Laugh Or Your Money Back: WGN's Pat Tomasulo's Free Comedy Special

CHICAGO — Pat Tomasulo is funny. He's PG funny on WGN's Morning News.

And R-rated funny stalking a stage doing stand-up comedy. The guy makes me laugh.

That's why I clicked on the closed captioning during a boring news conference this week to listen to Tomasulo's comedy special "What A Time To Be Alive" on YouTube.

The New Jersey-reared jester, who has been a staple on Chicago morning TV for 16 years, tackles a plethora of his modern annoyances — woke hipsters with parents who voted for Trump, empty activism, Sunday afternoon weddings, his Florida in laws, anybody who asks his wife why they don't have kids and jokes about short people (he's 5-foot-7), to name a few — during an hour-long performance taped at Zanies in Rosemont.

Here's a taste:

"Saw this skinny white guy with a man bun with jean shorts, right. This dude is holding a sign that said, 'Stop Killing Us.' Us? Did the cops shoot a bunch of hipsters? Did I miss that? Are they just rolling up on bike repair shops and stores, just mowing people down. Just spoiling everybody's kombucha?" Tomasulo said, eliciting the raucous cackles from what sounded like suburban moms of 20-something fermented tea drinkers living in Logan Square.

It wasn't until I transcribed a few more of Tomasulo's jokes that I started to wonder if some of his bits, taken out of context, could be the stuff that enrage the cancel-culture set.

I caught up with Tomasulo after Friday's morning show.

Do you ever worry about backlash from some of the jokes you tell? I asked.

"It's always in the back of your head. But nobody vets my material more strictly or more critically than me," Tomasulo said.

"I have vetted all of that material. I think I have a pretty good moral compass. And I think I have a pretty good heart. Anything I put on there, I truly do not believe is hurtful material. If people have a problem with it, certainly not what I'm seeking. I don't want people to have a problem with it. I want people to laugh and understand it's jokes. I don't think any of it necessarily crosses any lines. It may touch on subjects that are uncomfortable. But I think I do a good job of toeing the line between what's funny and offensive."

Tomasulo considers himself an "equal opportunity attacker."

He's been at it for 12 years, trying out bits at open-mics and comedy showcases around town, including regular appearances at Laugh Factory and Zanies.

Tomasulo's YouTube special is a menagerie of the morning news moonlighter's best gut busters.

"At this point, [stand-up comedy] is part of my DNA that I feel like I'm not complete if I'm not scratching that itch and doing these other things," he said. "I think it's the best work I've ever done. It's something I'm super proud of. If you're a fan of comedy, I'll think you'll laugh."

And if you don't, you can have your money back.

Tomasulo's special is streaming free on YouTube.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots.

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