Finding new stand-up comedy specials on Amazon Prime can be challenging without a proper hub page. Searching for stand-up comedy will land you a random assortment of specials from years ago. But the main reason it’s hard to find new specials is that there aren’t very many created for Prime Video itself. Even the latest addition, Craig Ferguson: I’m So Happy, was independently released last year.
Zakir Khan: Delulu Express was released more recently, and it’s an amusing diversion as well. But most of the specials on Prime Video are past their expiration dates. That’s why we’ve narrowed the focus of the best stand-up comedy on Amazon Prime right now to the ones most worthy of your time.
Looking for even more laughs? Check out our other streaming guides, including the best stand-up comedy on Netflix, as well as the best comedies on Amazon Prime and the best comedies on Hulu.
Need more recommendations? Then check out the best new shows to stream this week, as well as the best shows on Netflix, the best shows on Hulu, the best shows on Amazon Prime Video, the best shows on Max, and the best shows on Disney+.
Why is former late-night TV host Craig Ferguson so happy in his stand-up special, I’m So Happy? Ferguson has faced numerous health setbacks in the last few years, and he feels right at home when he’s back on stage and playing to a large crowd. For this special, Ferguson leans into his natural storytelling abilities as he revisits his time as a talk show host, some embarrassing foreign gaffes, and other tales that may make you laugh or cringe. Or possibly both at the same time.
How well do you remember the longest day of your life? Zakir Khan has vivid memories of his, and he’s sharing all of the details in his latest special, Delulu Express.
A lot of Khan’s material revolves around his personal history of friendships and former lovers, as well as landing and leaving his first jobs. But there’s something very compelling about the way he relates these tales.
Some comedians have to go through their entire careers before they find half the success that Jenny Slate has already had. As the name of the special states, Slate is a “seasoned professional,” but there are still plenty of things she struggles with.
That makes for good — if sometimes erratic — material as she describes the way her life has been changed by her relationship with her second husband and their child, while also navigating the weirdness of the pandemic. Not everything hits the same way, but Slate’s comedy depends upon whether you like her personality. If you’re a fan of her style, you will love this.
It may surprise some viewers to learn that Kaleb Cooper really is a farmer, and his stint on Prime Video’s Clarkson’s Farm isn’t an act. Cooper has parlayed his appearances on that show to launch his own comedy career, including his sold-out UK tour under the banner “The World According to Kaleb.”
For his first-ever comedy special, Cooper talks about his experiences with Cooper, life on the farm, and the one farm animal that he’s not particularly fond of. There may also be a musical number in there somewhere.
Everybody has their own personal blend of comedy, but in his latest special, Garrett Gunderson’s angle is money, how it works, and why you’re not getting enough of it. Garrett Gunderson: The American Ream isn’t called The American Dream for a good reason. Nobody loves to be taken advantage of from behind, to say that as politely as possible.
Gunderson mines comedy from informative insights into retirement funds, Wall Street trading, and cryptocurrency. And if you find the picture he paints to be depressing, at least you can laugh at the jokes while he’s painting.
Nick Swardson is getting older, so he’s taking some time to reflect on his life and some of his best diarrhea jokes. And if you don’t like scatological humor, then why would you watch Nick Swardson’s comedy in the first place? It’s kind of his thing.
It’s not like Swardson can’t have some heartfelt moments, as exemplified when he speaks about his late friend, Norm McDonald. But he’d rather make an audience laugh, and he especially seems to love getting himself to laugh along with the crowd as he relates some shared experiences that everyone goes through when they age.
The name of Sam Morril’s latest comedy special, You’ve Changed, does get explained in the course of the hour, as one of his critics reemerges from the past… in shall we say a very different way. Morril’s argument is if they can change that much, then so can he. Morril also shares a string of texts from his ex that might be considered Baby Reindeer-adjacent, although it never quite goes as far as Netflix’s show.
