Maria Bamford Asks for the Check
The New Yorker · 25 Oct 2026

Maria Bamford Asks for the Check

Bamford, among the most daring and charismatic performers of her generation, is always testing the boundaries of what counts as standup comedy. Is it still standup if you’re telling jokes to a group of high schoolers in the aisles of an independent bookstore? Or to friends sitting on a park bench? Bamford does both of these things in her 2017 Netflix special, “Old Baby.” In “The Special Special Special,” she performs for the most intimate audience imaginable: her parents.


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