TV comedy specials are like arseholes. Everyone has one. Well, not quite everyone, but it has certainly felt that way recently with Netflix dropping standup shows as if they are going out of style. The streaming network has lots more to come in the new year and I've got to come clean, it is getting hard to keep up with them. For example, the recent Ellen DeGeneres special might have featured in the chart below – except that I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Maybe it will appear in next year's chart. In the meantime here is a run-down of the best comedy specials out of the ones I have managed to see. Note: I've left out shorts released by Netflix, BBC, etc.
1. James Acaster - Recognise, Represent, Reset and Recap (Netflix) – four, yes four brilliantly crafted specials from man of the moment Acaster. Three acclaimed Edinburgh sets and a fourth one which ingeniously ties various strands together.
2. Hannah Gadsby – Nanette (Netflix) – Landmark. Gameschanger. This award-winning show from Gadsby has been lauded in all quarters for saying things rarely said in stand-up. It's a powerful, unforgettable piece of theatre in which Gadsby fearlessly lays bare her thoughts about comedy, homophobia and much more.
3. Ricky Gervais – Humanity (Netflix) – Gervais might be a Marmite comedian but the success of Humanity shows that a hell of a lot of people love Marmite. Politically challenging, controversial but also laugh out loud funny.
4. Stewart Lee – Content Provider (BBC) – the BBC might have axed his Comedy Vehicle but they sort of made amends by airing Lee's most recent touring stand-up show, which most excellently tackled the digital era and, of course, Brexit via the medium of withering sarcasm.
5. Daniel Sloss – Dark, Jigsaw (Netflix) – Like James Acaster Sloss is another comic whose already burgeoning career has been boosted courtesy of Netflix. These two shows, filmed in LA and Sydney, find Sloss on superb form finding humour in the tricky side of relationships and going where few comic dare to tread.
6. Chris Rock – Tambourine (Netflix) – the stand-up superstar might be in his fifties now but you wouldn;t think it to watch him burn up the stage in his latest show. From gun violence to porn addiction Rock is on sublime form.
7. Adam Sandler – 100% Fresh (Netflix) This was a bit of a curveball. I started watching 100% Fresh thinking this was a rich man's vanity project but gradually Sandler's songs and stories and dumb jokes won me over. It mght have placed higher, but his cheesily sentimental tribute to his late friend Chris Farley at the end started to lose me again.
8. Joe Lycett – I’m About to Lose Control And I Think Joe Lycett – Live (Spirit Entertainment) You had to buy Joe Lycett's live show on DVD, but I'm sure it'll turn up on TV soon. He tells stories, he paints, he sculpts and best of all he likes to make mischief, playfully trolling local authorities and Olympic swimmers.
9. The League Of Gentlemen – Live Again! (BBC) This is where end of year lists start to get complicated - there's no Top Live Sketch/Sitcom Show chart but this impeccable reunion show deserves to figure somewhere so here it is. From monstrous patriarch Pop to tragi-comic rocker Les “I was an emergency Womble” McQueen all your horrific favourites are here.