Morril isn’t breaking new comedy ground by making jokes about his sex life, bad dating partners, or getting older. But he knows how to tell a story and how to take back command of the room whenever any hecklers try to get a word in edgewise.
For his latest comedy special, Good Grief, Marlon Wayans mines the deaths of his parents for some dark humor. But you may not be prepared for the level of detail that Wayans goes into about taking care of his mother late in her life. There’s some deeply unsettling things he describes about her that simply aren’t funny.
The things that are funny are about Wayans’ upbringing, and his theory about why his father was a Jehovah’s Witness. However, the most profound part of this special is the way Wayans uses his humor to deal with not only his grief for his parents but all of the other people in his life that he’s lost as well.
Subhah Agarwal has a way of letting the audience laugh with her and at her while describing her ongoing struggles with her mental health in her comedy special, Airport Pigeons. It’s particularly funny when she recounts how she’s been bullied by children as an adult, but she explains how it happens. She also finds a way to bring up Stephen Hawking’s love life and uses his own documented affairs to bring the humor out of his situation as well.
Sebastian Maniscalco is the kind of comedic talent who isn’t afraid to shine a light on the many idiosyncrasies of humanity, and if his stand-up special Sebastian LIVE is to be believed, our species has plenty of quirks to poke fun at.
the special was filmed at the prestigious Paramount Theatre in St. Louis, and if you’re in the mood for the kind of observational humor that will have you rolling around on the floor in laughter, look no further than Mr. Maniscalco.
You don’t get into our comedy roundup twice unless you’re really funny, but it should come as no surprise that Jim Gaffigan gets a second shout-out. In his 2018 special Jim Gaffigan: Noble Ape, the renowned talent (he starred in the wonderful Linoleum earlier this year) gets a bit more personal, incorporating his wife’s harrowing run-in with cancer into the show.
It’s a bold decision on Gaffigan’s behalf, but it’s a mature call that serves to remind us that life may throw a million wrenches our way, but sometimes all we can do is snicker as the projectiles fly toward us.
Jim Breuer is an unchained force to be reckoned with in the outrageous 2013 stand-up special, Jim Breuer: And Laughter for All. Originally produced for Epix, Jim ditches the Goat Boy threads in favor of something a bit more rooted but equally off-the-charts.
Exploring topics of fatherhood, modern suburbia, and teen-year antics, Breuer’s approach may be unrelenting, but fans of his style know exactly what they’re signing up for.
One of the O.G. titans of stand-up, the late-great George Carlin left far more than your traditional mark on the entertainment world. A constantly called-upon influence for today’s leading comic legends, the man’s talents are on full-display in George Carlin: Life is Worth Losing. Jam-packed with Carlin’s rapid-fire and astute commentary on the continually-crumbling Planet Earth, this humorously bleak eulogizing remains as relevant today as the maestro’s words were nearly 20 years ago.
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek Monthly, SYFY Wire, Superhero Hype, Collider, DC Universe, and the official sites for Star Trek and Marvel. He also lends his pop culture expertise to Digital Trends on a variety of TV, movie, and streaming features.
Michael Bizzaco has been selling, installing, and talking about TVs, soundbars, streaming devices, and all things smart home for the better part of 15 years. He even knows a thing or two about how to fix this stuff when it starts misbehaving (because no tech is perfect!).
Mike has been writing for Digital Trends and several other publications since 2020. Fortunately, he’s still able to write after he got his index finger stuck in a vending machine at the Ramada Inn the summer before fourth grade! From hands-on reviews to best-of roundups, Mike does his best to share his expertise in a friendly and informative way with all readers, and loves staying on top of the latest AV and smart home trends.
When he’s not thanking his father for dislodging his finger from that vile vending machine in New Jersey, Mike enjoys playing guitar, reading, and indulging in horror films with his girlfriend.
Holden is a writer with a focus on streaming service guides. He has also written content for Screen Rant and FanSided and is eagerly anticipating every Star Wars series set to debut in the coming years.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.