In Taylor Mac’s “Gary,” the most ambitious comedy to open on Broadway in years, the title character is a clown who badly wants to upgrade to a fool. What’s the difference? A clown seeks laughs, but a fool also aims to save the world.

Gary fails in his quest, leaving us with a skeptical view of the power of comedy to make political change, one that marks much of the scene today. In a flurry of funny new specials that supply escapist laughs and downplay their own significance, some stand-ups even embrace what Gary ran away from.

In her dynamite new Comedy Central special, “Talking to Myself,” the standup veteran Jessica Kirson says, “I went from a masters in social work and now I’m a traveling clown.” In his amiably charming HBO hour “Son of a Gary,” (no relation to the play), Dan Soder calls himself a “mall clown” and mocks the pretentiousness of comics who call themselves artists. “You think I compete with art?” he asks. “There’s no drink minimum at the ballet.”

Soder and Kirson are very different types. Soder projects the laid-back vibe of a guy having a few joints at the back of a frat party, while Kirson leans into the microphone spitting out punch lines with the neurotic intensity of Mel Brooks on a riff. Even though their routes are different, they both end up with a lovable loser act from Palookaville.