Tom Segura unleashes his Bad Thoughts in an insane sketch-comedy show
This is the comedian's most ambitious and unapologetic project to date.
Screenshot: YouTube/Netflix
Tom Segura is one of the most popular comedians of the podcast era. Joe Rogan is obviously the most successful in this department, but Robert Kelly, Andrew Santino and Bobby Lee, Bill Burr, and Theo Von, among many others, have used the form to reach fans they never could through touring alone. Segura has actually hit podcast peaks twice with Your Mom’s House (which he co-hosts with his wife, Christina Pazsitzky) and 2 Bears, 1 Cave (which he does with his longtime pal, Bert Kreischer).
Segura, who has several Netflix specials, is now unveiling his most ambitious project to date, the truly insane Bad Thoughts, a sketch-comedy show that plays out like comedian’s most memorable nightmares brought to life. Think of the weirdest, darkest, grossest dream you’ve ever had—and now imagine that in sketch form. That’s the gist here. Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave feels like the obvious comparison, but Segura’s approach is significantly more aggressive, with the comedian pushing the envelope in terms of good taste and problematic humor. And like a lot of sketch comedy, it’s a roller-coaster in terms of quality, but there are some undeniably clever beats.
To say that Bad Thoughts is messed up doesn’t really do it justice. A lot of TV comedies try to be edgy or dark without ever getting anywhere near the demented through-lines of these sketches. Each of the six short episodes (all of them are under 20 minutes) has a theme like “Jobs,” “Health,” and “Success,” although they could just as easily be named after bodily fluids or different words for genitalia. Bad Thoughts is almost overly invested in living up to its title, blending traditional sketch comedy with Twilight Zone-esque twists of fate, all of it filtered through an X-rated sense of humor.
Of course, some skepticism is warranted here. There have been dozens of shows that promised dark humor and ended up about as edgy as an awkward open-mic night. The highest praise one can pay Segura and the comedy he employs like a weapon in Bad Thoughts is that it is fearlessly unapologetic. In one sketch, a man joins a gym only to discover that the supplement being given there makes everyone’s dick bigger—and bigger and bigger. And in another, a guy meets a beautiful woman in France and is told that in order to sleep with her, he must have sex with her “twin” first, which might result in the grossest sequence to hit a Netflix original.