Roy Wood Jr.'s Imperfect Messenger is an evolution for The Daily Show star

Vulture

In his recently taped Comedy Central special, "Wood is even more comfortable moving between broad cultural observations and explicitly silly bits, which makes both ends of that spectrum stronger," says Kathryn VanArendonk. "The goofier parts are more delightful, the political commentary more striking. It’s also so fun to watch him play with stupid sections he can’t quite pull off. At no point can he do enough of a British accent to make his Idris Elba material truly land, yet he has a firm insistence that 'beans for breakfast' will be enough of a cultural signifier to make the joke function. (And he’s right, mostly, though it’s still not enough to distract from the mess of the fake accent.) His garbled police-dispatcher noises are more solid, but even there, it’s mostly about creating some space in 'Let’s laugh at wacky sounds' to make emotional room for the more high-flying material on racism and cultural history." ALSO: Wood wishes he could've included Insecure's AKA controversy in his new special.