Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Miranda Sings Live … Your Welcome’ On Netflix, Where Colleen Ballinger Brings Her YouTube Sensation To The Stage

We are now in the era when Internet-based fame is a decade-plus phenomenon. By now, we’ve seen too many people make tons of money and become pop culture superstars via YouTube and social media to think this is just a phase. In fact, if you have enough talent, patience and gumption, you can truly become a self-made superstar. Colleen Ballinger is one of those people. Never heard of her? Well, you’ve heard of her YouTube alter ego: Miranda Sings. In her new Netflix comedy special, we see Ballinger as both herself and Miranda. Read on for more…

MIRANDA SINGS LIVE … YOUR WELCOME: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Can you believe that Coleen Ballinger has been doing her Miranda Sings character on YouTube for ten years? It’s hard for her to believe, either, especially considering that a decade two billion YouTube viewers and a Netflix series (Haters Back Off) later, Ballinger found herself on stage of the Kennedy Center last September, six months pregnant, filming a Netflix comedy special.

Approximately the first half of the one-hour special has Ballinger doing stand-up as herself, talking about how gross it is to be pregnant (“I’ve got a little penis inside of me”), and how she fears that her son will look like she did when she was a baby, as pics of her as a goofy-looking baby flash on the screen behind her. She also wonders how her son will take to the fact that she plays the silly Miranda for a living. She also sings a song about her hater commenters that have no idea how to spell, and does dramatic readings from the overwrought entries in her various diaries — including a prayer diary entry read by her friend and co-star Kory Desoto.

Then, while singing “Defying Gravity,” Ballinger pulls up the sweats, dons a sweatshirt, pulls up her hair, and smears on the lipstick. She finishes the song as Miranda, and the general theme of Miranda’s part of the show is how she’s going to prove that she’s the next Virgin Mary. She must be, because she doesn’t “do the nasty” but yet she’s pregnant. She sings a few songs — like one about using the term “no offense” when you’re about to offend someone — has some audience members up on stage, and even gets Haters Back Off character Patrick (her real-life husband Erik Stocklin) on the stage, saying to him, “I haven’t seen you in like six months!”

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: There haven’t been a ton of comedy specials put on by YouTube comedy/music performers, but it does remind me of lots of comedy specials where comedians who have a particular persona — think Larry The Cable Guy — are doing as much acting as their doing comedy.

Performance Worth Watching: Ballinger has not only been doing Miranda forever, but she’s been doing this kind of split standup act for years, where she starts the show as Colleen and ends as Miranda. Add to that the fact that she was pretty much a stage kid, starting her career singing and dancing for Disney in their parks and for productions like High School Musical, and her ease and confidence on the huge Kennedy Center stage is quite evident. It also helps that her audience was full of her core fans: preteen and teenage girls.

Memorable Dialogue: When Kory reads from Ballinger’s prayer diary, where she says very unkind things about Taryn, a girl in her prayer circle, he can’t even make it through this line without laughing: “Sorry, Satan got a hold of me there…”

Single Best Shot: Miranda pulls off her red pants that say “Haters Back Off” on the rear to show… red sequined pants with “Haters Back Off” on the rear.

Sex and Skin: Miranda calls an audience member’s very normal skirt and t-shirt “porn” because it’s too revealing. But that’s about it.

What Age Group Is This For?: The show is rated TV-14, but it’s pretty safe for any kid 12 and over, even when she calls someone a “dick.” Believe us, your 12-year-old is saying far worse in school.

Our Take: Listen, we have never been huge fans of Miranda Sings, mainly because we’re not in her demographic. Her humor is squarely aimed towards the preteen crowd, who love bodily functions, saying the word “sucks” and who like to giggle at Miranda’s over-the-top confidence despite being bereft of any talent.

In fact, that’s what Ballinger was making fun of when she created Miranda; YouTubers who were not nearly as talented as they thought they were. And you have to give Ballinger props for creating an enduring — and lucrative — character out of that, and being one of the very first people to cash in on the massive audiences good YT content could attract.

It feels like, though, she’s ready to let Miranda go in this special, especially now that she’s a mom (she gave birth to her son in December). The portion of the special where she was herself was more personal and funnier than any of the Miranda stuff, though we felt it odd to hear a low murmur of laughs from a theater full of her most ardent fans, as if they were just politely laughing before Miranda came out to play. Her song about her commenters not being able to spell felt like it was something that should have been done by Miranda; from Colleen it came off a bit defensive, as if she’s not listening to the adage “don’t feed the trolls.”

But, mostly, we were astonished at the range of talent Ballinger had. When she began singing “Defying Gravity,” we were shocked at her fantastic singing voice, even more so when Miranda had Patrick run a pretend sword through her throat as she was singing, and when the sword was in, an amazing operatic voice came out.

We would love to see Ballinger do a one-woman show and use her theatrical skills to sing, tell funny stories about her church-going childhood, and just be herself. But, then again, she can make a mint and connect with a lot of people as Miranda, so who are we to judge?

Our Call: STREAM IT if you are a fan of Miranda Sings. But we’d SKIP IT if you’re not. Miranda Sings Live … Your Welcome (yes, that’s how it’s spelled) feels like a love letter to her fans but not much more.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream Miranda Sings Live ... Your Welcome on Netflix