WS356 Humor Commentary

hi i'm nerissa and this is a blog in which i will, obviously, talk about comedy. i'll mostly be focusing on women in comedy--analyzing women's humor and humor about or involving women. thanks for stopping by and enjoy!

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Being a Comic and a Punchline

Last year, up-and-coming comedian Cameron Esposito penned an excellent article (“Being a Comic and a Punchline”) for the entertainment website The A.V. Club that eloquently described the role that humor plays in her life, and the role her life plays in her humor. She talks specifically about her marginalized identity as a lesbian, and explains how it is something she cannot divorce from her experience–as an individual, and as a comedian.

Both the article and the clip above of her stand-up are great examples of the way comedians use their marginalized status to perform charged humor, which Esposito tends to do a lot of herself. As both a woman and a lesbian, Esposito is extremely aware of her doubly marginalized status. In her stand-up, she jokes about how she very significantly is a lesbian and “looks” like one, too. Moreover, she generally pokes fun at how ridiculous straight culture can be, (“You look like a woman that doesn’t sleep with men!”) pointing out that dominant groups feel the need to make nonsensical, pointing-out-the-obvious comments to minority groups that only highlight their ignorance and insecurity. 

One of my favorite quotes from Esposito’s article, I think best captures the sentiments of comedians who “perform” their marginality: “I have to be funnier than the fact that I exist. That’s not unusual. That’s true for all comics. We feel off from the norm in some way—we feel like a punchline—and we get out in front of it. We tell the joke before we can be the joke.”

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Thea Vidale: Keepin’ It Too Real

Thea Vidale has been in the comedy business for a very long time, and she’s still going strong. I first saw her do stand-up for fellow comedian Gabriel Iglesias’ Comedy Central show, Stand-Up Revolution, and I’ve been following her ever since. 

In her stand-up, Thea mostly shares with the audience her experiences as a mother to her four children, but another subject she is largely known for candidly talking about is sex. Thea is unapologetically bawdy, joining the ranks of countless other women in comedy who have refuted the notion that they can’t be vulgar or sexual. Thea talks very openly about enjoying sex, her disdain for weak men, and even goes so far as to give both women and men tips for a better love and sex life. 

In this sense, Thea’s humor reflects the idea of women’s humor being transgressive--she “hijacks” male space and heterosexuality (Mizejewski) by both poking fun at weak men and emasculating them, and by being assertive with her own sexuality.

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Chubby Girls for Life

“Chubby for Life” is a brief chapter in Mindy Kaling’s 2011 memoir Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), but it’s still a pretty deep one, and it’s the chapter that has stuck with me the most since I first read it. 

In class many of us have praised Mindy Kaling for being so wonderfully, unapologetically herself in every way, especially when it comes to her unabashed love of food and body positivity, because it’s not something we see a lot in our image-obsessed culture. Mindy lets women know that they can love food, eat lots of it, and not be ashamed. She lets women know that they are deserving of love regardless of their body type or meeting conventional beauty standards. Before she incorporated it into her brilliant show The Mindy Project, however, she detailed her road to self-acceptance in her book. And she does an excellent job of it. 

Thinking and talking about how much the chapter means to me always makes me very emotional, because it was something that resonated with me so much. Mindy talks about her struggles with body image and weight loss/gain in an honest, relatable way, but she also makes it funny. Self-loathing and criticism from others, especially when it comes to issues of weight, can often be a very unhumorous matter. Mindy definitely seems to recognize this, too, but she also recognizes that we can combat inner and outer negativity with humor. If we can laugh it off or see just how trivial things like unreasonable beauty standards and the opinions of men are, then the world doesn’t seem all that dismal. 

Humor can often be seen as a defense mechanism that merely distracts or buries away insecurities that can resurface later on, but I don’t think it’s the same for all people. For me, at least, having a sense of humor has been enough to help me see that loving myself is more important than always valuing what others think of your looks. I am forever grateful to Mindy for being such a positive role model. She’s taught me that I can have my cake, and eat it too, because you can always go up for seconds.  

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The Unsung Genius of The Amanda Show

Nowadays when we talk about revolutionary female-fronted comedy shows developed in the 21st century, we like to mention Tina Fey, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, Mindy Kaling, Lena Dunham, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, etc. but we never seem to mention another great female pioneer in comedy: Amanda Bynes. 

