Hulu has now officially entered the stand-up comedy space. Jim Gaffigan, on behalf of the Disney-owned streaming service, announced at the company’s May 14 upfront presentation the creation of the brand “Hulu’s Laughing Now.” A stand-up special by Gaffigan, The Skinny, will debut the brand later this year, on November 22. Viewers outside the US will be able to watch the special on Disney+.
The announcement puts Hulu in more direct competition with “Netflix Is a Joke,” the streaming platform’s comedy brand and festival, and, of course, HBO’s (now Max) long history of producing original stand-up specials. FX, another Disney-owned entity, entered the stand-up space in 2022 with a pair of specials, Kate Berlant: Cinnamon in the Wind and Byron Bowers: Spiritual N***a. Both are available to stream on Hulu.
Gaffigan’s Hulu special, his 11th, was taped earlier this year at the Wilbur Theater in Boston, according to a company release. Lately, Gaffigan has been on tour with Jerry Seinfeld, both on stage and the press circuit for Seinfeld’s Pop-Tart movie, Unfrosted. The film is one of the many deals, totaling in the hundreds of millions, that Seinfeld has signed with Netflix. This includes his last stand-up special, 23 Hours to Kill (2020). Gaffigan himself has performed two specials for Netflix: Cinco (2017) and Comedy Monster (2021). His last special, Dark Pale (2023), was for Amazon’s Prime Video, another platform making inroads in the stand-up space.
Beyond Gaffigan, “Hulu’s Laughing Now” plans to feature 12 comedy specials per year, with one new comic joining the slate each month, according to the release. A collection of comedy specials ranging from classics to more recent work will also be available to stream on the platform.