[2] Kondabolu recorded the album at a live performance on July 16, 2013 at the New Parish in Oakland, CA,[3] but did not have time to edit and release it until after his job with Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell ended due to network cancellation.

called Waiting for 2042 the best comedy album of 2014, describing Kondabolu as a "truly world-class observational comic with an uncommonly rich knowledge of pop culture" and noting, "his riff on Weezer is less a respite than a meditation on how selfishly we consume the artists we love".

[6] Paste Magazine listed Waiting for 2042 among the ten best comedy albums or specials of the first half of 2014, categorizing Kondabolu among comedians who find "that perfect middle ground between proselytizing and plain ol’ joking" and "offer up their material with an acid tongue and a fire in their belly".

[7] The Portland Mercury called Waiting for 2042 a "blisteringly good comedy album": But Kondabolu's chops as a writer go far beyond topical humor: This set is full of elegantly structured premises, subtle callbacks, and a quizzical self-referentiality that constantly tests the assumptions that underpin the material.

[8]Jason Zinoman, writing for The New York Times, said, "Mr. Kondabolu builds jokes through arguments, articulating opposing views, dramatizing disputes, then slicing through them with his own progressive take."