Conner O’Malley’s new standup special is a scathing critique of our AI reality

Pressing play on a Conner O’Malley video is a disorienting knowledge.

Could it be a continuation of a prior character or universe? Could it be yet another installation of Truth Hunters host Mark Seevers, O’Malley’s creation for the 2016 election that resembled Alex Jones if he had been locked in a Wisconsin basement for two years, subsisting only on hot dog relish and stale buns? Positive. Could it be yet another video featuring the version of O’Malley hosting a late-evening show on a bike, cruising by way of the streets of New York City whilst also in a blood feud with Greg Kinnear? Of course.

But the video could also be a a single-off bit of brilliance, like “Endorphin Port,” a great and bizarre send-up of tech’s strange obsession with VR.

So when I saw O’Malley was dropping a stand-up unique on his YouTube channel — an increasingly popular move for comics — I had no clue what to anticipate. It was far from your typical comedy unique.

If you are unfamiliar with the background and lore of O’Malley’s perform, I’ve covered it for Mashable in the previous. In common, his perform is interested in the absurdity of the contemporary planet. He usually tends to make comedy centered on tech. But, rather of lampooning the corporations or billionaires at the helm, he typically portrays a deranged everyman absolutely besotted by technocrats’ promises. Often, these characters intersect with the weird, rightwing manosphere that exists on-line, the people who cosplay getting in the military, consume far as well considerably meat, and treat capitalism as some sort of religion.

“Envision Joe Rogan with out the funds,” O’Malley’s character says in his newest perform, which was a surprise moment of crowd-perform clarity.

In the standard sense, Stand Up Options is hardly a stand-up unique, even if it was filmed in front of a reside Brooklyn audience. O’Malley plays a character named Richard Eagleton, who provides a presentation on a 5G-powered AI avatar he made to do stand-up. If that sounds boring, I guarantee it is something but.

I can’t start to clarify the avenues this video requires. There are lamentations on the Toyota Rav-four, background information on Des Plaines, Illinois, and so considerably about McDonald’s. There are some of the most vulgar pictures imaginable and a weird, somewhat touching backstory for why Eagleton embarked on his AI quest. There are moments of cultural criticism that somehow arise naturally from this deranged man onstage.

In the course of the hour, O’Malley does a gonzo functionality of stand-up, and there are moments exactly where you really feel like you are really watching a modest-time AI evangelist do a genuine investor pitch. And, as a person who writes about the web and tech, there are moments exactly where points sound a hell of a lot like, say, a two-hour presentation from a tech giant promising how wonderful AI will be for absolutely everyone.

There is a pitch-great reveal of what O’Malley’s character believes his AI tech could eventually do — properly force-feeding Americans AI politicians — and what it will do, which is aid build prisons. And yes, once again, I guarantee this unique is funny as shit. It may perhaps also be the crassest you have ever watched.

Anyway, sufficient from me. I will embed the unique at the bottom of this post. But if you have looked at all the AI headlines lately and felt a bit skeptical, this unique is for you.

There is a great small moment that entirely sold me. O’Malley’s character is speaking to the crowd, asking them to guess a trouble with the AI he made. “No one desires it,” an audience member yells out.

O’Malley does not break from his evangelist character. “Effectively, you have a unfavorable attitude,” he answers. He then quickly goes on to eulogize a pair of Croatia’s major vaping artists. It is all nonsensical and precisely like the planet we reside in.