There are so many reasons people do stand-up comedy—they want to make others laugh, seek some form of validation, have something to say and yearn to wrap it up neatly behind a veil of humor. But the worst reason to do stand-up comedy is to become famous, and it seems like Matt Rife did exactly that.
His comedy career started when he was in his teens. He appeared on Wild ‘n Out when he was just 20 years old, but he never quite got the recognition he sought. So, he started posting crowd work clips on TikTok and quickly went viral. In one of his videos, he references how “attractive” he is and it’s that sort of self-referential acknowledgment of his good looks that won him a mostly female fanbase.
If 2023 has taught us anything, it’s that the buying power of women is extremely influential. Between Barbie and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, women have pumped more money into the economy as a collective than most men this year. And by mixing in steamy headshots and photoshoots with his crowd work reels, Matt Rife has targeted that demographic.
In a way, this felt empowering to many of us. ‘Wow,’ we’d think. ‘A male comedian who finally caters to women, instead of vice versa!’ For too long, female comedians have sold out other women by making jokes at their expense to appeal to a male demographic. Men were mainly the ones booking shows, so it made sense.
But as booking and producing comedy evens out amongst the genders, there should be comedians who appeal to a wider demographic. And very rarely is there a male comedian who women can champion and stand behind. When men would say Matt wasn’t funny or criticized him for only posting crowd-work clips, women would come to his defense.
He even sold out his world tour, ProbleMattic, in mere days, thanks to his powerful fanbase. But his new Netflix special, Natural Selection, might have been his biggest mistake yet. Others have noted that the special feels like Matt’s attempt at grabbing a male audience, but he must have forgotten that men tend to care about women too.
The biggest problem with Matt’s special, however, isn’t even his male-centric jokes—for example, a joke about finding his stepdad’s box of VHS porn or even opening his show with a domestic violence joke about a woman in the kitchen. It’s the fact that his jokes are just not funny.
Matt’s jokes lacked set-ups and punchlines. His special was more like an angry rant about different women in his life who have upset him — from women who like crystals to a flight attendant just doing her job. In his airline story, he comes off as an entitled crybaby who refuses to listen to a woman who’s in charge of his safety. There’s nothing funny about that.
In many ways, it feels like he’s trying to be a Bill Burr type of comedian—an angry ranter with stories men can relate to. But Bill Burr has jokes. And, unfortunately for Matt, Bill already exists! He’s not doing anything new and he’s not saying anything of value. He’s not even making his audience laugh. Instead, women can be heard wooing during moments of silence, proving that Matt should’ve been a model instead of a comedian.
Matt has alienated his mostly female fanbase, whom he’s said he’s grateful to in the past, even if they did like him “for the wrong reasons.” He titled his first special Matt Rife: Only Fans to hack the Google searches for his OnlyFans into views for a comedy special. That was genius! And that’s why women appreciated him. He wasn’t just an attractive comedian; he knew who his fanbase was (and why they liked him) and he had a sense of humor in how to approach them.
But Natural Selection suffers from the same thing many new comedians’ second or third specials suffer from. His fame has gotten bigger than his jokes. And the only people who even considered watching it—women—have been completely alienated from many of his stories, which continually disrespect women by calling them stupid, bad at their jobs, and often, even threatening to kill them as the punchline to a joke.
Throughout the special, Matt talks about his classmate with Down Syndrome who happens to have a giant penis, and he even says that the worst kind of monster in the closet is a gay one. Not only are these anecdotes ableist, homophobic, and offensive, but once again, there is no punchline beyond the offensive. And of course, these stories aren’t relatable to his biggest fanbase: women.
So kudos to Matt’s marketing team. And we hope that the woman who let Matt tell all those jokes was just getting revenge on him.
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