Filmed at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal this July, Canadian stand-up comedian, sitcom star and game show host Gerry Dee uses his debut Netflix special to reflect on his 18 years of marriage, funny stories from his previous career as a teacher, and yes, kids, he does SPOILER ALERT talk about Santa. Does that make this special unsafe to watch with children? Why would you bring an 11-year-old to a comedy special taping anyhow?!
The Gist: Unless you’re Canadian, you most likely only recognize Gerry Dee as one of those, hey, it’s that guy from that thing kind of things.
In Dee’s case, he appeared in the pilot of the new CBS sitcom, DMV, and currently recurs on Animal Control as the mean Canadian officer Templeton Dudge. Dee also co-stared on The Moodys. His first appearance on American screens came way back in 2007, when he placed third on that summer’s season of NBC’s Last Comic Standing, ahead of Amy Schumer but behind Lavell Crawford and (ahem) Jon Reep.
North of the border, however, Dee starred for eight seasons in his own CBC sitcom, Mr. D (currently streaming on Tubi and Prime Video), where he played an out-of-his-depth high-school teacher; and since 2019, he has hosted the Canadian edition of Family Feud. He’s also been happily married for 18 years. Well, married, at least. As he makes fun of monogamy and his wife’s “stay-at-home” responsibilities, mostly out of jealousy, as both he and his wife see the old movie Indecent Proposal a lot differently now than when it came out 32 years ago.
Netflix
What Comedy Special Will It Remind You Of? Dee is Canadian, not Italian, and he’s decidedly not energetic onstage, and yet, there’s something about his vocal delivery that sounds more than a bit similar to Sebastian Maniscalco. In terms of his domestic situation and sarcasm about it all, Dee is much closer in vibes, though, to someone like Jim Gaffigan.
Memorable Jokes: Dee’s upfront about how his celebrity status suffers in comparisons to actual celebrities.
Dee cracked that he walked to the venue for the filming in Montreal “hoping someone” would recognize him, only to have one man to refer to him as “TV guy.” But the real thing that sets him apart from actual fame, he jokes, is not only his admission that he answers his own emails, but also that the types of emails he receives aren’t the fawning kinds.
Our Take: Dee presents himself as just a regular guy with a regular marriage, who had a regular career before stand-up made him just famous enough and rich enough to buy his own parents a new condo.
He’ll remind you about his nine years in teaching, with an anecdote about how far he was willing to go to try to help a dumb kid pass his 12th grade history final. He’ll demonstrate his relatability with a tale about coaching his son’s hockey team, and note that he only wanted his kids to play sports at all if they met three criteria: 1) could make money at it, 2) could keep playing it at old age, and/or 3) would make it fun for him to watch them.
These stories are all amusing, albeit perhaps a bit short on huge laughs or applause breaks. All of which makes his closing story stand out that much more, when he starts telling a story about how he got intro trouble for telling his 12-year-old niece the truth about Santa, only to realize and remember there were even younger kids in the crowd for his special taping. Dee does a bit of crowd work with the kids and their guardians, more than a bit hesitant about how to proceed. But proceed, he does. Welp.
“That’s what you get for bringing an 11-year-old,” Dee says. “I don’t know what to do. Your parents should’ve figured this out.”
Our Call: I’m inclined to tell you to SKIP IT, even without the need to issue the whole Santa disclaimer for your household. It’s definitely not one of my top five answers on the board. Not that I’d go so far as the guy who once emailed Dee asking for a refund. This does feel so unassuming, though, that it feeds into the “conspiracy” theories that Netflix approves of and promotes video content that you can have on in the background while you’re paying attention to something else. But if that’s your thing, so be it! You do you.
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.
