stands on a simple stage in Kansas and methodically shreds the institutions of American power with the weary authority of a man who spent forty years fighting them. He does not offer hope, but he does offer an incisive, grumpy perspective on a country that seems to be actively disintegrating. He paces the stage like an old union boss at a town hall, taking aim at the country’s gun fetish, the false choice of the two-party system, and the sheer exhausting nature of modern craft beer culture.

Filmed at the Lawrence Arts Center in Lawrence, Kansas, in June 2016, the special came during a late-career resurgence for Crimmins. He had spent decades as an influential figure in the Boston comedy scene, helping to launch the careers of numerous household names, but remained largely unknown to the wider public. That changed after Bobcat Goldthwait’s 2015 documentary, Call Me Lucky, detailed Crimmins’ life as an activist and survivor of childhood abuse. The resulting spotlight led to this hour-long set, which was directed and produced by Louis C.K. and released independently on his website in October 2016.

The set captures Crimmins’ thoughts right in the middle of a chaotic election year. He rails against the extinction of mine shaft canaries as a climate warning, gripes about younger male comedians who complain about political correctness while making lazy jokes, and delivers a memorable bit about how modern high-alcohol craft beer makes it impossible to drink at his traditional, decades-long pace without causing accidents. The special was well-received by fans of political satire and was voted the Best Comedy Special of 2016 in the readers’ poll of the comedy website The Interrobang.