Comedy fans in 2024 have thousands of stand-up specials available at their fingertips. With dozens of new releases coming out each month across Netflix, HBO, Amazon, and YouTube, the competition has never been greater. One way to interpret this is that the market has reached a saturation point. The other way is that it reflects an insatiable audience appetite. Hulu, which launched its new stand-up vertical Hularious (previously titled Hulu’s Laughing Now) on November 22 with the release of Jim Gaffigan’s special The Skinny, is banking on the latter. After sitting out the stand-up arms race entirely until now, the streamer is investing heavily in specials from comedians like Gaffigan, Bill Burr, Roy Wood Jr., Atsuko Okatsuka, and Ilana Glazer, and has announced plans to release one original stand-up special per month over the next 12 months to try to find a foothold in the market.
Leading this effort is Emily Furutani, vice-president of comedy at ABC Entertainment and Hulu Originals and self-described lifelong comedy fan. After working in both broadcast and streaming comedy at Universal Television, where she was involved in the production of shows like NBC’s Lopez vs. Lopez and Peacock’s Bust Down, she moved to Hulu in 2022. While the streamer had considered delving into stand-up in the past, Furutani says discussions about it seriously picked up traction a little over a year ago, after which point she’s “thought about it every single day.” Between curating a lineup of original and licensed specials, devising a strategy to stand out in the market, and making decisions about what kind of content Hulu is willing to platform, there were lots of questions for Furutani and her team to consider. The ultimate goal, she says, is to make specials that feel like cultural events. “We want to be the place that is giving comedians their flowers,” she says.
There’s more competition than ever right now when it comes to stand-up specials. Where does Hulu see the opportunity for a new player in the market?
When we built our stand-up strategy, our north star was and continues to be to celebrate comedians and their specials. Comedians only have a finite number of specials that they make in their lifetime. We see how hard they’re working. They’re away from their families, they’re on these global and domestic tours, they’re in and out of hotel rooms, they’re on and off of planes, and they’re constantly tweaking their hours to make them as perfect as possible. Our goal from the start was, How do we eventize specials like they were in the ’80s? That’s why we chose the release cadence that we did — 12 a year, and one a month — to build that habitual viewership with our audience, so they know to look forward to something every month. My colleague on the comedy team, Rob Gati, said it perfectly: “Hulu is here to put the ‘special’ back in ‘special.’”
“Eventizing specials” sounds good, but with so many specials coming out constantly on different platforms, how do you do that in practice?
It’s making sure that we build consistent communication with our audience. We’ve made sure that our specials are going to be as easy as possible to find on the platform. We’ve also built out a library of licensed content to be able to support these as well. But we worked closely with these comedians to understand their brand, who they are, and their hour of comedy that we’re putting up on the platform. Everybody across our roster has massive fan bases, and we want to cater to them as well as our audience. We want to make sure that the comedian is happy with the marketing, and we want to make sure that it’s out there on social, on YouTube, and everywhere that people are consuming, so that people know to be able to anticipate these things.
What went into curating the initial list of comedians you’re working with?
We broke it down into three things: commerciality, quality, and star power — “star power” meaning the potential for the comedian to be a bigger part of the Walt Disney Company. When it comes to commerciality, we’re looking for comedians who are broadly appealing. We’re not looking for comedians that are here to be overly political, overly edgy, or here to stir the pot. In terms of quality, we are out in the clubs watching comics, talking with them, and making sure we’re in business with the best of the best. We want our audience to be quoting their jokes with their family and friends.
Another subcategory of quality is the look and feel of these specials. We never want to be steering away from the content, but we want our specials to look really elevated and great. To give you an example, we shot Bill Burr’s special in Seattle at the Moore Theatre, and the set that he uses really accompanies his hour in a way that sets the tone for what you’re about to see. Another person we’re in business with is Atsuko Okatsuka, whose special we just shot last week. She pays such attention to detail to everything that she does, from set design to lighting to outfit to nail color.
