Matt Rife: Natural Selection (2023) Review – Netflix cancels good shows to make space for another mediocre pretty boy with sex jokes

Netflix cancels good shows to make space for another mediocre pretty boy with sex jokes

Did Netflix cancel a bunch of great shows to make space for a mediocre pretty boy who thinks he is a comedian? Yes, yes they did. And the Internet is mad about it with all the negativity circulating the latest Netflix stand-up comedy special, Matt Rife: Natural Selection. Rightfully so, cause you don’t even have to be a woman or woke to realise the jokes just aren’t funny. 

Rife’s rise to fame via social media hinted at wit, with jokes like a jawline sharp enough to cut a noose – dark, yeah, but strangely compelling. Yet, what ended up on the Netflix Special seemed like a jumbled mess. His prior knack for eliciting genuine laughs through crowd work? Left at the door. 

Instead, how about we take everything that works about my set, throw that, make some really unfunny, insensitive jokes and call it a day? Well, that’s what Matt Rife does. He claims that Matt Rife: Natural Selection is not for women but for “guys”, hence the racist, misogynist and domestic violence jokes which come out of nowhere in the first two minutes of Matt Rife: Natural Selection. With the bar set so low, you’d think the only way is up, but nope, it is just downhill from there. 

He’s got a problem with everyone – crystal girls, hippies, Gen-Z, autistic kids, women in the audience, social media, fat people, the list goes on. And when he is not being a hater, he is busy with awkward dick jokes that give off second-hand embarrassment. So many sex jokes, you’d think he’s trying to impress a bunch of frat boys.

If you are searching for a positive, sure we can say that he is good at switching topics. But that’s about it. Matt Rife: Natural Selection is an hour of crude sex jokes with a sprinkle of pedo and suicidal elements that miss the mark by a mile. 

You will either be cringing or trying to look for the punchline, especially in that ghost-monster segment, with a school shooter joke out of nowhere, which just doesn’t end. So of course it feels like he’s racing against time, cramming it all in. At times, it feels more like his personal gripe session – if he suffers, we suffer. It’s as if he’s using Netflix as a therapist’s couch to vent about people doing their jobs.

And then, the grand finale: a rant about a “heavier-set” woman calling him an “insubordinate crybaby little b*tch” (his words). Guess he decided to prove her right. Netizens cry ‘bitter,’ and it’s hard not to see why. This isn’t the self-deprecating Rife who won hearts online. The only time you might crack a smile is when he imitates his step-father. Wait, is physical comedy his forte? Time to go back to the drawing board anyway, Matt. 

Matt Rife: Natural Selection lives up to its name – it weeds out the people who genuinely enjoyed it. Because let’s face it, not one punchline lands in this hour-long catastrophe. Shocking, since our humour is so broken that we make a weighing scale from Genshin Impact go viral. Is Netflix’s selection process as broken as Rife’s attempt at comedy? Quite possibly.

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