Ricardo O'Farrill: Abrazo Genial

Netflix billed it as the first Spanish standup hour. He had already spent five years on the jokes.

On 20 January 2016, Netflix's Facebook account sold Ricardo O'Farrill: Abrazo Genial as the streamer's first Spanish-language comedy special, due two days later. On 2 February he sat with Rene Franco on Radio Formula and confirmed the 22 January drop. He also said the hour had taken almost five years, and that he was already sick of it. latestnetflix.com's read is that "I like it and it was ugly to say goodbye to those jokes, but I prefer to have that on Netflix and tell people, there is my work, for when you want it."

The title is a rename with no manifesto. A Tijuana listings bio still circulating online says the hour started as Abrazo Grupal, "without any specific reason," then became Abrazo Genial, again without a reason. Born 1 August 1990. First standup late November 2011, after he decided a videoblog was a naca idea. He opened for older comics, then built an observational hour about average Mexican daily life, and promised a refund if you hated it.

Mexican press later filed him as the first Mexican comic with a Netflix special. Vine sketches, TV Azteca, Comedy Central Presenta, rooms with Sofia Nino de Rivera and Mau Nieto. TMDB and IMDb clock the tape at 92 minutes, Spanish, produced by BluePrint Content, directed by Raul Campos and Jan Suter, the pair who would industrialize Latin American standup for the platform. O'Farrill wrote it. He is listed as himself. TMDB's US date is 12 December 2016, which collides with the January drop Netflix's own post and Radio Formula used. NewOnNetflix logs a stranger catalog hiccup. Added 22 January, pulled 29 February, back 3 March. Treat January as the premiere the people selling it named.

The same year he came back with Abrazo Navideno, a 31-minute Christmas hour with Carlos Ballarta, Sofia Nino de Rivera, Chumel Torres, and Marissa "Chabe" Lozano in the open. Netflix's card says even Santa does not get out clean. On Radio Formula he was already touring a new show called Imbecil, 39 dates booked, and claiming the Lunario still asked who he was after the Auditorio Blackberry and the Netflix bump. He said he did not want television. He wanted the internet. Handle @richiesgenial.

That is the gossip of a first special that was also an exit. He dumped five years of bits onto a platform that would not take them down, then went back to knocking on doors with a different title.