When I’m asked what’s the best job I ever had, I usually say Save on Gas. It was a community gas station along a highway in my hometown in Canada, where I worked with high school friends, girlfriends, local pot smokers, and various other characters from the neighborhood. The stories I could tell…
Tires, the hit show on Netflix, loosely reminds me of those days. It stars comedian Shane Gillis and features others from his comedic cinematic universe (like Stavros Halkias, who made headlines earlier this month during a long interview with The New York Times’ PopCast).
Gillis has become one of the biggest comics in the world, but I didn’t get the attraction. I first heard of him in 2019, when he was hired at Saturday Night Live, then fired three days later after some comments surfaced that put him in a bad light. If you don’t know the whole story, you can watch him explain the entire ordeal in detail here.
I even remember trying to listen to his podcast back then, and turning it off after a few minutes. It just wasn’t my thing.
Then, with friends in town over Christmas, we watched Season 1 of Tires and I was hooked. It’s fresh, it’s funny, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it reminds me of my old days working at a gas station. It also finally made me a Gillis fan, and I’ve since devoured his other standup online (his special shot in Austin, Texas is a good place to start).
If you’re easily offended, the show probably isn’t for you — but if you appreciate humor that doesn’t rely on old tropes, want to watch something light and fun, and enjoy a few hearty laughs while doing it, then check it out.