You Let Me Down

Joe DeRosa performs in a venue that fits his career-long obsession with grimness: the Masonic Lodge at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. This hour-long release captures a distinct kind of mid-2010s exhaustion, targeting online mobs, Tinder sociopaths, and the general letdown of humanity. He is at his best when he is leaning into his own self-loathing, admitting he is too stupid to be tweeting at public figures, or taking down Olympic athletes for dedicating their entire lives to niche sports.

Taped in October 2016 and released in February 2017, the special sits in a bizarre historical window. DeRosa addresses this immediately, telling the crowd that if Donald Trump won the election, they have probably found his dead body by now. He was juggling a recurring role on Better Call Saul and a writing gig on HBO’s Crashing at the time, but on stage, he remains dedicated to the role of the neighborhood cynic. His bits on open-casket funerals and unexcitable homicide detectives ground his political irritation in comfortable, morbid territory.