“No, don’t you start groaning already!”
Michelle Wolf expounded on the limits of propriety in her fiery debut stand-up special, Nice Lady, just months before hosting the 2018 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Yet, when the comedian and former Daily Show contributor/writer took the opportunity to excoriate the press and the Trump administration for their symbiotic relationship, observing that one hand profits off the Mystic Tan-stained other, pearls were clutched in newsrooms and across Twitter feeds. Wolf was taken to task by members of the legacy media, who misinterpreted one joke and wrote off the rest as not being in the spirit of an event that is essentially a roast (that is, when the guest of so-called honor actually has the nerve to attend).
It was the kind of controversy that might make even the most politics-focused comedian reconsider their career path. But as Wolf’s pointed out in interviews, she’s not a political comedian—she’s just a comedian who boasts the ability to find humor in all subjects, whether it’s menstruation, sexism, true crime shows, or yes, politics. Starting with its innocuous title, Wolf’s new Netflix special, Joke Show, aims to re-contextualize her brand of comedy, not distance her from the WHCD debacle (though she slips in one Trump joke). It’s a reliably ribald hour, full of observations about the way the notion of a gender binary just ends up hindering everyone, though that’s not how Wolf presents it. Again, she’s not preaching or even chastising, despite the vaguely cathedral look of the paneling behind her on stage, which is why she doesn’t appreciate fans who try to give her a guilt trip on Instagram.
Joke Show features some of Wolf’s finest and subtlest joke construction; she earns early laughs with the bit about Instagram and otter rape—it’s probably best if you hear it for yourself—which doubles as a statement on the presumption of familiarity that access (read: technology) gives us. This opens up a dialogue on how caustic the discourse has gotten, especially online: “You don’t have to have a stance on everything… We get mad before we get logical,” Wolf says. The observation that no one is really listening anymore is a common one outside of Wolf’s stand-up, but thankfully, she doesn’t rest there. Wolf moves onto period jokes, which delivered some inspired moments in Nice Lady, but that recapitulation is actually a feint, because the joke that lands at the 41-minute mark is an all-timer. It’s also bound to hurt the feelings of anyone who’s ever felt they were helping marginalized people because “we’re all in the same boat.”
More than anything, Joke Show reminds us that the personal is political, whether we’re talking about access to birth control and hygiene products or scolding women for talking about those things openly, so Wolf doesn’t need to recount the week’s events from behind a desk to deliver a message. Not that she’s looking to do that when she goes into detail about the byproducts of menstruation. Joke Show is great stand-up from a great comedian who knows there’s life—and comedy—after Trump.
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Parts of the Break were funnier than others, but I really liked her fake ad for a true-crime series where the murderer is the victim’s husband, the most obvious suspect. It was some nice, succinct mockery of the convoluted reasoning and emotional manipulation behind certain true-crime series. Also, the ad for an Alexa-esque smart device that both consumes and produces lunchmeat was delightfully weird. Maybe someone will let her do a sketch comedy show.
The Alexa ads were an inspired bit of insanity.
It was some nice, succinct mockery of the convoluted reasoning and emotional manipulation behind certain true-crime series.Not related to the topic, but… Hell and Gone’s second season does a nice skewering of this nature of true-crime. It explores several explanations, devotes a lot of time to a person’s obsession about an unsolved death in the family and even dabbles in some seemingly justifiable conspiracy territory… only to end the show on an explanation so positively mundane and obvious that it has to be the one: an unfortunate accident. Plus it posits what true crime often forgets: most police cover ups happen not because there’s some secret plot, but because cops are incompetent idiots, and often they’ll obstruct any attempt at unmasking them as incompetent idiots. In the Dark also devotes a lot of time to that second point: generally, if the police doesn’t want to cooperate on a cold case, it’s because they’ve fucked it up badly.It’s like an extended middle finger to Payne Lindsey and Neil Strauss’ horrid To Live and Die in L.A. All the more effective since Hell and Gone’s host is an actual P.I.
The press did the same thing to Colbert when he roasted them for not being tougher on Bush. F*** the Correspondents Dinner. It’s just a big wank fest.
