You’ll Never Guess Where Matt Rife’s New Comedy Series Is Set

In what comes as absolutely no surprise, Netflix will keep dating Matt Rife. After the streamer and comedian consummated their relationship last fall with Rife’s Natural Selection special (a show that hit the Global Top Ten in 42 countries), they decided to become an official couple with a deal for two new stand-up specials and a comedy series. I bet you’ll never guess where Rife’s new sitcom will be set. 

Sorry, did you say “at the gym”? Guess that was easier than I thought. 

But it’s easy to understand why Rife chose a gym — the episodes practically write themselves. There’s “I want to be a man with strong yiddies.” 

One or two episodes will certainly be built around “Has anyone seen my shirt?” 

And the “I only work out with Black dudes” episode is already being submitted for Emmy consideration.

A workplace comedy set in a gym was obvious, but what’s more surprising are the details about Rife’s next stand-up special. According to Deadline, it will be “Netflix’s first-ever full-length crowd work special” (a fact that’s only true because Netflix didn’t produce a different crowd-work special made back in 2014).

The surprising part: Rife often chafes at haters who believe he’s better at crowd work than telling actual jokes. He ended Natural Selection with this defensive riff: “I’m just doing what I think is funny, and all I can hope to come from that is that it makes other people smile, and it makes them happy. That’s all I ever want to come from any of this. So who cares if absolutely nobody believes in you, man. Fuck these people. For 12 years, nobody believed in me, man. And if I let that affect how I respected my own thoughts and ideas, I wouldn’t be doing a Netflix Special at Constitution Hall in my favorite city in the entire country, man.”

With that, Rife raised his microphone into the air. “But what do I know? I only do crowd work, right?” 

MIC DROP! BOOM! YOU GOT SERVED, CRITICS! Maybe with all of that off his chest, and Natural Selection’s undeniable success buoying his confidence, Rife feels comfortable returning to the social-media staple that built his career in the first place. 

Just inject this audience-bashing straight into our veins, bro.