ADVERTISEMENT
AHEM. It has been a dumpster fire of a year. I think we can all agree on that. Luckily, though, dumpster fires make for A+ humor — it's all the trash fumes getting us giddy and giggly, I guess. For every time that Donald Trump does something horribly destructive, like construct a budget that will defund Planned Parenthood, at least 10 good jokes land on the lips of talented comedians. (The same goes for off-color jokes unfortunately. For every on-color, sweet-as-hell joke, there are hundreds of offensive ones.) There's numbers to prove this, too: Saturday Night Live had its best season ever this year, averaging almost 11 million viewers per episode, the show's highest ratings since 1994.
The facts are in — humor is infinitely more productive than the government right now, and in these tragic times we find ourselves in a surplus of funny. Netflix is delivering specials practically by the week, and it seems every network is determined to keep funny alive. So far in 2017, comedians Sarah Silverman, Maria Bamford, Sasheer Zamata, and the ever-prolific Louis C.K. have churned out specials this year — to quote Chance the Rapper, these blessings just keep falling in my lap.
As we're officially halfway through the year, let us take the time to evaluate all the jokes that have come into our lives this year. For the purposes of this list, we've restricted this list to the jokes that appeared in stand-up comedy specials. Screw politics! Let's laugh.
(Warning: There will be politics involved.)
ADVERTISEMENT