Before she was in movies, and especially before she started making headlines, Amanda Bynes starred in her own sketch comedy show whose genius I believe is still unsung. She started making The Amanda Show when she was 13, following in the footsteps of other sketch comedy shows made for children involving children, such as All That. Granted, both All That and The Amanda Show weren’t written by the actors themselves (at least not to my knowledge), but they still provided a platform for a number of young comedic actresses to showcase their talents. Because talented they certainly were. As a thirteen-year-old, Amanda was undoubtedly a gifted comedic actress–she was given her own show for a reason. She literally does it all: she hosts, she acts, does her own stunts, plays multiple characters at once, the list goes on and on. Every single sketch she was a part of was hilarious, even if it was completely absurd. While most of the humor tended to be slapstick, The Amanda Show did its fair share of parodies, and that’s where I think Amanda truly shined. Some of her best parodies were of Judge Judy (Judge Trudy),

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (So You Wanna Win 5 Dollars),

and Dawson’s Creek (Moody’s Point)

The producers and writers for the show clearly recognized this, too, and I think everyone is thankful they did. I know I am. Amanda showed kids everywhere that not only did you not need to be grown to be funny, but you could also be a girl and be raucously funny, too. 

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Obvious Child (2014)

Last year, I could not stop hearing about Obvious Child, the directorial debut of Gillian Robespierre and actress/comedian Jenny Slate’s first leading role in a movie. Both Slate and the film received positive reviews from most critics and audiences, justifiably. It’s endearing, refreshingly honest, and most of all, genuinely funny. 

When it was released, Obvious Child was advertised as an “abortion comedy”; essentially, that’s what it is, but it’s not so much a comedy about “abortion” than it is a comedy about an abortion, as many critics have pointed out. However you describe it, Obvious Child is at the very least a comedy that involves a woman who decides to have an abortion, and addresses the decision in a relatively lighthearted manner. 

This clip in particular features Jenny Slate’s character, aspiring comedian Donna Stern, tackling the matter directly in her stand-up. In this scene, and scenes before it, we see that disarmingly frank humor is nothing new for Donna. Her material is a great example of the way in which comedians tackle sensitive and taboo subjects, ones that may be sensitive publicly and personally. Here, Donna not only shares with the audience that she is pregnant, but she also shares that she has made the decision to have an abortion the very next day. Donna is well aware that such a revelation is major, and acknowledges it when she says that everyone has suddenly become “a part of her life in a big way.” Nonetheless, Donna turns the seemingly very serious and typically unfunny topic of abortion into something humorous, because it’s something that she’s very secure and positive about. 

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D.W. Read: Comedy Legend and Actual Feminist Icon?

The children's television show Arthur was a very big part of my childhood. I would watch it every day coming home from school, and it was the best way to de-stress after a long and eventful day in the life of a 7-year-old. To this day, I seriously consider it to be one of my favorite shows of all time, and I have no shame in it whatsoever. It was quality television then, and it's quality television now—the older episodes, at least. If it's even possible, I find that Arthur is even funnier now than it was then.

What I’ve been thinking about lately is the severe lack of recognition we give to young girls who are funny (see: “The Unsung Genius of the Amanda Show”), especially in shows that cater to a young demographic. I think we can all say that children are all inherently funny in some way, but we don’t seem to talk enough about funny girls under the age of, say, 14. Sure we’ve had funny girls in shows like All That, Clarissa Explains It All, That’s So Raven, Lizzie McGuire, iCarly, etc. in the past, but what about shows for children? 

Besides the delightfully unruly Angelica Pickles from Rugrats, the only other cartoon character that I remember admiring as a kid was D.W. Read, the titular character’s younger sister. Arthur in general is known for dealing with important issues that families face, and encouraging learning and relationships with diverse groups of family and friends. Each episode has a clear cut message, a lesson that is learned by either Arthur himself or by his friends and family. Although I did pick up on these messages, I also picked up on how multifaceted you can be as a person. 

D.W. in particular is notoriously bossy, superficial, dramatic, and prone to temper tantrums. At the same time, she’s also very protective of her younger sister (and her brother, on occasion), can be very philosophical, and isn’t afraid to keep it real. We find humor in how she goes about dealing with life as a growing human being; we laugh because we’ve been through it as well. Most of the time, D.W. is hilarious without even trying. Even so, she’s always doing ridiculous things, and she’s not afraid to comment on things she finds ridiculous herself-- characteristic of many comedians. D.W. let me and currently lets other young girls know that they can be as loud, funny, and inquisitive as they want. And perhaps most importantly, she lets us know she doesn’t care if you like it either. 

