‘Your Friend, Nate Bargatze’ cements Bargatze’s status as Comedy Comfort Food

On By Littum

Hygge is a Danish word that describes the Scandinavian concept of contentment and well-being that comes from enjoying life’s simple pleasures. Hygge is also the word to characterize the comedy Nate Bargatzewho continues to deliver the cozy comedic vibes in his latest Netflix special, Your friend Nate Bargatze.

If you’re wondering, “Is that a good thing?” you ask the right questions. The answer is both yes and no. That’s mostly yes, as Bargatze is now firmly established as his generation’s answer to Bob Newhart, the deadpan everyman who gets laughs simply by laying life’s absurdities on the table. Bargatze’s comedic persona as The Pretty Dumb Guy Befuddled By Life (somehow communicated in exceedingly clever ways) is a foolproof vehicle for turning the mundane into comedy gold, and his recent success has brought an even more casual confidence to his storytelling.

As in his outburst SNL sketch, Washington’s DreamBargatze’s new special is mostly a description of the stupidity that is always there in front of us. While working as a water meter reader in Wilson County, Tennessee in 2001, he was asked to help defend the city’s water supply after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Who needs punchlines when you can just explain the situation? Of course, Osama bin Laden would choose rural Tennessee as his next target. Of course Bargatze, armed with a lantern, would be qualified to fend off the Taliban when they arrived. Of course, bin Laden would know exactly how to open the water tank to carry out his poisonous plans. The bite kills.

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The flip side of “Is sitcom comedy a good thing?” is that Bargatze’s jokes probably won’t stay with you very long. People I watched the special with commented that it was funny, but they had forgotten most of what Bargatze had talked about almost as soon as it was finished. It isn’t Jerrod Carmichael or Hannah Gadsby trying to shake the world. It isn’t Ronny Chieng or Nikki Glaser or John Mulaney make us laugh as they reveal something significant about themselves. Instead, Bargatze jokes about doing the laundry, getting another dog or returning a shirt that doesn’t fit.

Related stuff. Comfortable things. That’s the key to Bargatze’s stadium-sized appeal in 2024, a comedian oblivious to the controversy and chaos out there in the real world. His comedy lives in sitcom suburbia, where picking up the kids after school or ordering the right amount of pizza can fill half an hour of plot. Bargatze isn’t the kind of comedian who does crowd work in search of viral conflict—you’d probably have to explain Instagram Reels to him before he’d use it to create a day’s worth of buzz.

Bargatze doesn’t break new ground, mainly because he doesn’t intend to. That’s why his audience will stick with him for the next 30 years or so—he’s “Your Friend Nate Bargatze,” the neighbor you can count on to collect your mail while you’re out of town. Provocateurs flame out, but Bargatze looks like he’ll be comfortable with it in the long run.