So many stand-up specials are released these days that it is easy to miss how radically the art form has evolved.

Part of the reason Ali Wong’s “Hard Knock Wife” and Hannah Gadsby’s “Nanette” have made such an impact is that they were thematically and structurally coherent, their jokes integrated into the special the way scenes fit into the plot of a play. The status and ambition of the specials’ directors have also grown, shifting from craftsmen for hire to stylists to the auteur Bo Burnham, whose distinctive work with Jerrod Carmichael and Chris Rock reveals editing and camerawork in dialogue with setups and punchlines.

And earlier this month Netflix presented another shift when it released the first half of “The Comedy Lineup,” eight bite-sized specials that run for 15 minutes each (the second batch arrives in early fall), a common allotment of time for a club set but not for televised stand-up. Most specials have traditionally been about an hour or a half-hour, with late-night TV sets running around five minutes, but the flexibility of the internet has destroyed the idea of a standard.

Yet what makes “The Comedy Lineup” an exciting addition is not the length of the specials, but Netflix’s attempt to give a platform to comics who are not household names. One of the open secrets of live stand-up is that the most famous names are rarely the funniest ones on the bill. They do not have the time or often the hustle to really hone sets. Of course, novices are too green to be the funniest either. “The Comedy Lineup” provides a delightful sampler of the performers in between.

If you like bruising New York club comedy with contempt for conventional wisdom, definitely try Tim Dillon, a raspy-voiced stand-up who does pugnacious bits on the class structure of Instagram and the ethics of punching Richard Spencer. (“Let me tell you this: I have been punched at a Pizza Hut lunch buffet and that was justified.”) He gets more laughs in 15 minutes than Ricky Gervais does in an hour.

Michelle Buteau is another explosive New York comic who has been the highlight of many local shows without ever getting a big break. While she is enough of a regular on the podcast and HBO show “2 Dope Queens” that she has been anointed the unofficial third queen, this set might be the best introduction to her work yet. “It’s been a really interesting year for me because a lot of my guy friends came out as predators,” she deadpans. “I always knew, but it was really their journey.”

These eight specials are more topical than most of the recent Netflix hours, with three other comics (Jak Knight, Sam Jay and Sabrina Jalees) mixing in #MeToo material with solid sets. Seeing the same subject matter covered makes you realize how common parallel thinking is in stand-up. Both Buteau and Knight use the phrase “read the room.”

Unlike late-night television sets, 15 minutes is enough time to pique your interest in a performer, but not enough for them to really wear out their welcome.

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