For his sixth Netflix comedy special (and eighth overall), Jo Koy chose to film in Stockton, Calif., an inland port city in Northern California that served as the first hub for Filipinos coming to America a century ago. Koy himself may have grown up in Washington state and come of age in Las Vegas, but he felt at home here for a more personal hour telling stories about his dental misadventures, his two dogs, and his Army veteran of a stepfather. Proving that home is where the Purple Heart is, so to speak.
The Gist: Koy may have found it difficult in recent years to crack into the upper echelons of Hollywood (see: his leading-man debut on the big screen in Easter Sunday, or his one-and-done stint hosting the Golden Globes in 2024). But he remains a huge success as a stand-up, most recently touring as a co-headlining arena act with Gabriel Iglesias.
Koy has used his leverage as a comedian to spotlight Filipino culture and Filipino-American comedians with his 2020 travelogue and stand-up showcase for Netflix, Jo Koy: In His Element. Choosing Stockton as the filming location for his latest Netflix special also allowed Koy to focus more eyeballs and attention on America’s first “Little Manila.”
What Comedy Special Will It Remind You Of? Touring with Iglesias makes sense in terms of each headliner serving as a beacon for their representative heritages (Iglesias for Mexican-Americans, Koy for Filipino-Americans), while Koy’s physicality might have you thinking of a toned-down version of Sebastian Maniscalco.
Memorable Jokes: After making fun of the kids these days for complaining about working for $20 an hour, Koy recalls his first job at McDonald’s at 15 years old, when his mom had to sign for him to work for not-so-supersized wages of $3.85 an hour, limited further to four hours a day, four days a week, and no free food. Well, unless you consider stolen McNuggets, which allegedly got him not only fired, but also in hot water with his mom after his lies misled her into trying to fight for his job back.
What did Koy learn from that episode? Get a dog, who as your best friend won’t snitch on you. Koy imagines every dog’s bark as a conversational phrase, acting out questions such as “who is this guy?!” or “where have you been?!” as well as the things on their mind when they’re humping your leg or chasing you away.
But the centerpiece of this hour belongs to the comedian’s late stepfather, a 6-foot-4 Vietnam vet from West Virginia who earned Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars and a CIB badge all before marrying Koy’s mother. “I needed Sgt. Fred Harrison,” Koy reflects now, not just for learning to always make his bed, but also for the funny conversations they’d have watching TV, the lessons Sgt. Fred taught Koy about his mom, and years later, when a successful adult Koy could afford to take his stepdad to finally see a Los Angeles Dodgers game in person. Even if that game wound up being an 18-inning playoff thriller that left his stepdad literally “blue in the face” trying to conserve his oxygen tank.
Our Take: Before all of that, he has a funny story to tell at his own expense. You see, he’s heard the haters, hating on him for supposedly laughing too much at his own jokes.“Can I enjoy the f—ing laugh, too?” he asks.
But seriously, folks, Koy claims he often laughs because once he’s onstage, he tends to ramble into riffs revealing things he didn’t mean to share with the world, or things he didn’t realize he was about to say, causing him to laugh as it’s the first time he heard him say it, too. But even more seriously, he’s just happy to smile, telling us about how he cracked his front teeth while running through the woods as a 12-year-old, how a military dentist attempted to cement his teeth back into place, and how in his early years of stand-up, he’d cover his mouth with his hand in embarassment.
Once his first performance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno led to a $100,000 deal fronting TV ads for a cell phone company, he thought about what he could buy with all of that flush cash. The younger Koy often thought about riches in terms of rich treats. How much Cinnabon he could buy with his meager McD’s paychecks. How many Carl’s Jr. burgers could he eat with his TV ad money? His mother set him right, and he set his teeth right with the help of a Beverly Hills dentist he saw on Oprah. The surgical bill might’ve been big, but the rewards were bigger.
As he jokingly tells his kid and yours now: “Don’t worry about flossing. Just get a good job and buy your teeth.”
Smiling is great. Making millions of other smile, priceless.
Our Call: Koy argues early in this special to resist the social-media algorithms that would have you focusing too much and then solely on negative things. “I say change the narrative. Maybe LOL at the good quicker than you do the bad.” Watching Koy for an hour should certainly help. STREAM IT.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.