In her Netflix debut and first solo stand-up special, Jordan Jensen lets loose about her love life, how her parents didn’t exactly help teach her how to love, and how she feels our standards for femininity are failing her, and us.
The Gist: Jensen plays a role as one of the comedians in Bradley Cooper’s upcoming film, Is This Thing On?, but until that comes out, you’re more likely to have seen her on YouTube in her self-released shorter specials, or as part of the Bein’ Ian with Jordan podcast with fellow comedian Ian Fidance.
She’s so far the first and only woman to win New York’s Funniest stand-up competition (in 2021) run annually during the New York Comedy Festival. Before basing herself in Brooklyn, Jensen grew up in upstate New York and spent a year in Nashville working the comedy circuit.
“Being a person is humiliating and grotesque,” Jensen said in a statement about her debut hour. “I’m not sure why we are all pretending it’s adorable or palatable in any way.”
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Jensen’s bluntness and point-of-view places her in a good line of 2025 Netflix specials alongside new hours from Liza Treyger and Steph Tolev, two other funny women who’re aren’t about to take any b.s. from the comedy industry or the audience.
Memorable Jokes: “I pitched this hour to another streaming platform,” she cracks early in the hour. “We just either want you to be gay or more feminine. Yeah, me, too!”
Instead, what you’ll find out why Jensen wonders how other women can set boundaries with their men while her needs only sound like ultimatums. You’ll learn why she thinks underwear makers are gaslighting women, and thanks to a handy napkin prop, discover the horror she felt when she asked for what she thought was a typical bikini wax.
“I’m trying to be less disgusting,” Jensen says. And yet, it’s just too funny watching her try to act out the trauma of shaving in the shower, too revealing in a good way to hear her joke about her underwear and her body parts underneath her underwear.
She has a novel way of observing how porn actresses might all sound the same, and there’s one bit she acts out involving a sexual encounter gone awry that’s so sitcom-worthy I’m amazed nobody else has thought to commit this idea to film (and please credit Jensen if you do).
She also will delight in explaining what “covert incest” means, how it relates to her own upbringing, and how her exploits as a fat goth kid were embarrassing in an entirely different way from her sexual exploits now.
Our Take: Jensen says even though she’s neither gay nor traditionally feminine, she still feels more queer than her two moms. The idea of having kids might allow her to feel more maternal and therefore feminine, and yet she jokes about seeing what childbirth has done to one of her friends and wonders if it’s all worth it.
As her opening tease of a joke suggests — “What were you doing here to begin with, buddy?” — Jensen has issues regarding her self-worth. She even leans into it, when after making fun of porn actresses for their plastic surgeries, suggests that if she asked for a doctor to “make me look how I feel,” the result would be a monster that she goes so far to compare to terrorists in the back of a pickup. “How I feel on the inside is hostile, it is yucky, disgusting.”
Thankfully she takes all of those thoughts and mines them for humorous results.
She’s self-aware enough to mock other comics for taking a sip of water while the audience is laughing, while taking a sip of water herself. And she’s skilled enough as a comedic storyteller to take multiple opportunities for tangents (how is Elon Musk not done for; a story about getting in trouble with bouncy balls at school; fun with animal fun facts) while not once forgetting to bring those stories home.
In the makings of a closing argument that women shouldn’t have to be the feminine members of society, Jensen claims women already have to juggle at least four different personalities each month through their menstrual cycles, with only a few days where she can truly be “herself.”
Whomever that self may be, let me be hopefully neither the first nor the last to tell Jensen that she’s funny and worthy every day of every week.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Jensen wonders why most straight men just want to be with a chill gal. “We’re not meant to be chill, bro.” Jensen puts the whoa, man in woman, and you should be here for it.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.