Popular podcaster and GLOW star Marc Maron covers important cultural topics in his new Netflix special, End Times Fun, but his approach often feels outdated in 2020. The veteran comic excels when discussing his personal and professional past, but leans heavily on trendy cultural concepts in an attempt to deliver accessible comedy, and with a didactic tone that fits the wooden chair he sits upon.
Maron knows exactly what he's doing, of course, and makes sure to remind the audience that he's fully aware of his faults. Throughout the 68-minute Netflix special, the comedian uses wink-of-the-eye humor to at once shame MCU fans for treating the franchise like a religion while bemoaning technology that helped propel his career via the podcast WTF with Marc Maron. From beginning to end, Maron displays his creative polish as an accomplished stand-up-comedian, but the foundation for his act is rooted in concepts that comedians have covered endlessly over the past several years. In short, Maron takes an "Angry Uncle" tone to remind the audience of life before social media and the world wide web, resulting in a Netflix special that feels like it was released sometime between 2012-2015.
Surprisingly, End Times Fun on Netflix begins with Maron referencing his contemporaries without identifying them by name. During a bit about existentialism, the comedian could easily be mistaken for author and now fellow podcaster Chuck Klosterman. It's almost like Maron is reading directly from Klosterman's 2016 book But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past. Later, he wonders about what might happen if Donald Trump loses the 2020 election and chooses to stay in the White House; a concept that comedian/TV host Bill Maher often jokes about in the HBO series Real Time with Bill Maher. And while Maron's barbs about Mike Pence are well-executed, they've been done many times over on Saturday Night Live. But it's not the lack of originality that stifles End Times Fun, it's that fact that Maron is all too pleased to remind the audience that he's "a 56-year-old man just tryin' to stay woke."
For example, Maron precedes his "woke" monologue with the aforementioned re-hashed jokes and complaints about the MCU - an effort, it seems, to establish that he's in the know, that he understands what people are talking about. But the problem with this overly self-aware approach is that Maron strays from his genuinely creative jokes (masturbating to an image of himself masturbating while crying) in favor of a nostalgic commentaries about the perils of the internet: cell phones are bad, people don't connect anymore, and so forth. Maron even says things like "There was a time, folks, before cell phones and the internet" and "I'm old enough to remember." It's not that Maron doesn't have important statements to make, it's that he seems to genuinely believe that his grandfatherly approach is somehow different than other comedians of the same ilk, and that he's adding fresh ideas to the conversation.
Still, there's charm in the idea that Maron is taking a stream-of-consciousness approach, almost like it's a one-sided podcast conversation. But Maron knows better, and certainly understands the difference between a stage platform and his podcast platform. By trying to somehow find a middle ground - a convenient balance -Maron gets lost in the "sad tedium of self-awareness" that he references in End Times Fun. And while there's always value in ending a show by referencing an earlier joke for a final one-liner, Maron just re-hashes jokes once again during a messy bit about Mike Pence, Iron Man, Jesus, and Satan - one that ends with Maron implying that he - the comic - has the strongest superpower of all: love.
Marc Maron is one of the industry's strongest voices, but End Times Fun seems designed to attract audiences with nothing but trendy talking points. He clearly despises the worst of internet culture, and don't we all, but created a special that caters specifically to people who use social media to complain daily about politicians, the MCU, the apocalypse, etc., and without really saying anything substantial.