Can Disney Cut Into Netflix’s Stand-Up Comedy Dominance?

Spend some time in the comedy world and you will hear complaints about Netflix, which has established itself as the most important home for stand-up for nearly a decade.

Among them: The streaming service oversaturated the market with specials. Its algorithm favors the famous more than the funny. It platforms transphobia. It pays women less than men. Its promotion and marketing doesn’t do enough. It refuses to share information about audiences with comedians. After tossing around big contracts to superstars, it’s getting increasingly stingy with other artists. There’s more. But the kvetching always ends with a simple question: What’s the better alternative?

Amazon dipped its toe into streaming stand-up specials, but not much more than that. Apple has sat it out. Peacock has a modest slate, as does the new streaming site Dropout, which released specials this year by Adam Conover and Courtney Pauroso. HBO Max has done the best job lately of positioning itself as the cool alternative with hours from Jerrod Carmichael, Alex Edelman and Ramy Youssef.

But no large competitor has mounted a serious challenge to Netflix. Until now.

Disney now enters the stand-up game in a big way right after its streaming business reported making a profit for the first time. Along with considerable resources, Disney, under the Hulu banner, has ordered up over a dozen specials — a bunch of them from comics who recently worked for Netflix, including some major stars (Bill Burr, Sebastian Maniscalco) and rising ones (Ralph Barbosa). And most important, they have a coherent vision, a counterprogramming strategy.

Hulu will roll out one special every month. The aim is to turn each one into an event, leaning on the considerable marketing resources of Disney. Jim Gaffigan kicked off the slate with his new hour called “The Skinny,” a characteristically funny, family-friendly set of jokes griping about, among other subjects, religion and kids. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the hour is that Gaffigan, who has long specialized in jokes about overeating, has lost a significant amount of weight, thanks to an appetite suppressant.

In the coming months, Ilana Glazer’s “Human Magic” and Roy Wood Jr.’s “Lonely Flowers” will follow.

Craig Erwich, the president of the Disney Television Group, said that it’s good for comedy that Netflix has competition, and that he is focused on “curation, not volume.”