Honorable Mention: Maria Bamford – The Special Special Special
One of the main problems with digital distribution of video is that it can be pulled at any time. If it doesn’t make enough money or the distributor’s license runs out or someone decides to remove it for censorship reasons, consumers no longer have a legal way to purchase or stream it. In the case of Maria Bamford’s The Special Special Special, the website that was distributing it went out of business and now there is nowhere to purchase it. This is unfortunate, because it is easily the best stand-up comedy special to hit the Internet in the past few years and one of the best of all time.
The premise of The Special Special Special is simple but unique: rather than performing at a public venue, Bamford put on an extremely intimate performance in her living room for an audience of two. Those two members of the audience were her parents, and the fact that much of her material is about them added a whole level of discomfort that somehow only made things funnier. Bamford is, simply put, one of the best comics out there. Her material is alternately quirky and dark, bizarre and yet totally relatable. Much of her act is filtered through the lens of her bipolar mood disorder, and while in lesser hands that could lead to some very depressing stand-up, Bamford makes it transcendent.
According to Bamford’s publicist, they are currently looking for another distributor to put The Special Special Special back online, so keep your eyes peeled. There’s no word on when or where it might see the light of day again, but when it does it will be a must-download for anyone who hasn’t yet seen it.