Netflix hasn’t been having the best month.
Last week the news broke that Netflix (NFLX) lost 200,000 global subscribers in the first quarter of the year, “significantly missing the Street consensus forecast of a 2.5 million gain and taking the overall total down to 221.64 million,” as TheStreet's Martin Baccardax wrote.
The reasons for this range from increasing competition in the streaming marketplace to the company’s unfocused approach to making television shows to the “pandemic boom” in growth it experienced in 2020 finally wearing off.
When you’re feeling down about the world, it helps to laugh. Seeing comedy can be a great way to brighten your spirits.
And if you’re working at a media company that’s seen better days, you can also just throw yourself a comedy festival. It can only do so much to change the narrative, but even streaming executives need a laugh now and then.
Netflix Is A Joke
The phrase “Netflix Is A Joke” began as a self-deprecating marketing slogan, thrown onto billboards that advertised comedy specials from the likes of Bill Burr and Ali Wong.
It later became the name of a YouTube channel, so people who were in the mood to rewatch that one John Mulaney bit about the “horse in a hospital” would be reminded that Netflix has one of the greatest libraries of stand-up specials in the streaming world. Branding is everything in the streaming game.
Over time, the phase grew into something more ambitious. Robbie Praw, Netflix’s VP of standup and comedy formats and an alumni of Montreal’s prestigious Just for Laughs Festival, and Netflix head of comedy Tracey Pakosta formulated an idea for a Netflix Is A Joke comedy special, which was originally supposed to launch in 2020, but obviously got delayed.
But now the Just For Laughs festival, which is being produced in conjunction with Live Nation, will take place in Los Angeles between April 28 and May 8.
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What’s Going To Happen At The Netflix Is A Joke Festival?
The festival is a good time and a way for Netflix to both film some new comedy specials and distract people from its subscriber headaches.
But it’s also a show of strength, a way for the service to remind the world that whatever problems it may have had with losing some of its most valuable titles like “Friends,” and the problems it's having with making the hits necessary to compete with Disney, it still one of the leading places to find stand-up specials from both comedic legends like Chris Rock and up-and-comers like Nicole Byer.
Of course, there are two arguments in play here. Netflix commissions a lot of stand-up specials, many from people who are relatively unknown. Is this a way to highlight and nurture new talent, many of whom are either people of color or women who, historically, faced opposition in the industry?
Or is this Netflix just taking its usual firehose, throw-it-all-against-the-wall approach, where there’s just a lot of so-so material to sift through while looking for the gems? It’s a debate for another time.
But that aside, Netflix Is A Joke is set to feature an impressive array of talent, nearly all of whom have worked with the company in the form of a comedy special, movie, sitcom or in the case of David Letterman, an interview show.
More than 280 events are scheduled, ranging from a Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias becoming the first comedian to headline Dodger Stadium to Seth Rogen leading a table reading of a “Seinfeld” episode.
Pete Davidson, David Cross, Kevin Hart, Mulaney, Wanda Sykes and Nick Kroll will all be doing performances, Conan O’Brien will do a live taping of his podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend” and “Tina Fey and Amy Poehler In Conversation.”
Netflix no doubt longs for the days when its biggest headache was that people were mad that it keeps giving money to Dave Chapelle for comedy specials in which he dug deeper into anti-transsgender hectoring. Netflix isn’t backing down from Chapelle, as he has a show at the Hollywood Bowl. But just to counter program all that, Billy Eichner will host “Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration.”
