Warning: this is mature subject material with jokes and language that may not be appropriate for younger audiences.
From hilarious stories from his childhood to searing jokes about his audience, Matt Rife has become one of the most popular comedians in the industry for young adults. The clips of his shows on TikTok have become really popular over the past year, and he has become my favorite comedian. The best thing about Rife is his humor, more specifically how he delivers his jokes. He also uses the audience to make these jokes, and Rife comes up with them almost immediately. I did not think I would like the jokes he makes because of the inappropriate comments, let alone find them hilarious, but he has changed my sense of humor.
I have wanted to go to a show of his since I became a big fan last spring, but the age requirement is 18, which meant I couldn’t go yet. However, when Netflix announced they would be doing a special on him, I FLIPPED. I wanted to watch it the day it dropped, November 15, but I couldn’t find a time to sit and enjoy it. Time went on and I never found a good time to watch it; however, I am so happy to say that I finally watched it. Let’s just say, this show was worth the wait.
As the warning says above, this Netflix Special is not for children or people that are sensitive to more mature subjects and jokes. The first joke Rife made was a little sexist, and this caused a lot of uproar with his audience online. His fanbase is primarily made up of women, and they were not happy with this joke. Some claimed Rife made them feel safe, but that comment right at the beginning of the show made them really upset. He was sharing an experience he and some friends had at a restaurant in Baltimore, and there was a waitress with a black eye. They were joking that she shouldn’t have been greeting people and Rife shared part of their conversation: “‘I feel like they should, you know, put her in the kitchen or something, where nobody has to see her face, you know’…I was like ‘yeah, but I feel like if she could cook, she wouldn’t have that black eye…’”.
Personally, I would normally be really annoyed if someone said that in a normal day-to-day setting, but Rife is a comedian and comedy is full of possibly offensive jokes. Because of this, I thought the joke was really funny, and I didn’t take it personally or think about the humor placed on abuse.
After that joke, he continued on and jumped from one story to another, never ceasing to make me laugh. This was my first time watching a whole comedy show, so I wasn’t prepared for all the switch-ups. Rife didn’t rush what he was saying, but he was smart and didn’t stay on the same story for too long. He got to the point, made the joke, and once his audience was done laughing, he moved on to the next. Throughout the special, my mom came into my room three different times to ask me why I was laughing so loudly, and by the end, I was practically crying from laughing so hard.
Another great thing about this Netflix special is that the camera quality is really good, and the entire time I felt like I was in the same room as Rife. Overall, I loved the show and I would highly recommend it to more mature audiences.