We really want to keep these comedians in the family. We went after them for a reason, and we want to be building them as stars for the company. What that took was a road show of sorts to a bunch of Disney brands — ESPN, Marvel, FX, Disney+, Nat Geo, ABC, Searchlight, Lucasfilm, 20th TV Studios, you name them — to explain to them who we’re working with and why so they could get excited about it. This company has so many resources for comedians, and we want to be able to tap into that. We also are working with comedians that are already part of the fabric of the Walt Disney Company: Andrew Santino was one of the stars of Dave on FX, and we have his special. Frankie Quiñones was one of the stars of This Fool, and we have his special with Ali Wong directing and producing. With Ilana Glazer, we have Broad City on the platform, and we also have her movie Babes, and we also have her special too.
You said you’re not looking for comedians to be edgy or stir the pot. But you’re also working with Bill Burr, who isn’t known to steer away from controversial subject matter. What is the company’s approach to content moderation in that regard?
It’s really about servicing our audience. It’s making sure that there’s something for everyone. Jim Gaffigan is family friendly; I’m watching that special with my family during Thanksgiving. That’s something that we wanted to be able to do: bring people together. Ilana Glazer is a new mom, and as much as she’s still the Ilana we love, she’s also entered a new chapter in her life, and we wanted to be able to showcase that. Chris Distefano, on the other side, is a young dad. His special is produced by Jimmy Kimmel, and they’ve had a long-standing relationship for a while. I think the common denominator across the board for all of our specials is that they’re all high quality and incredibly universal. If you’re not familiar with a certain comedian, you’re still probably going to like the special, because they’re speaking to us in a very universal way that feels relatable.
I wanted to drill down further on universality. Stand-up tends to find its way into culture-war debates a lot. How much are you reviewing the content of these comedians’ specials to make sure they align with Hulu’s values and aren’t offending segments of the audience?
I like to partner with comedians from the start so they know who they’re working with, because I’m a big supporter of them. Of course, we want to make sure that we’re not programming anything that’s overly political or overly edgy, or just meant to stir the pot. But none of these people are doing that in their hour.
To give you a more specific example, Netflix keeps finding itself in hot water because Dave Chappelle has released material on the platform that is transphobic, but then Netflix stands by it and says it doesn’t censor comedians. Where does Hulu stand in that debate? If, say, a famous comedian wanted to release a special with divisive material about trans people in it, what would Hulu say?
We don’t censor our comedians, and because we’ve seen their hours beforehand, we know exactly what we’re getting into. We’re obviously not here to encourage that, but also, we’re not working with people who are going to be saying those types of things. Again, it’s collaborative. We’re specifically staying away from people that are going to say those things, but also, we’re working with people who are very thoughtful and nuanced in the way they approach their comedy,
You’ve announced specials pretty far in advance, though. According to your release calendar, Ralph Barbosa’s special isn’t going to be out until August 2025, and Sebastian Maniscalco’s special is coming out in November 2025. I imagine these specials aren’t ready to be filmed yet. You’re saying you’ve seen their material already?
Yeah, I have, and they’re really great. We are very much ahead in terms of the way we’re programming. We’re shooting specials when the comedians are ready to shoot the specials. We are also very encouraging of having comedians work with the producers they’re most comfortable with. Frankie, as I mentioned, has been working with Ali Wong for years and years — they came up in San Francisco together. Jessica Kirson’s special was produced by Bill Burr, and they have a long-standing relationship.
When you’re sitting down with comedians like Jim Gaffigan or Bill Burr, who can take their specials anywhere they want, what does the pitch look like to bring them over to Hulu?
Stand-up is very predominantly the conversation, because that’s first and foremost what people are focused on, but it’s really, “What are your bigger dreams?” I think that the big driver for a lot of these comedians is that they want to be part of a place they can call home, and a lot of that has to do with development, acting, hosting, parks, being part of the greater flywheel here.
I imagine, also, this is a situation where money talks, and the biggest comedians are mostly looking at which streamer can pay them the most for their special. Are you able to talk about how much you’re paying for these specials?
Will we be able to go off the record for this part of the conversation?
I wouldn’t want to have this conversation off the record. The answer doesn’t help me, specifically.
Stand-up is a huge priority for the Walt Disney Company. It doesn’t matter how much we’re spending on certain things. We want to be taking care of people in a way that makes them feel like they’re being celebrated — from what we’re doing on the content side to marketing. So just know that there’s a larger investment in this.
