‘Jim Jefferies: Intolerant’ Review: Garnishing tired rants liberally with C-bombs does not make a comedy
Spoilers for ‘Jim Jefferies: Intolerant’
First things first. Yes. Jim s***s his pants.
In his fourth Netflix stand-up comedy special, Jefferies took his time and built up the story right till the very end. It was a story of how he, a lactose intolerant person who loves cheese and icecream, ate a lot of cheese on a date. He thought he had enough time to go home and evacuate his bowels. But a set of circumstances beyond his control kept coming in his way to the throne. And ultimately, moments away from getting there, he lost. He s*** his pants.
Now, here’s the second thing. Jim also s*** the bed. With his act. It was an excruciating hour-long (with some loose change) performance that only got worse and worse as the show progressed. “I don’t do as many misogynistic jokes as I used to,” says Jefferies. “But I like to whip one in there every now and then.” This is followed by a seemingly-just rant of a poor man who has been persecuted for the things he’s said. Clearly, Jefferies’ understanding of the social contract of free speech is somewhat flawed -- where one is entitled to say things, and others are entitled to criticize that.
Jefferies’ stand-up set is a cornucopia of tired angsty rants of a 42-year-old who hates people for being millennials, who hates people for being “woke”, who hates people for being allergic to peanuts, who hates people for being French, and who hates people for a number of reasons that gets worse as one keeps documenting it.
In fact, the only times the show manages to elicit laughter are: One, when he talks about how foie gras is made (it’s a terribly torturous process), and what the first person to have come up with the delicacy must have been like. And two, when on occasion you accidentally laugh because of the others laughing in the audience, and your instinct is to not stand out. By not laughing.
Jefferies’ humor, of course, has its niche. It’s own audience. He is after all politically incorrect. He loves being an a**hole. And he is just the right amount of misogynistic so that you can’t say his whole act depends on hating women. And this kind of obsolete edginess has its fair share of fans. But it is difficult to call it funny by any number of standards.
It’s like the ‘Hangover’ franchise. You enjoyed the first one’s profanity and irreverence. Then you saw it again in ‘Hangover 2’ and it was exactly the same. And by the time it reaches the third one, you begin to question not just why it was made, but why you ever thought this was a good idea. ‘Intolerant’ is the embodiment of every low-hanging fruit you can grab, wrapped a bit too generously in a steady supply of the word “c***”.
But this is what you get when you put a man who thinks being a d*** to people is a personality trait on the stage and give him a Netflix special. ‘Jim Jefferies: Intolerant’ is available for viewing on Netflix.