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Aparna Nancherla

I was first introduced to the criminally underrated Aparna Nancherla on Twitter around a year ago, where she quickly became one of my favorite Twitter personalities. Which means a lot because I really value quality tweets, and she’s got some real gems, a few of which I’ve compiled here:

Since then, I’ve seen her appear on shows like @Midnight with Chris Hardwick, Friends of the People, and Conan, and I’ve only just learned that she has written/writes for some of my favorite shows–VH1′s I Love the 2000s series, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, and Late Night with Seth Meyers! 

I’ve only recently started watching more of her stand-up comedy, and I’m pleased to report that she’s quite good. She kills it every time. I think what I like most about her is how accessible she is. Aparna tends to talk about average or occasionally quirky every day occurrences and concerns, which I think shows that anything in our daily lives can be silly or funny. In this regard, I would say that Aparna’s humor is largely “safe” humor, and not wholly charged humor. On occasion, however, some of her material does involve poking fun at unrealistic beauty standards for women as well as her experiences as an Indian American.

Even though she doesn’t necessarily do shock comedy or have the most exuberant personality, she still has a biting wit, and she’s still extremely funny. I feel like far too often comics like Aparna don’t get enough credit for what they do, simply because their humor isn’t “charged up” or revolutionary enough to garner attention. 

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The Case for Deandra “Sweet Dee” Reynolds, Trash Queen

Back home, I was once discussing the television series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia with a group of friends. I’d first like to make it clear now that Always Sunny is one of my favorite sitcoms EVER, as well as one of my favorite television shows ever. It’s very near and dear to my heart, because it has genuinely brought a lot of happiness to my life when I needed it the most. Always Sunny is irreverent and absurd and insanely funny in the worst and best possible way. I love discussing the show with anybody who’s willing to talk about it, whether it be other passionate fans of the show, or even people who have never watched the show. Anyway. The point is, I could talk about this show a lot. Back to (funny) business. The talk between me and my friends was rather lighthearted–we shared episodes we thought were the funniest, talked about who our favorite characters were, the usual. But our discussion took a turn for the worse when one friend said that they didn’t really “get” Dee Reynolds, and didn’t think she was that funny or funnier than some of the other characters. I think my eyes must have rolled a full 360 twice in that moment, because it was one of those moments where the world seems to stop and your life flashes by and you reevaluate all your life decisions just to figure out how you got to this place and how you ever could have decided at one point that you considered this person a friend?!?! The. Betrayal. 

How do you not “get” Dee Reynolds? In the frantic search for answers in my head, one of the things I thought of was the potential implicit sexism at work. I would say that Always Sunny is almost certainly a male-driven show (four of the five main characters are male), and beloved by mainly male audiences. So, I attributed this person’s disdain for Dee as simply being “why is a woman included in this show, she brings nothing to it, blah, blah, blah.” But then I focused on the fact that they said they didn’t think Dee was funny at all, or at least not as funny as the other four men. I found this astounding. Dee Reynolds is very funny.

Always Sunny revolves around five characters (”The Gang”) that prove to be absolutely horrible people with each passing episode. They never, never, ever get any better. So, technically, you’re not supposed to like ANY of them at all. But you do anyways, because they’re so awful that it’s actually achingly funny. The Gang constantly remind us that anyone can be a horrible person, regardless of gender. Dee’s mere inclusion in the series emphasizes this. 

Dee Reynolds crosses boundaries all the time, just as Dennis, Mac, Charlie, and Frank do. She’s just as selfish and nasty and devious as all the men, if not more. As Gina Barreca points out in They Used to Call Me Snow White… But I Drifted, the girls who do this tend to be labeled “Bad Girls.” Dee is constantly being told by the other men to shut up, constantly being refuted when she loudly calls out the gang’s sexist behavior–but she still demands that she be taken seriously. Dee isn’t always feminine; she can be sensitive and care about her looks, but also completely disregards both when she needs to. Dee isn’t personable or motherly or demure; she’s impossibly clumsy and expresses her rage, greed, envy, etc. as much as she wants. Dee doesn’t have her life together, only seems to have one friend, and messes things up all the time. Isn’t it incredible how one person can be so multifaceted and have express all these emotions??? It’s almost as if she’s… an actual person!