We know that Netflix is willing to pay up to $20 million for certain big-name comedians. Is it fair to say some of the price tags are in that range?
I’m not able to give specific numbers, but if you have a broader question, I’m happy to guide you in that.
You’ve announced deals to license specials from companies like 800 Pound Gorilla and Comedy Dynamics. But aside from those, how much of the Hulu “original special” banner will be specials you produce from the ground up versus specials you license from comedians who’ve shot them themselves?
We have a very focused and intentional strategy for our originals under the Hularious banner: 12 a year, and one a month. Our licensed library is meant to broaden out our stand-up offering so that we have an even wider variety of comics and specials on our platform. When we created the license strategy, it also came from a very curated approach. We wanted to make sure that there were different types of stand-up specials that helped eliminate as much decision fatigue as possible.
It definitely came down to iconic specials, like Eddie Murphy: Raw. What are the specials that people are consistently watching because they are their favorites? That was one bucket that we attacked. The second bucket is, like you talked about, 800 Pound Gorilla. They are fresh specials from your favorite comedians. We recognize YouTube is a place where there are a lot of stand-up fans, and we wanted to help bridge the gap from YouTube subscribers to bring them over to Hulu. Actually, early on when we were talking about these specials — I’m a longtime reader of Vulture, so I looked at Vulture’s top specials of the year in 2023. Ali Siddiq was on there, so I watched Domino Effect. I was like, This is something we should absolutely have on our platform, and it’s there now because of that. It’s really keeping in mind what our viewers are looking for.
Another brand I know you’re familiar with is Don’t Tell Comedy. As much as we can have iconic specials and your favorite comedians, we also wanted to make sure that there is discoverability on our platform. Especially for up-and-comers, that’s really the place where a comedian can break. They have these high-quality, well-produced specials on their YouTube page, so the idea was, How can we license some of those so that our audience can discover them as well? One of the comics that they broke, for example, is Ralph Barbosa, and we are working with him on his next special.
When you license specials from companies like 800 Pound Gorilla, does the comedian receive any additional compensation?
Through deals with these libraries, they’re definitely compensated. But the idea is to consistently spread awareness of who they are and their material. Ticket sales are really important as a comedian. The idea is to expose yourself to as many different types of audiences as possible, so that was the idea with these licensed specials.
Some comedians these days say they’d rather put their specials on YouTube to get as many eyeballs as possible on them rather than put them behind a paywall somewhere. Have you encountered that at all while you’ve been building this out?
Yes. I think that some comedians are definitely looking to be able to have their special on a different platform. Again, it goes to: What does a comedian want at the end of the day? Our offering is different from YouTube, and can expand to different types of audiences, as mentioned. If they’d rather have their special in a different place, we totally understand. We’re still going to watch them as stand-up fans.
Netflix has a history of launching star comedians, from Ali Wong to Taylor Tomlinson. Looking at the lineup of comedians you’ve announced specials with, these are people with existing audiences already. Does Hulu aspire to break new acts as well?
Absolutely. That is the goal: to be able to break stars within the Walt Disney Company. We have a mix of different types of comedians. We have a lot of people’s favorite ones, and we have a lot of up-and-comers as well. But it’s really making sure that we understand what they want and how we can build them in organically into the Walt Disney Company, so that when they do become stars, it works. We’re never going to jam a comedian into doing something they don’t want.
Aside from licensing content from Don’t Tell Comedy, do you have any plans to produce compilations that showcase multiple comedians doing shorter sets? Or is it just the one-off specials?
Right now, we’re focusing on the one-off specials, especially in year one and two. But I think we’re down to play around with the format when the time is right. I know, for me, going back to my early days of watching stand-up, the Comedy Central Presents were something that I remember being able to watch and become fans of new comedians, so that’s something for down the line.
How does Hulu define return on investment for a given special it puts out?
This is something that is going to be a work in progress. Stand-up is brand new to the platform. Some specials will definitely drive the Zeitgeist, some will drive views, some will drive specific hours and engagement. There really isn’t a singular metric in terms of how we’re doing this.