When I saw Tim do this material live at the Chicago Theatre, as we left I heard someone say that he felt like he had already heard the material Tim just performed on his podcast and that he wanted to stop listening to the podcast for a while so he could enjoy Tim’s next live comedy show more.

I will never miss an episode of the Tim Dillon Show and I will see him live whenever it is even vaguely convenient and even when it isn’t (we are going to the Just for Laughs festival in Cancun in November, in no small part because Tim will be there) but I get what this was guy was saying. Tim’s hyperbolic, black and white point of view is inimitable and so his live show kind of feels like an advertisement for his podcast.

If you aren’t aware of Tim’s podcast you should be! It has unbelievable levels of success and has become must listen to content for me and millions of others over the past couple of years—Tim Dillon really took off during the pandemic. He is the #2 highest earner on Patreon. (He makes over 220 grand per month!) If you want to know why, I encourage you to watch the below bit where Tim calls Sonic live on air to ask how much free food you can eat during a shift if you work there.

The reality is that Tim could quite easily make a living by never doing live comedy again and just podcasting from wherever he wanted. And his special feels like he knows that. He even closes it by saying “See you on the internet!”

But this is what makes Tim so good. He does the kind of comedy he wants to do and he doesn’t care if you or Netflix or any other streaming service likes it. Just check out his Tweet announcing the release of this special:

Tim genuinely doesn’t care if Netflix refuses to work with him ever again.

What Tim does best is lean in hard to ridiculous, hyperbolic points of view to either demonstrate their absurdity or make a point. Examples of this in this special include:

● He is the teacher videoing young students’ sexual behavior to tell their parents they are gay so as to comply with the provision in Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill that requires teachers to inform parents of their child’s homosexuality.

●He is the conspiracy theorist right-wing doctor who is skeptical of the vaccine.

● He is the racist right-winger who gets out of tickets in Texas by telling the cop we should kill all liberals and their kids.

●If you’re 36 with no kids and watching Disney anything “you should go to jail”.

● Every athlete is stupid. Just do a flip.

●He is his uncle, who when asked what he is grateful for on Thanksgiving, talks in depth about how grateful he is that he didn’t get a DWI on Tuesday.

And he does it without a far left point of view, which is something rare in the comedy world. For nerds who are interested, at the end of this review, I code each of Tim Dillon’s jokes as either right or left wing and find that the split is almost dead even.

And because Tim Dillon isn’t a leftist hack, naturally the media has wanted to portray him as a fringe right-winger. This is just proof that he is a reasonable guy, who sees every topic as fair game for comedy.

I believe that Netflix decided to release this special relatively last minute. Tim had mentioned several times on his podcast that Netflix only offered him 20 minutes rather than an hour so he turned them down. Instead, he filmed his own special and talked for months about self-releasing it, unceremoniously mentioning in passing a couple of weeks ago that it would be coming out on Netflix with no explanation.

My feeling is that Netflix finally figured out that they need Tim more than he needs them. With hundreds of thousands of views on every podcast episode he releases, a Tim Dillon comedy special is pretty much guaranteed to be a success. If I know Tim, I imagine Netflix offered him enough money that he figured it was good enough, easier than self-releasing, and he might as well just go with them. The fault is Netflix’s for not offering Tim an hour months ago.

Back to our friend at the Chicago Theatre at the beginning of this post, when you already listen to someone talk for two hours every week, you develop a kind of parasocial relationship with them so seeing them on stage live is somehow so familiar that it is less impactful. It’s like seeing your friend do an hour of comedy. For regular Tim Dillon podcast listeners, this special felt like your buddy was in town, just hanging out in Denver. That’s what the guy leaving the Chicago Theatre was feeling.

That’s fair enough but Tim’s comedic point of view is so delightful and uniquely him that I will never get sick of it. He might feel like my friend hanging out in Denver but it’s my favorite friend I always want to hang out with. I will go so far as to say that Tim is my favorite comic not named Louis CK. Bring on the hyperbole. Bring on the ridiculous points of view. Tim Dillon is the real hero.

Biggest laughs:

-Tim’s mom in the hospital: “Can you put on Tuckah?”

-“Where does Chik-Fil-A stand on fisting?”

“It started with the dolphins are back and ended with a guy in a Viking hat trying to kill Pelosi with a pen.”

-“What is Beauty and the Beast even about? A chick who fucks a dog?”

Random Delights:

-Sam Tallent, Tim’s opener on the A Real Hero tour, hugging Tim before he goes on stage and announcing him. We’re big Sam T fans in this house!

-Directed by Ben Avery. If you know, you know.

For the nerds who are interested, below are Tim’s jokes broken down by right-wing perspective and left-wing perspective to disprove the silly idea that Tim is a political hack on either side. As you can see below, the split is almost dead even with 12 right-wing coded jokes and 11 left-wing coded jokes. Please don’t take this too seriously. Also, I am just a mom in the suburbs who is unqualified to assign any political view to any joke. Remember that these are jokes and it doesn’t mean that Tim believes any of this. I only highlight these jokes to prove that any accusations that Tim is far right-wing are totally silly.

Right of center positions he takes in this comedy special include: (12)

-We are wasting energy caring whether corporations adopt woke points of view.

-He acknowledges that progressive politics are to blame for the decline of Portland and Seattle.

-Liberals were wrong to ignore the economic effects and social effects, particularly on kids, of lockdowns.

-It’s common to get COVID even after being vaccinated.

-COVID largely affected old people and overweight people.

-The BLM protests in the summer of 2020 were not peaceful and the media networks looked ridiculous by calling them peaceful.

-He makes fun of himself for being fat and doesn’t have a hint of a belief in the body positivity movement.

-Andrew Cuomo killed the elderly by keeping them cooped up in nursing homes with COVID but only got taken down when he harassed a woman.

-He makes fun of Hilary Clinton’s podcast.

-Kids are wrongly being taught gender theory at a very young age.

-It’s to silly to say that Simone Biles is a real champion for going to the olympics and not competing.

-He compares Greta Thunberg to Lord of the Rings.

Here are left-wing positions Tim took in this special: (11)

-It is wrong that many workers in the United States don’t have healthcare.

-Cops routinely do bad things and bad people often become cops.

-He criticizes the U.S. military industrial complex.

-He was eager to take the COVID vaccine.

-He makes fun of QAnon.

-MAGA heads who love Tucker Carlson deserve to die.

-The part of Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill that would have required teachers to inform parents of their child’s homosexuality was absurd.

-It’s ridiculous for the uber wealthy to be able to spend millions on frivolous things.

-He criticizes Joel Osteen for not letting flood victims into his church.

-He criticizes corporations for their treatment of people in poverty.

-High-pitched Joe Rogan voice making fun of his stance on vaccines.