Chris Fleming takes us to HELL in the trailer for his new standup special

Hell has frozen over. Peacock gave Chris Fleming a comedy special to call his own. We’ll provide readers with a moment to process the news.

Though fans of Fleming are hyperventilating over the announcement that the creator of Gayle will make his Peacock debut in August, the only streamer with the guts to put Fleming on their platform did us one better. There’s a trailer for the special, complete with Fleming’s signature, movement-heavy standup, an array of bizarre, anarchic characters and gross little creepies. What a time to be alive.

For the uninitiated, Chris Fleming is a standup and character-based comedian known for surreal YouTube videos. Aside from creating Gayle Waters-Waters, the star of Gayle, a web series that ran from 2012 through 2015, Fleming is also afraid to talk to men and should’ve won a Peabody for the video “Dad Trying To Use A Keyless Entry At Night.” His satirical take on masculinity and eye for detail makes him stand out in a very crowded space: Internet comedy videos.

Last year, Fleming’s name bubbled to the cultural surface over a minor controversy regarding Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All At Once. Some accused Jamie-Lee Curtis of stealing one of Fleming’s characters, Sick Jan, for her Oscar-winning performance as Diedre Beaubeirdra. Fleming released the beloved video “Sick Jan” in January 2020, roughly two years before EEAAO made its screen debut. In Fleming’s words, Curtis’ costume resembles Jan’s if he “had good wardrobe.”

“When the trailer came out, I kind of tucked it away in my stress chamber because if you’re on Twitter at all, you’re basically just volunteering for SNL or other shows like that,” Fleming told Vulture last year. “So I was like, ‘Oh, no, I hope Sick Jan isn’t being preyed on right now.’ At the same time, if that’s going to get that archetype … although Jan’s not an archetype, Jan’s such a specific woman. But also, if Jamie Lee Curtis so much as saw ‘Sick Jan’, that would be such a great thing.”

Chris Fleming: HELL premieres on Peacock on August 18.