★★★★☆
I’ll admit, I walked into Katt Williams: The Last Report, Katt Williams’ new Netflix stand-up special, mostly blind. I knew the name, and I’d seen the memes of the small, energetic man in sharp suits, but I hadn’t experienced the decades of viral podcast moments that everyone else seemed to know by heart.
The special, which premiered on Feb. 10, feels like jumping onto a moving train. It’s loud, fast, and remarkably calculated, arriving at a moment where the line between conspiracy theory and nightly news has blurred to the point of transparency. Williams chooses not to walk that line, instead calling things as he sees them.
Williams frames himself as a secular saint, an informant who has spent years infiltrating the halls of Hollywood just to bring the report back to us—it’s a brilliant framing device. It makes every punchline feel less like a joke and more like a leaked document. The special opens in Florida with strong energy. Right out of the gate, Williams addresses a common paranoia in the modern age of AI: the fear of being replaced.
“I’m not scared to say nothing,” Williams said. “I’ll say it. They can’t AI farm me now, right?”
In the first 15 minutes, Williams does something that few comedians manage: he bridges the gap between the various demographics in the room without pandering. He thanks the white fans, the Hispanic fans, and the Black fans with a rhythmic cadence, before focusing his most intense gratitude on the women in the audience. For someone unacquainted with his persona, I found it to be an effective way to establish a sense of authenticity before he started tearing the industry apart.
Williams’ first major report focuses on the concept of independence. He explains that he self-finances his projects to maintain control of his voice and argues that if you don’t own your voice, someone else will eventually use it to lie to your friends. His personal philosophy made the subsequent jabs at Hollywood power players feel less like drama-fueled, petty gossip and more like a moral vocation.
Williams shifts towards what he calls strategic jabs. He isn’t out to destroy careers. He’s out to keep everybody honest. Williams name drops legends like Eddie Murphy and references his vantage point from the infamous “Diddy shuttle parking lots” of years past. This part of the set is fascinating because it’s not about what he saw inside the parties, but what he saw while being excluded.
There’s a profound, almost cinematic loneliness in his description of watching the industry elite come and go from the shuttle service while he stood on the perimeter. He paints a picture of a man who was on the edge but never in the inner circle, and he uses that outsider status as his comedic superpower. It’s a reminder that sometimes the best view of the building is from the street.
What makes Katt Williams: The Last Report feel more robust than your average stand-up set is Williams’ description of his life as a novice farmer. He’s been off the grid for a few years, and from this period emerges a myriad of comedic moments.
For example, Williams tells a story about buying 100 of every delicious animal, only to realize he’s too soft-hearted to eat them. There is something deeply heartwarming about a man who claims to know all of Hollywood’s dark secrets but can’t bring himself to turn a pig he named into bacon.
However, Williams wouldn’t be himself without a bit of street science mixed into his social commentary. He delivers a bit about the brain being 100 percent cholesterol to mock the medical industry’s obsession with stats. While his biology might be a C-minus, his point is an A-plus: We are being sold a version of health and beauty that is mathematically impossible for anyone who isn’t a billionaire on Ozempic.
By the time he reaches the midpoint, Williams shifts ideology. He takes a massive swing at the FBI Director Kash Patel, using a bit about Patel being cross-eyed to make a larger point about the absurdity of modern leadership.
“Cross-eyed and director of the FBI? You can’t even be an eyewitness,” said Williams.
It’s a knockout punch. He aptly uses physical comedy to deliver a stinging political message. Williams continued with his social commentary, also touching on the rising cost of mental health.
“At this stage, going crazy is cheaper than trying to fix yourself,” said Williams.
The line resonated so much with the current economic climate that the laughter in the room evaporated for a second.
Katt Williams: The Last Report proved that Williams is an artist who understands that vulnerability and a little bit of healthy paranoia are part of the job. For a new fan, this was the perfect introduction. He quietly whispered secrets of the industry and, through his savvy stand-up, made them loud enough for the public to finally hear.