The Daily Stream: Marc Maron: From Bleak To Dark Is A Riotous Balm For Tough Times
The special: "Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark"
Where you can stream it: HBO Max
The pitch: Many people use comedy as a means of survival, a way of relating the absurdity of life to help keep from falling prey to despair. There's been a lot to despair about the past few years, from a pandemic to rising antisemitism, transphobia, and racial violence, and the ever-present threat of climate change, but comedian Marc Maron has the answers. He doesn't want to sell you anything (for that, he recommends fellow podcast host Joe Rogan), and he doesn't really ask for much, just a bit of critical thinking, basic empathy, and the ability to laugh at some seriously dark jokes. Maron's humor has always been pretty dark (his Netflix special, "End Times Fun," has an extended joke at the expense of the California wildfires) but "From Bleak to Dark" takes him to new heights (or depths, I suppose).
"From Bleak to Dark" sees the stand-up comedian tackle topics like dealing with his father's dementia, "anti-woke" comedians, and grieving the tragic death of his girlfriend, director Lynn Shelton, who died suddenly in May 2020 during the height of the pandemic. It's tough stuff, but it's also incredibly earnest and real in a way that few comedians with edge are willing to be. Maron's jokes have teeth, and he's almost guaranteed to upset more delicate viewers with his running commentary on this thing we call life, but he's also wearing his heart on his sleeve while he does it. It's hard to be an earnest smartass, but Maron does it with aplomb, and "From Bleak to Dark" is his stand-up masterpiece.
Why it's essential viewing
Some comedians have been complaining about cancel culture and an inability to make the jokes they want, but Maron isn't having any of that and his special is a testament to riding the edge between the funny and the profane. Early on he makes a crack at the expense of such comedians, saying that "anti-woke" comedians all just want to say their version of the same three things, pointing out that many of these comedians aren't broke and jobless because they're being censored, it's just that they're not funny. To nail the point home, Maron makes jokes about the Holocaust, euthanizing your own child like you would a family pet, and his final moments with his dead girlfriend — he pushes the boundaries of what's acceptable to joke about but it's never bigoted, reactionary, or lazy. A lot of "offensive" comedians like to say that they're just being honest, but Maron really is, even if that honesty is genuinely shocking.
Shelton's death is the specter that haunts "From Bleak to Dark," metaphorically (and perhaps literally), and the resulting grief and surviving that grief inspired much of the special and helped Maron solidify his love of comedy:
"[After Shelton's death] would I ever be able to be funny about things? [...] humor that comes from real darkness is really the best because it disarms it. It's elevating to the spirit. It's why I got into comedy because I would watch comics and they would take things that were complicated or horrifying and simplify them and sort of make you see them in a different way and have a laugh."
This thesis is important to remember as the jokes get darker and Maron truly tests the edge of morbid humor because it is extremely cathartic.
Finding the humor in anything
Maron eventually tells the first joke he wrote that made him feel a tiny bit better after Shelton's death, and it's brutal. It's the kind of joke that makes you choke on your breath and gasp in your laugh because you're not sure if you're allowed to laugh. I don't want to ruin any of the joke's brilliance by sharing it here, but when Maron told his friend, the late comedian Dan Vitale, about the joke, even Dan said, "you can never tell that." The joke takes the hurt away, even if it's only for a few minutes while Maron is bathed in the audience's awkward laughter, but it's a step toward healing.
Gallows humor has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. One grandfather is a retired mortician who introduced himself to my mother by asking her if she saw a coffin she liked in his showroom, while the other survived unimaginable horrors in the Vietnam war but cracked wise about everything. Learning to laugh in the face of darkness came to me as easily as breathing, and in times of my own hardship, turning to dark comedy has always been a salve. Listening to Maron joke about Shelton appearing to him as a bird, maybe, spoke to some of the ways I've dealt with my own grief. (Maron nails it pretty succinctly: "when you're sad you'll go mystical.") The world can feel less lonely when we share experiences, and "From Bleak to Dark" is Maron doing a whole lot of very funny sharing.
The biggest lesson in Maron's first stand-up special for HBO is a simple one: when things start going from bleak to dark, sometimes all you can do is laugh.