With this special Titus earns the listener's trust with familiar topics like parenthood and the Bush Jr. administration, covered in an especially cutting fashion. Titus then crawls into some truly dark territory as the comedian covers his eye-opening and draining visit to Iraq, priests who face molestation charges, and his father's numerous heart attacks and eventual death. Titus deconstructs his inner nihilist across the routine as a disgusted and damaged comic who is "pretty good at finding funny in a dark place" then in the second half becomes a gripping and surprisingly sentimental storyteller trying to cope with a world gone wrong along with the loss of a reckless father. He idealizes his brutish dad after he's gone and sees all the caring through the cracks in the man's gruff exterior.  The Fifth Annual End of the World is a strange mix of painful, poignant, and very funny. It sticks to the bones.