On Feb. 24, stand-up comedian Taylor Tomlinson’s fourth comedy special, “Prodigal Daughter,” was released on Netflix. The comedy special takes place in a church, and it features numerous topics, including religion, death and sexuality. Throughout the special, Tomlinson makes hilarious jokes that produce laughter within the massive audience.
Tomlinson began the special by thanking everyone for coming, even though they didn’t have to come since “AI is getting good.” Building on that statement, Tomlinson mentioned that her phone’s auto-correct feature consistently capitalizes the letter G in God. Because of that, Tomlinson jokingly asserted that AI loves God. She then declared that she doesn’t use AI platforms like ChatGPT because she’s not ready to have a relationship with a robot yet.
Following her discussion on AI, Tomlinson talked about relationships in general. She described a time she sat on the couch with her lover, and she asked him if he would break up with her if he were to find out she was his cousin. After her lover said, “yes,” Tomlinson texted three couples that same question. They all responded, “Do we have to tell anybody?” From that response, Tomlinson facetiously declared that is what love looks like.
Moving on, Tomlinson discussed religion. By using satirical humor, Tomlinson made references to Bible stories, including Noah’s Ark. She also described her experience in being religious as a child and becoming less religious as she got older. One part of the discussion that stuck out to me was her comparison between the story of Jesus’s birth and the story of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. She declared that the story of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection from the dead is better than the story of Jesus’s birth, which I feel like is debatable since Jesus’s birth is as important as his crucifixion and resurrection.
After religion, Tomlinson talked about death, which is generally a dark subject. However, with her jokes and satirical humor, the concept became comical for the audience. The first thing Tomlinson talked about in her death discussion was writing her will. While she’s young and not at risk of dying, she wrote her will, so she could determine who inherits what when she dies. Besides her will, Tomlinson mentioned her mother’s ashes and how her father gave them to her grandmother when he remarried.
The last thing Tomlinson talked about in her comedy special was sexuality, with a special emphasis on bisexuality. She joked that straight men are difficult to communicate with and that she’s been to couples therapy a few times when she dated men. She also talked about her personal experiences in dating women, asserting that they’re better than her experiences in dating men.
To close the comedy special, Tomlinson said that she feels grateful for her role as a church comedian for her stand-up comedy career. Afterwards, she gave a preview of her upcoming Prodigal Daughter Tour by playing a clip that contains a series of jokes from her previous comedy shows.
Overall, the comedy special was very amusing. I love comedy, so this was an excellent thing to watch. My only concern is that audiences might’ve disliked some parts of the comedy special, especially the way Tomlinson jokes about God and religion.
Rating: 4.5/5