As Prime Video relaunches its Amazon Originals brand of comedy specials, the Bezos Content Machine has found a good deal in Jimmy O. Yang. So to speak. Yang’s first Amazon Original special, 2020’s Good Deal, struck enough of a global chord for Prime to ask for this follow-up.
The Gist: You may have seen Yang in Netflix’s Space Force, or the films Crazy Rich Asians and Love Hard, but odds are good you probably still associate him with his break-out role on HBO’s Silicon Valley.
He references his HBO hit in this hour, but mostly as a way to frame his status in show business, and to showcase how Asian representation has flourished in American mainstream entertainment over the past few years. Yang, who wrote a book, How to American: An Immigrant’s Guide to Disappointing Your Parents, also delves into his evolving relationships with his mother and father, who immigrated from Hong Kong when he was 13.
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Despite the lack of physicality, there’s something in Yang’s vocal tone and delivery that comes across a bit like Sebastian Maniscalco, but for Asian-Americans.
Memorable Jokes: You might expect a comedian with ties to China to have some different takes on the pandemic, and so Yang does. He jokes about how proud the old Asian lady who had been wearing masks in public since the 1990s must have felt, calling her the “Kendall Jenner of Chinatown.” He jokes about how he enjoyed wearing a mask himself because it allowed him to avoid talking to people, even if it sometimes played into stereotypes. To wit: “Under this mask, I could be Awkwafina. You don’t know!” And he made fun of conspiracy theorists during the pandemic, noting that his mother was an OG fear-mongerer.
But Yang also delights in how popular other Asian culture has become, with jokes about KPop supergroup BTS and Netflix’s mega-hit, Squid Game.
And as he has become more famous himself, Yang finds humor in how his new lifestyle clashes with the bargain-hunting and haggling nature of his parents. The title of this special, after all, comes from a game his mom loves to play, showing him items she has bought and asking: “Guess How Much?”
You won’t have to guess how much Yang’s former roommate and fellow aspiring comedian, Guam Felix, won when he competed on the game show, Let’s Make A Deal. Yang recalls his not-yet-famous days living with other comedians, complete with this colorfully detailed story about Felix’s personality and how it impacted his game-show saga.
Our Take: Aside from Yang’s story about his former roommate, for much of this hour, the joke’s on him.
A bit about Asians looking alike in real life or as Halloween costumes circles back to put the egg on his face when he confuses one white actress for another at a glitzy awards show.
A bit about trying to coax his venture-capitalist girlfriend into making him a daily bento box backfires on him when she eventually discovers he has been joking about it in his act.
And Yang’s father, whom he joked in his previous special about deciding to become an actor himself, now aspires to become an Instagram influencer. But who’s influencing whom?
Our Call: STREAM IT. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Yang’s first Amazon special and his fans dragged me for it. He still hasn’t completely won me over, but I can appreciate what he has done here. Even if it makes me feel super old to hear a 35-year-old comedian describe himself as “an old man now” because he’d rather go to a Don McLean concert than to Coachella.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.