Dee Reynolds doesn’t fit into the dichotomy of “good” girl or “bad” girl, and that’s why my friend presumably didn’t like her. (Very conveniently, they refused to elaborate) She is everything you wouldn’t expect her to be, and that’s why you don’t seem to “get” her.  I suppose some people can genuinely just not like Dee, and that’s fine. But I would ask them to consider first if that’s not actually their internalized sexism talking, as opposed to their real, unbiased selves. 

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Chelsea Peretti: One of the Greats (2014)

    Chelsea Peretti is everywhere, and it’s awesome. Her first major comedy special, One of the Greats, solidifies her in my book as one of my favorite comedians ever. She is absolutely hysterical. One of the things in her special that struck me the most was a seemingly trivial instance where a man in the audience stands up during her set and proclaims that Peretti is his favorite female comedian. It struck me because first, it seemed so out of place; second, because it seemed so intentionally out of place; and third because it brought attention to one of the very first concepts we were introduced to in class. The moment was obviously staged, but it served a purpose. It served as yet another commentary by Peretti herself on the way we “mark” people. She’s his favorite female comedian, not just his favorite comedian. By saying this, he immediately “others” her. “You’re my favorite female comedian!” is kind of a backhanded compliment, which is, as most of us know, not really a compliment at all. So if it’s not really a compliment, what is it? If anything, the comment brings attention to the fact that women’s ability to truly be funny is always questioned. And then, not only is it questioned, but it is also measured. How funny is she for a woman? How funny is she compared to the “standard” for most humor, male humor? Women are not judged by their talent in genuinely making people laugh, or their versatility and universality, as men are. Instead of being judged as a person, they are judged as women; they are judged by their otherness. Peretti uses one simple remark to show that she knows this complex issue and its relation to her very, very well. 

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Nicole Arbour’s “Dear Fat People” Video

    This was published the week I came back to school, but I didn’t get around to actually watching it until now. However, what with social media and instantaneous news at the palm of my hand, it was something I very much knew about. Nicole Arbour is apparently a “comedian” on YouTube, but she is not necessarily extremely popular—I had no idea who she was, and neither did most people. Rightfully so, if you ask me. She immediately comes off as a very self-important person who says generic “funny” things that literally anyone can say, spit it out in a “funny” matter-of-fact tone and along the way rack up a couple thousand views. Basically, she’s a comedian and a YouTuber because hey, she can be, but this doesn’t necessarily make her funny. And as for this video specifically, there is definitely nothing funny about it. 

   Comedians are supposed to comment on our social mores. They can do so subtly, or they can do so overtly—as is the custom in stand-up comedy in particular. They call out the things that are wrong (or simply weird) in our society in a humorous way, and cause us to casually question what we value. We laugh when we recognize how absurd some of our values are and recognize that we maybe need to change them. Arbour, as a sort of stand-up “comedian”, was obviously trying to do this in her now-infamous video. But she royally messed up. As I stated before, Arbour speaks in a matter-of-fact tone. She’s not suggesting that you think this way or the other, she tells you straight up what she thinks is wrong. The problem is, her logic is actually what is hideously wrong. If the average fat phobic person were to watch this, I would say that they would most likely agree with what she’s saying. In fact, there definitely was a wide range of people who did agree with what she was saying and believed she “proved” her point well. This ties into the ever-present question of what is funny and what’s not funny.

   As we know, humor is subjective. But, as I said, comedians are supposed to point out truths and challenge them, awesomely blowing our minds in the process. In this case, Arbour attempted to do that but miserably failed, largely because she doesn’t point out any real truths at all; she simply presents them as such. Her “truths” are not true, because from her comments one can immediately see that she’s clearly wholly uneducated in the subject of health. It is ingrained in her mind (by the very culture that she is, tragically, not criticizing) that fat automatically equals unhealthy, and that overweight or obese people always, always, always have complete control over the maintenance of their weight/bodies. She argues that fat people choose to be fat themselves, and then inconvenience everyone by “demanding” special treatment. If she knew literally anything about anything, she’d know that this is simply not the case. This is just untrue in every way, and it’s what thousands have tried WITH EVIDENCE (!!!!) to explain to her and like-minded others on the Internet. Fat shaming is very much a real thing. So, in the end as a so-called comedian she’s not really proving anything wrong. She is only voicing her embarrassingly uninformed opinion AND being mean about it, and that’s why her message/attempt at humor completely bombed.