By Robert Scucci
| Published
Having kids and getting older is often the death rattle of a stand-up comedian’s career, but Bill Burr proves that he still has a lot of meaningful material ahead of him, which was made apparent upon the release of his latest Hulu special, Bill Burr: Drop Dead Years. Having fully established himself as a rage-based comic after his legendary 2006 Philadelphia rant, it was only a matter of time before Bill Burr mellowed out because, as he puts it in his special, he’s at the age where he’s too young to die of natural causes, but old enough to drop dead at any moment if he doesn’t learn how to control his anger or be open about his emotions.
Though Bill Burr has received a healthy amount of criticism for not being as bombastic in his delivery with his previous two Netflix specials, Paper Tiger and Live at Red Rocks, hindsight has allowed me to consider the fact that his comedy was in a transitional period while taping these specials, which culminates beautifully with Drop Dead Years.
Older, Wiser, Still Angry
Now 56 years old with two kids under 10, Bill Burr is still as cynical as ever in Drop Dead Years, but fatherhood has changed him for the better because he’s admittedly an old dad and wants to live long enough to see his children grow up.
Showing his teeth through his scathing commentary on modern media consumption, Burr continues to be hyper-critical of divisive partisan politics, and finds himself caught in the middle of two extremes that make him never want to go on social media or turn on the news again.
Turning the mirror on his audience, he leans into how absurd it is that so many people digest media from the 24/7 news cycle so they can be in a constant state of mental anguish without actually seeking out solutions to the source of their collective outrage.
Unexpected Yet Insightful Introspection
Ever since Paper Tiger saw its 2019 release, I had a feeling that Bill Burr would eventually come up with enough solid material for Drop Dead Years to be considered a return to form after 2022’s Live at Red Rocks kept pushing his comedy in a similar, but somewhat lackluster direction. What we were witnessing was a transition from an aggressive and volatile everyman railing on the world, to the musings of a more subdued and introspective family man who’s made peace with himself without losing his personality or sense of humor along the way.
Talking about his depression and sobriety at length for the first time in a comedy special, Bill Burr is more vulnerable than ever in Drop Dead Years, but commands the crowd with his willingness to poke fun at himself, and how his family life has changed his life for the better now that he’s ready to let some things go.
Willing to point out his personal flaws, like how he didn’t realize his own latent homophobic tendencies until he was until he was asked to choose between a male and female masseuse for a physical therapy session, Bill Burr places his focus on self-improvement in Drop Dead Years in the sense that he’s still learning things about himself that he doesn’t like, and wants to leave the world having made it a better place than it was before he was born.
Streaming Drop Dead Years On Hulu
If you’re an old school Bill Burr fan but have your reservations about watching Drop Dead Years because of the obvious shifts his humor has made over the years as his personal life changed for the better, the best way I could sell it to you is as a direct sequel to 2014’s I’m Sorry You Feel That Way, which covers a lot of the same subject matter, but with 11 years of maturing between the two titles to offer a unique perspective.
Back to back, I’m Sorry You Feel That Way, which focuses on the early middle-age rage of a childless, cynical comedian living on the road, segues beautifully into Bill Burr: Drop Dead Years, which finds the comedian coming out the other side in one piece with a stable home life and family dynamic, and the same wicked sense of humor that we know and love him for at its center.
Bill Burr: Drop Dead Years is a Hulu Original special, and can be streamed with an active subscription.
