Items28The creator’s order
- 1
Comedian (2002)★ 6.9/10 on IMDbReleased Oct 11, 2002The closest thing to a manual for stand-up. It follows Jerry Seinfeld as he relaunches his stand-up career with brand-new material, bombing and rebuilding in small clubs like anyone else, while newcomer Orny Adams chases late-night spots and a sitcom deal.
The pairing is the point. One comic has…0 - 2
The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling (2018)★ 8.4/10 on IMDbFirst aired Mar 26, 2018Judd Apatow's portrait draws on Garry Shandling's own journals, private letters and home video, so you get his thinking in his own hand: notes to himself about honesty, ego and what makes a joke true, alongside interviews with nearly four dozen friends, family and colleagues.
It is long and often…0 - 3
The Aristocrats (2005)★ 6.4/10 on IMDbReleased Jul 29, 2005A whole film about one joke. Dozens of comedians tell the same filthy, ancient backstage gag, each in their own way, and the real subject becomes performance itself: how timing, voice and nerve turn identical words into wildly different results.
It is a masterclass disguised as a dare. Be warned…0 - 4
Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show (2017)★ 7.7/10 on IMDbReleased Oct 20, 2017The funniest film here about failure. The Dana Carvey Show had a primetime slot on ABC and rising talents such as Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell and Louis C.K., and it collapsed almost instantly.
What makes it essential is the post-mortem: the people involved laugh about it, argue about it and own…0 - 5
Dying Laughing (2017)★ 6.8/10 on IMDbReleased Feb 24, 2017No single star, just a long run of working comedians talking frankly about the job: the high of a killer set, the misery of a dead room, the travel, the loneliness and the strange need to keep doing it.
It plays like a group therapy session for stand-ups, and it leans more sad than funny. Watch it…0 - 6
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010)★ 7.3/10 on IMDbReleased Jan 25, 2010Filmed as Joan Rivers turned 75, it shows a legend who still feared an empty calendar. She chases bookings, works on material and frets about the next job, and the film never pretends the hustle is glamorous.
It is the best portrait here of comedy as a business: the money, the insecurity and the…0 - 7
Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011)★ 7.0/10 on IMDbReleased Jun 24, 2011Shot during Conan O'Brien's Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television tour, after he left The Tonight Show, this catches a performer who cannot switch off. He is charming on stage and exhausted and prickly backstage, where his constant needling of his staff struck some reviewers as…0 - 8
George Carlin's American Dream (2022)★ 8.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired May 20, 2022A two-part HBO portrait from Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio that won the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. It tracks George Carlin from clean-cut nightclub comic to the counterculture's sharpest stand-up, and on to the angry philosopher of his later specials.
The value for…0 - 9
Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! (2026)First aired Jan 22, 2026Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio's two-part HBO documentary sits Mel Brooks down for long interviews and lets him tell it: from writing for live television to The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, with plenty of archive footage in between.
This is the warmest film here and one of…0 - 10
STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces (2024)★ 7.5/10 on IMDbFirst aired Mar 28, 2024Morgan Neville's Apple TV+ documentary comes in two parts that work as a matched pair. Then covers Steve Martin's rise up to the moment he quit stand-up in 1980, told through archive with no talking heads on screen; Now follows the 70-something Martin at home and at work, doing most of the talking…0
