Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Jo Koy: In His Elements’ On Netflix, Showcasing Other Filipino-American Performers In Their Motherland

A year to the day after Jo Koy‘s second Netflix comedy special, he returns to streaming giant, but this time also returning to his motherland with a handful of Filipino-American performers in tow. But this isn’t a straight-up comedy special. So…

JO KOY: IN HIS ELEMENTS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Jo Koy: Comin’ In Hot came out on June 12, 2019. Koy celebrates the anniversary by paying his success forward and then some. He brought a breakdancer, Ronnie; a Grammy-winning producer, !llmind; singer/songwriter Iñigo Pascual; and comedians Andrew Lopez, Joey Guila, and Andrew Orolfo to Manila, showcasing Filipino-American talents in the Philippines, while also showcasing them to the world.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Netflix previously granted Tiffany Haddish the privilege of promoting up-and-coming comedians in her 2019 special, Tiffany Haddish Presents They Ready. And if you want to see comedians traveling and exploring food, of course, there’s also Somebody Feed Phil. Neither of those have quite the same focus as Koy’s does here.

Memorable Jokes: As a host rather than a headliner, Koy doesn’t give himself as much time to shine. But about halfway through, we learn how and why Koy chose his stage name (his birth name: Joseph Glenn Herbert), and how he managed to get that wrong, too.

Of the other comedians on the lineup, Orolfo gets the biggest laughs, closing with a bit comparing the Richter scale for measuring earthquakes to penis size. “That’s been my favorite joke tell as of late only because I can see where the dudes are at in the joke when I look at you and tell it.”

Our Take: It’s better if you don’t even think of this as a comedy special, despite the presence of four comedians and their performances in it. Think of this instead as Koy’s passion project.

That’s what he did.

“This is my bucket list moment right here,” he announces to the audience in Manila. “I brought Netflix to the Philippines, man. Are you kidding me?”

Not even Netflix’s Comedians of the World found room for the Philippines. As Koy recalls onstage, when he began his comedy career, he couldn’t find anyone like him, either. “Do you know how hard it was for me to find another Filipino comic in 1989 without the Internet?” He wore the national flag on his shirt when he made his Tonight Show debut so other young Filipino-Americans could see him.

And now he put the cameras on Filipino-American b-boy dancers, DJs, rappers, singers and comedians to let everyone else know there’s millions more where he came from.

“I hope we entertained you,” Koy says at the end. “And I hope we inspired you to go celebrate your own culture, whatever that may be, you guys. Just do it. Embrace it.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. This special may be light on laughs, but it’s long on leaving you wanting more. I only wonder why Netflix didn’t give Koy more than an hour, since Netflix is nothing if not the streaming platform of more.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch Jo Koy: In His Elements on Netflix