Yep. It’s a whole lot of not good.
They were even worse to Wolf. At least they didn’t spread lies about Colbert’s jokes.
This opens up a dialogue on how caustic the discourse has gotten, especially online: “You don’t have to have a stance on everything… We get mad before we get logical,” Wolf says. The observation that no one is really listening anymore is a common one outside of Wolf’s stand-upPeople have always been as reactionary and rush-to-judgment as they are now, it’s just that prior to the Internet, most people didn’t have an outlet for their inchoate rage beyond griping at nearby co-workers/friends/family, and there wasn’t a reward mechanism (likes/upvotes/whatever) for that form of expression.But, yes: You really don’t have to have a stance on everything, and you really don’t need to tell everyone about how you feel about the latest [celebrity mishap] five seconds after seeing a headline about it. Make yourself take the time to think about things, or to simply decline to render an opinion.
People have always been as reactionary and rush-to-judgment as they are now, it’s just that prior to the Internet, most people didn’t have an outlet for their inchoate rage beyond griping at nearby co-workers/friends/family, and there wasn’t a reward mechanism (likes/upvotes/whatever) for that form of expression. I was thinking of this the other day while looking at an old “letters to the editor” section of a Marvel comic.Think about this: in order to fire off a hot take, you had to sit down, write/type a letter (maybe a draft or two), put it in an envelope, stamp it, and physically mail your take to the editor. Then, in a few months, MAYBE you’d see your take plastered on the letters page.Like, you’d have to COMMIT to being a fuckhead.
It’s also funny because rushing to judgment in these kinds of things is practically the raison d’etre of about half the G/O sites, including the now-defunct Splinter and Deadspin.
Those were great sites…..also Spanfeller is a herb
Not to mention Michelle Wolf herself on her now cancelled TV show…
So you never once watched her show, huh?
I somewhat agree, but I think it also provides feedback loops of reinforcement for the individuals that wind them further.up
She’s funny as shit. Will definitely give it a watch.
Shit is funny? Who knew?!
Literally everyone.
Biff Tanner?
I loved Seth Myers’ line about how no one should have been surprised she took some shots at the correspondents’ dinner if they were at all familiar with her. He said she used to be the head writer on his show & she brutalized him so much that he still flinches if he crosses paths with a redheaded woman on the street.
Michelle Wolf is awesome and hilarious. I’ll definitely be watching this.
I caught her doing this act live earlier this year. It’s hilarious. You won’t regret watching it.
Watched it last night, it was awesome!
Always loved her on Daily Show. Hope she returns from time to time like Lewis Black.
‘Misinterpreted’? I think you mean they lied about it to protect their precious access.
I will attempt to watch this but her delivery is just nails-on-a-chalkboard to me. I just…can’t, for any long stretch of time (>5 minutes). I think she even makes jokes about how her voice sounds, which is cool that she’s self-aware, but I still can’t.But I’ll try, because I know a lot of people who find her genuinely hilarious.
I will attempt to watch this but her delivery is just
nails-on-a-chalkboard to me. I just…can’t, for any long stretch of
time (>5 minutes). I think she even makes jokes about how her voice
sounds, which is cool that she’s self-aware, but I still can’t.
I could listen to her yell for the rest of my life.
I have this exact reaction, moreso to Kristen Schaal. The Michelle Wolf I’ve seen has been limited to Daily Show bits and The Break (which was broken up into segments where other people were talking) and has always been very amusing, but voices in that register really hit the panic reflex in my monkey-brain and make me anxious and upset. It’s entirely my problem but it definitely affects my enjoyment of their work.
I was certain that Chappelle had the funniest/smartest stand-up act of the year. And then in swoops Wolf at the last moment, brilliantly sweeping up the title for herself. It is a glorious hour of comedy, I’ve already rewatched it. Insightful, daring, and unapologetic…certain to frazzle The Woke, and make everyone else with a sense of humor hurt from laughing so hard 🙂
Solid A for me, it was hilarious from start to finish. And I’m one of those assholes who couldn’t get into her comedy before bc I didn’t like her voice. Glad I finally came around