There’s a lot of bad poetry in the world — overly sentimental, simplistic and cringeworthy verses that realistically don’t bear much artistic weight. But in Black and Jewish comic Langston Kerman’s case, his debut Netflix special “Bad Poetry” is comedy gold.
In the special, which is directed by John Mulaney, Kerman uses reflections on fatherhood and maintaining his mother-in-law’s dating profile as his anchors. What results is 50 minutes of hilarious anecdotes like Kerman getting high on his 35th birthday to heckle an adult softball team and his mother’s marriage to a disgraced NBA mascot (spoiler alert: It’s Benny the Bull) interspersed with audio messages sent to his mother-in-law by would-be suitors played aloud on the speakers. The special itself is incredibly joyful and expertly balances Kerman’s level of near-whimsy with the power of his comedic punches.
The only particularly Jewish moment of the special comes when Kerman talks about fearing that his kids won’t become good people. “You just hope that your kid doesn’t turn into, like a serial killer,” he levels with the audience before adding, “Or even worse, one of those people who draw ‘Lion King’ characters with human titties. You remember those psychopaths in school?”
Kerman recollects for the audience how in all of his classes there was at least one person drawing pornographic cartoons. “And let’s be clear, ladies and gentleman. That’s not what Walt Disney wanted,” he says. “Walt Disney wanted good, wholesome content. Also, to exterminate the Jews. He wanted dead Jews, and good family-friendly content.”
Though it’s unclear if Kerman identifies as religiously or culturally Jewish, he’s spoken a bit about his Jewish heritage publicly. “My dad is a white dude, a Jew who practices socialism and who is actively selling socialist newspapers on the weekends to introduce principles and ideas that are separate from what the standard American dream is,” Kerman said in an interview. “Like, it wasn’t a rule in the house, but it was kind of understood that I wasn’t supposed to stand for the national anthem in high school.”
Kerman has also used his own Jewishness as fodder for jokes online and onstage. “As a half Jew, I feel like the most Jewish thing about me is how amazing I would be at basketball if this were 1954,” he joked in 2013. In another tweet from 2017 he wrote, “The word ‘Jews’ is trending and I bet it’s for something completely inoffensive and super productive towards our growth as a society.” He’s also talked about his Jewish family in his stand-up. In one of his bits not included in “Bad Poetry,” Kerman’s Jewish grandfather tells him that he can only trust Fox News, leading Kerman to realize that he is his grandfather’s only Black friend.
Hopefully for Jewish comedy fans, Kerman will continue to write more material in the future about his Jewish heritage or relationship with Jewishness, whatever that may be. Regardless, I’ll be watching.
