Nowadays, Netflix offers a surprisingly strong collection of stand-up for our instant-watching pleasure. But in my humble and completely biased opinion, Comedy Central Presents, a collection of half-hour comedy specials from the late 90s and early 2000s, remains the crown jewel in the queue’s rapidly expanding stand-up library.
With its 240 episodes, Comedy Central Presents is a lot of comedy, perhaps the longest single entry on Netflix. But beyond its sheer volume, the virtue of the collection lies in the wide array of comics assembled therein, a snapshot of the comedic voices of the time. Names like Zach Galiafinakis, Dane Cook, and Chelsea Handler stand out among the roster of comedians; it’s interesting to see them before their fame, and, more importantly, to see if they can do a solid 20 minutes.
I’ll be writing a series that highlights individual comedians/episodes, with an emphasis on how the special fits into his or her greater body of work. And in addition to those who went on to bigger endeavors, I’ll talk about some others (Dan Naturman, Greg Giraldo, etc.) who never got the recognition they deserve.
We'll start with Alonzo Bodden and Kristen Schaal.
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