Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli

No pun intended - I really like Pete. He is a good comedian and this stand up special is nice too. That may sound worse than I mean it to be. Also nice may not be the word you may think of when you watch this! As already stated in my summary line, he uses quite a bit of profanity. By the way this is nothing new - see Richard Pryor and many others from many decades ago.

He has some jokes about sexuality and drugs too. In other words you cannot be too sensitive or easily offended ... well you can, but it probably does not make much sense watching this if you already know this will trigger you and make you angry ... just saying. I also am quite certain this year will have way better stand up specials ... at least for me. That said, I don't mean that this was one is bad ... well he is bad ... but in a good sense ...

I love Pete Davidson but there's no way to make jokes about your mom like that correctly. The opener put a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of the show.

I've never left a bad review before but it was frankly disgusting.

The rest of it was actually really funny, it was just an incredibly poor choice to talk about someone he's related to the way he did for as long as he did.

After the first few minutes it got a lot better so I didn't want to tank the review too much just to be fair.

It's still a good watch for 55 minutes, a lot better than most of the recent Netflix comedy specials they've been coming out with.

I love that Pete pushes the envelope and has always produced original, boundary-challenging material that feels authentic to who he is. And this special has lots of very funny moments, but ultimately it disappoints. He took a genuinely funny concept about his mother so far that it felt more directed to an audience of other comics. (If you're a fan of "the Aristocrats," which I'm not, it's right up your alley.) It deserved about 2 minutes but went on til it was dead and rotting. Likewise the whole saga of the stalker, which was boring AF, lacked any relatable authenticity, and was beaten to death to the point where I had to fast forward to get to the end already. First time I've ever needed to do that. But that shows I was still hopeful, because normally I'd just turn it off. However, the realtor story was a weak finish. Pete's well-meaning "commitment to the bit" may work well in improv, but in a tight 55 minutes he desperately needed some wiser editing and direction.

I can see that Pete's standup skills have improved since his first special. In this one, he's become more confident and has a smoother delivery. I like that he still comes across as somewhat relatable despite his fame - he hasn't lost the casual vibe that's become his signature. This special also had a good pace, with plenty of content, and just enough callbacks to show that he's put thought into making it a cohesive performance. There was definitely some dark humour, and I didn't enjoy the mum jokes (those who've seen it know what I'm referring to), but conversely there were multiple other parts when I laughed so hard it nearly hurt. If you like Pete's usual style of comedy, you'll enjoy this.

Pete Davidson is Pete Davidson, and continues to be Pete Davidson in his most recent standup special, which is titled Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli. It might be a little less funny than I remember his older standup being, and the decision to film it all in black and white felt a bit pretentious, but I got a few chuckles out of it, and other specials in the past from lesser comedians have certainly provided less in the past.

I feel like the main thing that tanks this is the way he milks certain topics long past the point where they stop being funny. It felt like half this special was dedicated to talking about interactions with a stalker, and whether the story has any credibility is beside the point; it just stopped being funny after a while.

Anyone who's enjoyed Davidson's humour in the past will get some laughs out of this, but it's definitely not a great special... and I say that as someone who has enjoyed some of his humour in the past. I'm not going to say standup is dead or anything, but I haven't been wowed by a comedian's special in a while; I can say that much.