Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Sam Morril: You’ve Changed’ On Amazon Prime Video, Finding The Comedian In Fine Form

After putting out three stand-up specials in three years, Sam Morril took 2023 “off” to work the road and develop his newest hour, which finds him now streaming on Prime Video as an Amazon Original. The change of streaming scenery seems to suit him well, or at least shows how well he cleans up in a suit on the big stage at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre. How has he changed as a comedian, though? Better yet, he wonders, how have his online critics changed, and how haven’t they?

SAM MORRIL: YOU’VE CHANGED: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The pandemic didn’t slow down Sam Morril’s career, despite…everything.

After airing Morril’s debut hour, Amy Schumer Presents Sam Morril: Positive Influence, in 2018, Comedy Central chose to send his 2020 follow-up (I Got This) straight to the network’s YouTube channel a month before the world’s comedy clubs shut down. Morril, however, kept grinding. He self-produced a rooftop comedy special, Up On The Roof, in late 2020, and a documentary about the pandemic comedy scene, Full Capacity, in 2021. He attracted millions of views for it, and the attention of Netflix, who booked him to put out another special, Same Time Tomorrow, in 2022.

More recently, Morril also has launched a popular podcast and liquor brand with comedian Mark Normand, We Might Be Drunk and Bodega Cat whiskey, respectively. And Morril has executive-produced specials for other comedians, too, including The Daily Show writer Dina Hashem’s 2023 Amazon Original, Dark Whispers, and America’s Got Talent finalist Gary Vider’s YouTube special this year, It Could Be Worse.

For his own fifth hour, Morril jokes about his dating history, going viral, and the pros and cons of social media influencers.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: A native New Yorker, Morril feels like a bit of a throwback to New York comedians who’ve come before him, a bit gruff but loaded for bear with punchlines aplenty. You’ll find Morril’s sensibilities somewhere between Dave Attell and Colin Quinn.

Memorable Jokes: When you miss an airplane connection at the airport, being a comedian might come in handy when you’re complaining to the airline on social media. But Morril also points out that being a comedian who works the road means it’s tougher to make real-life connections.

Which probably explains why Morril picks an airport staple like Panda Express to symbolize his sex life when he’s single, while he compares “relationship sex” to grilled salmon. “No one’s jazzed to eat salmon, but you finish it you go, ‘Pretty good!’” he jokes. At the same time, he’s wary about ever looking at an ex’s social media feed, because every post might feel directed specifically back at him.

When it comes to corporations on social media, Morril questions why we even need to know, let alone debate, how Chick-fil-A feels about gay marriage, let alone which influencers beer companies might decide to hype up on customized cans. “Shame on Bud Light for pretending to be good people” he snarks about the backlash they got for collaborating with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

But most of the hour finds Morril making fun of himself for his past and present sex life, and for his friends who get caught up in it as if it’s gossip-worthy. It all culminates with a story about a woman Morril had dated 17 years ago who reappeared first on his phone via text, and then live in person as part of his audience at a show, much to multiple people’s dismay. Not quite Baby Reindeer levels of trauma, although a revelation late in the saga finds Morril feeling something quite “like finding out Cosby’s on the new season of The Bachelor.” 

Our Take: Morril is not one to let anyone misrepresent him and his comedy, however, for he has more than enough experience with that already.

It might result in awkward situation comedy when, say, one of his previous special’s directors decides to try telling one of Morril’s jokes cold to a hot yoga class. But when someone boos or a woman blurts out something during his taping, Morril’s quick with a quip to defuse that situation. And when people get upset on social media about a joke, Morril doesn’t allow it to affect him too hard. As he explains at one point: “Guys, not all of the jokes are happy. Some of them just work mathematically.”

And he knows that going viral isn’t all fun and games, recounting what happened regarding a joke from his Netflix special making fun of someone for doing the absolute least when it comes to recognizing trans identities. “It was a pretty positive joke,” Morril said, “but when a joke goes viral, as a comedian, at first you’re like, ‘Hell, yeah!” then a second later you go, this could go bad for me.”

It didn’t quite go bad so much as wildly weird for him, though, as a writer who tried to hamper Morril’s comedy career when he was a relative unknown in 2013 had resurfaced amid the online debate over his 2022 joke. What surprised Morril most about this development was that his hater had transitioned in the intervening decade. He jokingly pointed out the hypocrisy he saw here, which also provides the reference for his special’s title, in how his critic didn’t want to give Morril any benefit of the doubt for having good intentions behind his joke.

“But you know that people can change?!” Morril says. “You were a woman. it’s not possible I’m a slightly different dude?” 

Indeed he is. Morril’s comedy has grown quite a bit, so much that he’s not about to shy away from shining in the spotlight now.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite or precisely because Morril mocks other streamers such as Netflix and Hulu for how they attempt to market and showcase their programming to appeal to different demographics (“Netflix put Dahmer under LGBT”), it’ll be fun to see where and how new fans find Morril’s special on Prime Video. Either way, the outtakes over the end credits offer the kind of crowd-work moments you might’ve seen Morril display in clips on TikTok or Instagram. So you’ll likely discover plenty of reasons to give this hour a try, whether you’re looking for it or not.

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.