T.J. Miller: Meticulously Ridiculous (2017)

Starring: T.J. Miller
Grade: C

Known for his brand of off-the-wall/absurdist humor, T.J. Miller tries to make a stand-up special totally different from those other run-of-the-mill types.

The result? A special that starts red hot and falls apart in the second half.

Summary

Meticulously Ridiculous starts off very funny. T.J. Miller uses his trademark crazy energy, and random screaming, to grab your attention right away and hit you with some very unexpected jokes involving Denver (the city the show’s in), nightmares vs. night terrors, smoking weed, “Reasons I Don’t Give a Fuck”, George Washington Carver, money problems, and why “Bitches Be Crazy”. Then of course, there’s some fan interaction, and a segue where he calls a fan’s mother on their cell phone and tells her to go fuck herself, which just adds to the unpredictable fun Miller brings to the table. He also adds a lot of interesting details I don’t think I’ve seen in a stand-up special before. First of all, the special is noticeably and heavily edited. Sometimes captions are put on the screen for additional commentary, and they’re pretty funny. Then, there’s this excessive bit of Miller just drinking water obnoxiously, spilling it all over himself and his suit. It’s funny for like a second, but he keeps on doing it until it isn’t. Later, he gets this spray bottle of water and sprays it on his face silently for minutes on end. This is just the tip of the iceberg on Miller’s hit-or-massively-miss bits.

Miller’s delivery, even through somewhat weak punchlines, can carry him through anything in my eyes and that couldn’t be truer in the latter part of the special. Now, I know he’s known for his absurd humor, but even he loses the audience a little bit when he explains the term, “Ever snerd of it?”. From then on, Meticulously Ridiculous is up-and-down. After that, he jumps from death and suicide to a fictional story about his friend “Gleepglop the Gobblesnarf”, pets being slaves basically (something that should’ve been a lot funnier) and buying a battle axe and the subsequent story about almost getting arrested for it. This section about the battle axe was a big chunk of the set, but it went on for way too long and the payoff was not worth the time it took to get there. Then, he hits us with an ending that includes him talking about his real-life brain hemorrhage and the scenario about his doctor visit that fell sort of flat. Lastly, the aforementioned spray bottle thing comes into play again. That’s how he ends the show.

My Thoughts:

In general, T.J. Miller’s comedy can be an acquired taste. If you’re already a fan or know of T.J. Miller’s humor, then you’ll be able to digest T.J. Miller: Meticulously Ridiculous much better than someone who is watching him for the first time. For new viewers, this special may be a bit harder to get into and that’s just because he’s gone out of his way to be different in his joke-telling and presentation. It’s frustrating because he doesn’t need to get that weird to get noticed. He’s a genuinely funny dude. Miller doesn’t seem to realize he doesn’t need all the gimmicky stuff to stand out. The best parts of the special came from the “normal” jokes, and the parts that were noticeably less successful (especially with the crowd watching) were when he kept overdoing it with all the extra stuff that was either confusing or too outrageous. Sometimes this “outside the box” strategy can work and other times it doesn’t.

This time around, it definitely didn’t. It’s a shame too because I was laughing out loud in the beginning. It’s weird how quickly the momentum slowed because the first part of it was very funny. Unfortunately, it went all over the place after that. Then, it felt like he had to shoehorn some prop comedy in there because he already bought everything when in reality, the show might have been better off without it.

For better or worse, T.J. Miller: Meticulously Ridiculous is classic T.J. Miller. It’s funny and it kept my attention, but it was just a little too “out there” to keep me laughing. If anything, the thought of “What the fuck is he doing?” came into my head more often than it should in a stand-up special.