One recurring subject in Panicked is, for lack of a better term, all varieties of shittiness: Maron talks about his cat Charlie’s diarrhea troubles and the discovery of rat feces in his crawl space, which eventually prompts an existential spiral about why his home has seemingly become a rest-stop bathroom for the neighborhood rodents.

Online he uses an examination of his own mind to illuminate other people. This double focus is a key element of specials like his new “Panicked.”