Stream It Or Skip It: ‘T.J. Miller: Dear Jonah’ On YouTube, Where The Canceled Comedian Allows His Remaining Fans To Sidetrack Him

It has been more than five years since comedian and actor T.J. Miller said goodbye to HBO, or HBO said goodbye to him as a character on Silicon Valley. His reputation has taken hits, mostly deserved. Where does Miller go from here? YouTube, obviously. 

T.J. MILLER: DEAR JONAH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: When I last reviewed Miller for Decider, in June 2017 when he released Meticulously Ridiculous on HBO, even he noted at the time: “I’m a handful. I’m a bit of a handful.”
That was an understatement.
Fast-forward to October 2020. As you may have heard, Miller went on Adam Carolla’s podcast recently to promote his newest comedy special on YouTube. But most of the headlines were about how Miller claimed he’s no part of Deadpool 3 because he won’t work with Ryan Reynolds again, and not the other way around. Miller also reframed his Silicon Valley departure as if he’d grown weary of his Erlich character, and not as if his coworkers and bosses had grown weary of his antics. The Internet was quick to remind us all about that last week, as well as #MeToo sexual assault allegations from a former college classmate (which TJ and his wife denied publicly), and a series of arrests that included a high-profile bomb threat incident on an Amtrak train.
In case you don’t have Google alerts for his name, then you likely never heard Miller explain that he was suffering from untreated mania, impacted by a brain malformation he’d gotten treated with surgery back in 2010; that he sought therapy and treatment for his mental illness following the Amtrak incident; and that his wife encouraged him to slow down and focus on stand-up over acting.
But he’s still faced with comedy club audiences who either think of him as an actor and/or have perceptions about him based on his offstage antics. No wonder this special, which he filmed at Zanies Nashville in April, got derailed due to his interactions with the crowd. Especially when you remember that Miller’s comic strength remains his improvisation. So he leaned into the derailing, dropped much of his planned act, and focused his attention on one audience member in particular.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Miller wants to compare this to how other popular yet problematic stand-up comedians such as Mark Normand and Shane Gillis have found millions of views from fans thanks to YouTube.
Memorable Jokes: Early on, Miller employs a couple of gags to highlight that this is his quote-unquote “pandemic special.” Two floor fans on either side of him onstage? Mandatory “in my rider,” so any COVID-infested laughs would blow back into the crowd’s faces.
Soon thereafter, he debuts a prop his wife bought him, an industrial face shield, which he explains how he’s gotten a lot of use, both health- and humor-wise, out of in his daily life as a traveling comedian. That said, he also finds solace in empathizing for airport and airline workers these past couple of years, adding: “It would’ve been like if your job was to cram hundreds of people into a small space, and tell them jokes. That would’ve been a bad job to have during the pandemic.”
But as he’s titled the special, “Dear Jonah,” you’d expect to find out who Jonah is and why he made it into the title. And you will, four minutes into the 45-minute video, when, after Miller’s first interaction with Jonah, turns to the rest of the crowd and declares, “I want you guys to know that I am not going to make fun of him at all.”

 
Our Take: For all of the hullaballoo over Miller in 2017 and now, though, this special feels rather slight.
What material Miller does get to, including an observation about the 1980s song, “Oh Yeah” by Yello, and some shenanigans with a nose flute, isn’t much to sniff at. So to speak. He still enjoys playing the merry prankster, as evidenced by a bit involving washing his hands in public bathrooms to the suggested tune of “Happy Birthday.”
But whether he’s tossing beaded maskholders handmade by his mother, or encouraging Jonah to toss his drink at another audience member, Miller seems like he didn’t have much to offer before turning his attention to Jonah, anyhow.
It certainly doesn’t help that YouTube inserts multiple ad breaks in his video special, almost none of them lining up with any natural breaks in Miller’s performance.
There are a few times where he leans into his still-manic energy, such as when he impersonates an alligator hiding in the swamp to eat a baby. On the whole, however, doesn’t add up to much. Even Jonah acknowledges that he’s a fan of Miller because of his Deadpool scenes, and in the end credits, offers his own assessment of Miller’s stand-up: “you’re still pretty funny.”
Our Call: SKIP IT. Miller said he already has filmed another special while touring, and perhaps that’ll be a better example of how he’s making use of what talent he has. Because this doesn’t do him the justice he seeks.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.