This Sex-Fueled Special Is Beat Poetry-Meets-TED Talk, And It’s Fantastic

It took approximately one minute for me to decide Jacqueline Novak’s brand of stand-up comedy was for me. It happened at the start of her popular new Netflix special Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees, when she described the journey from backstage to taking the microphone center stage as “fraught.” I mean, seriously, who uses the word fraught these days? Jacqueline Novak, that’s who!

Novak’s incredibly entertaining 90-minute special has been trending on Netflix since it arrived on January 23, 2024. The reason it’s a hit is two-fold: Novak’s comedy writing and delivery are unique in the best ways, and the show is all about oral sex. I realize that last part sounds cringe-worthy, but I assure you that in Novak’s capable hands, even the most subversive subject matter turns to relatable poetry for the ages.

Some background on Novak

While her Netflix special may be the first time Novak reached mass appeal, she’s been quietly touching a nerve with audiences since 2017. She’s deeply intellectual, evidenced by her numerous literary and philosophical references, her vocabulary (fraught!), and the artful way she crafts her tales. She grew up on Long Island in New York and went to Georgetown University, where she became friendly with John Mulaney, Nick Kroll, John Early, and Mike Birbiglia—some comedy heavy-hitters to have in your corner!

In 2018, Novak premiered the one-woman show she penned in one fevered writing session the year earlier at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Then titled How Embarrassing For Her, the show was so well-received that she took it to Los Angeles, where old pal Birbiglia saw it. He and Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) teamed up to bring Novak’s show to New York, where Novak performed off-Broadway before increasingly large audiences for the next few years. Her friend Early directed the stage show. In 2024, Netflix scooped up the rights to Get On Your Knees with Birbiglia executive producing and Lyonne stepping in to direct.

The delivery

Let’s start with that outfit, shall we? Or, rather, the non-outfit Novak wears on stage for every single performance: ripped casual-fit jeans, gray, shapeless tee shirt, hair slung casually into a ponytail. She looks like every sporty young millennial I’ve ever met, but don’t be fooled; her outfit is as carefully chosen as each word she utters. As she told The Washington Post, she picked the look to be “the most neutral, kind of nothing outfit” possible, specifically so that viewers will focus on what she’s saying and not what she looks like.

Novak addresses this idea in Get On Your Knees, admitting that thinking about her appearance is “a nightmare” for “an intellectual” like her. “Really to be incarnate at all,” she quips before describing her body as “a sack of sex potatoes.” By the time she described a certain canine-inspired sexual position as “the hound’s way” because it “deserves some gravitas,” I was howling.

Speaking of delivery, Novak is not your typical pause-for-effect sort of comedian. She pretty much never stops talking for the entire show, emitting a non-stop monologue that feels like stream-of-consciousness yet is actually carefully crafted wordsmithing that resembles spoken word poetry at times.

The subject matter

Get ready to clutch your pearls, folks! On its surface, this whole special is about giving oral sex to a man, but like any good stories, Novak’s meander to unexpected and delightful places. She draws upon her education and intellect more than once, referencing everyone from Tony Robbins to Friedrich Nietzsche as she dissects literally everything we’ve ever thought about sex, right down to the etymology. The very word “penis”? She has thoughts.

“What is the penis to me, what is its nature?” the comedian ponders before questioning whether “erection” is really the best choice of words, since let’s face it, it’s “not up to code.”

The main storyline is about Novak’s attempts at oral pleasure, beginning with her high school boyfriend. Her humor manages to be both shameless and self-deprecating, and she truly owns her experiences and makes zero apologies for picking them apart in the name of art. Because art is what this is; it’s an oral history of, well, oral.

Get On Your Knees is funny, and even though it’s about a taboo subject, the subject isn’t mined for shock value. As comic actor Fred Armisen told The New Yorker, “It feels somehow good-spirited—there’s nothing mean in it. I really could bring my mom without having to explain anything.”

I’m not sure I’m ready to watch this special with my mom, but I’m not going to sugarcoat it: It takes a lot to hold my attention for more than an hour. Sad, but true. Time flew by during Novak’s special, and I truly believe we’re seeing the launch of an impressive comedy voice. Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees is now streaming on Netflix.

(featured image: Netflix)