Only Jokes Allowed Review
“Only Jokes Allowed” is a recently released Netflix comedy special that stars six of South Africa’s top comedians.
The special is split into six episodes starring each comic in their episode. This is a very interesting and engaging way to present the special. While all these comics were performing in the same show, they all had different acts that meshed well together.
The first comedian to go on was Schalk Bezuidenhout who joked about his recent engagement and his favorite childhood show “Pimp My Ride.”
Bezuidenhout engaged with the audience well and made great references to past jokes, keeping the whole act related. His “Pimp My Ride” impersonations were hilarious and spot on.
The second episode starred Gilli Apter. Her set focused on jokes surrounding race and religion. She leaned into joking about her Judaism and the stereotype of Jewish people being rich.
The first time she made this joke it got a couple of laughs but her act seemed rather repetitive, and you can tell people in the audience were losing interest. While her act was more relatable than others it still was not the best.
Next up was Celeste Ntuli who was extremely entertaining to watch. She got on stage and kept it real with her jokes and big personality.
Ntuli spent most of her act talking about her weight loss and the confidence she had before and after. Sharing this more vulnerable part of her life made her act more relatable and made the audience have a deeper connection with her and be more in tune with the rest of her act.
She then went on to share about dating in her forties which were relatable for older audiences and terrifying for the younger.
At times her act was hard to follow and seemed somewhat unorganized but overall, it was very engaging to watch.
Towards the middle of the lineup was Nina Hastie, who talked about identifying as a people pleaser, and a variety of other topics.
She hit on songs from her childhood that she didn’t know the meaning of until she was an adult. Along with her past career as a rapper.
Hastie seemed like one of the younger acts and seemed to be a bit of a culture shock for the audience but in the end, seemed to be a hit.
The next comedian was Robby Collins. He made quarantine and lockdown-related jokes, and then went straight into sex jokes. Collins kept the audience engaged and got laughs at almost every joke.
The last comedian but certainly not least was Mpho Popps. He opened by joking about the pandemic and how we are all survivors.
He hit on the question that everyone was asking, “Why did we buy so much toilet paper?”
At times it can feel all that is talked about is the pandemic, and while it can seem repetitive and overdone his delivery was well done and well-timed. He seemed to be the most well-received by the audience.
Because all these acts were part of the same show, each episode was filmed on the same stage. This helped make the acts relate more to each other, or at least make it seem like they do.
Overall, the comics were very funny, and all made jokes in mostly good taste. They kept the audience entertained, and because each episode was less than twenty minutes the show was easy to get through.
This show made strides for South African comics and will pave the way for a variety of Netflix specials featuring comics from all countries.
Savannah Swartz is a first-year communications major. To contact her email, sms9072@psu.edu.
