American viewers may have a very different take on Romesh Ranganathan than his British compatriots, who have watched the comedian as either a game show host, a panelist, or a candid stand-up comedian on TV for the past several years. So who’s the real cynic in Ranganathan’s first Netflix comedy special, which also includes a half-hour behind-the-scenes making-of documentary?
The essentials: Ranganathan arrived in America four years ago with his family in tow and starred in a 10-episode documentary for Showtime. Just another immigrantwhich sort of brought him to The Greek, which culminated in his first US comedy special, Just Another Immigrant: Romesh At The Greek.
If that didn’t ring any bells for you, you might have better luck placing it if you watched last year Cinderella Reboot for Prime Video (he played Romesh the Mouse) or Saweetie’s Netflix special, Gender: Unzipped. The comedian has also booked a role in the upcoming, long-awaited film chicken race sequel for Netflix, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.
But this son of Sri Lankan immigrants is definitely more tailored to his British compatriots, and not just because he filmed his Netflix debut in his hometown of Crawley. Crawley is just south of Gatwick Airport, about halfway between London and Brighton, and even Ranganathan takes the first minute to refer to it as a ‘fucking hole’. This hour (plus the accompanying half-hour document) also feels tailor-made to show us Ranganathan’s place in British culture. Although he’s clearly a familiar face there, he replaced James Corden as the host of A league of its own, a sports-based game show, not to be confused with the American film or TV series, on Sky One; and he replaced Anne Robinson as the host of The weakest link on BBC One – the multiple BAFTA TV award winner is still struggling with how people perceive him when they recognize him and is spending the majority of this special reconciling his relationships with his wife and children while he getting older in their mid-40s.
What comedy specials will it remind you of?: By adding the extra half-hour episode to flesh out his family dynamic, Ranganathan appears to have not only taken a page from his own book from Showtime, but also from Russell Howard’s 2021 special and doc for Netflix. lubricant.
Memorable Jokes: It’s an hour of digressions, but one that always comes back to some key tropes and themes: momentarily losing track of one of his sons on Brighton Beach, how he realized he needed to lose weight and gain testosterone if he was to live longer, healthier life and the impact on his sex life with his three sons’ wife.
He also opens at the Oscars with his rendition of Will Smith and Chris Rock. The most interesting premise he discovers? I wonder if the Oscars production staff and everyone else sat back and did nothing because, being mostly white, maybe they thought black people were acting like this now and didn’t want to “intervene in their culture.” meow!
Our opinion: He’s also quite cheeky at the start of the hour, hinting that, unlike some old hands in comedy, who cultivated the conventional wisdom that success in business cultivated a meritocracy, “they don’t want to admit that… it’s luck.” ‘, which made most of it famous. However, he admits it: “The main reason I stand before you tonight is luck.” Don’t you believe him? Imagine being the funniest person in a remote jungle where your village only speaks a rare language! Good luck to that person who gets Netflix’s attention.
Now that Ranganathan has that attention, he worries that fans will approach him and his family in public, asking questions and pointing at his sons to find out which is the son he taunts the most. He notes that hating vegans (of which he is one) seems to be more popular than actually being vegan, and in time for the holidays he wonders how the general population would react if we did indeed care for all animals or care about the environment instead of just screaming about an LGBT sandwich at Marks & Spencer (a UK retailer).
Despite the title, he doesn’t come across as cynical.
Even if he’s just famous enough that strangers recognize him at an amusement park only to have himself doubt himself, and even if he’s not as desirable in a Navy uniform as his game show co-stars, he realizes he’s privileged by virtue of the life he and his children can live, especially compared to his immigrant parents. Perhaps his most cynical is when he finishes his story about his missing son on the beach and watches suspiciously as the boy licks up his treat ice cream cone. Only desserts, in fact.
Our appeal: Stream it. Similar to last year’s Netflix offerings from Russell Howard, my gut tells me that Americans and anyone else unfamiliar with Ranganathan’s comedy would enjoy watching the documentary series BEFORE jumping on the stand-up -Part click.
Sean L. McCarthy edits the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The comic of the comic; before that for real newspapers. Based in NYC but travels everywhere for news: ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes featuring comedians revealing origin stories: Comic’s comic presents last things first.
watch Romesh Ranganathan: The Cynic on Netflix