Matt Rife: Natural Selection

Having watched him on social media and seen his funny clips, I was surprised that there was a lot of backlash against this show, much of it about certain jokes that some said were misogynist. So, I decided to look and see.

The jokes many claim were misogyny were rather tame compared to much of the harder hitting comedians out there, and I'd use Dave Chapelle as a comparison as he's said way worse about practically everybody in my view, as have many British comedians.

The problem with Matt Rife's Netlfix special is it starts with a standing ovation, which is really odd and scripted it seems. Then he speaks and I didn't recognise him as the same person because he seemed to be doing an impersonation of the dudes in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, where every second word is dude and everything is rad. It's simply embarrassing to watch as he's trying to be something he's not: ghetto and hood.

The nerves were evident and he wasn't natural or relaxed and probably had too much expectation placed on him by the audience, producers and most likely himself. If he's going to recover from this, he should do what he does well and rip the hell out of himself for this dud of a performance. And drop being a dude, dude?

This unfortunately fell short with me. I have been a fan on Matt Rife's for a while now but unfortunately seeing this special turned out to be not special at all.

Matt Rife has made a real name for himself via social media and his crowd work which is phenomenal and some of the best I have seen as of late.

In this special it's focussed on his actual set and not his crowd work as obviously crowd work completely differs from show to show but your general set does not.

At the end of this special you see quick clips of Matt Rife doing his crowd work after his set has finished and in those short clips is where you can see the audience laughing the loudest.

We want to see you engaging with your audience.

All in all looking forward to seeing how Matt does progress as a comedian.

Love that guy on insta, his crowdwork is hilarious. I had high expectations from this and it was just meh. Very flat jokes, nothing really clever or funny on more levels. At some point i was questioning if this guy is really smart or just pretty face, because some of those jokes like from teen person. It was all very surprising to me. Not in a good way. I love dark, incorrect humor. I mean I am fan of Jimmy Car or Ricky Gervais and both are ahole, but this just didnt work at all. He sounded cocky and know it all, no respect, not humble, not relateable. And i dont care he mentioned he doesnt like when someone comment negatively on internet on something he is proud off. You can do better and you should know.

Oh Matt..

All that momentum and hype and you crash and burn. This special proved why Netflix probably does not give opportunities to comedians who are huge on YouTube.

My expectations were much higher for Matt Rife, this guy was relatable, had jokes you could understand but still keep things modern enough that they don't feel like the same old thing every other comedian tries.

Unfortunately the jokes were dry, punchlines did not really land and the opening was incredibly weak. No one really enjoys listening to bland jokes about women being in the kitchen, their biological clock and old men telling stories.

Matt can do better, I have no doubt, but he needs to go back to the drawing board and understand shorts and special are different.

This special was poorly paced, poorly structured and filled with bland jokes that did not land.

What happened?? I was soo looking forward to this but halfway in and Im feeling so underwhelmed. Im a big fan of his but it is not what I expected. His jokes really fell flat, most gave a general nod but definitely not what I was expecting. He got religious very quickly, some of his "jokes" are offensive, and overall not up to par. Which is disappointing because his humor is usually pretty great when he interacts with the audience. But he doesnt do that. Instead he makes a couple of jokes that were good and the rest are horrible. No talking to the crowd at all, he took that away which is a big mistake. Thats really why people were interested in him in the first place. Giving comedy an edge and standing out. Matt-you really let your fans down; we expected more!!