the Amy Schumer thread

well yes things comedians say sound lame if you take out the parts that make them funny

wait huh? i read that to mean that her brand of comedy is very of a piece with a certain dominant aesthetic in online media.

THE JEZEBEL EFFECT IS REAL.

(lol)

anyway whatever i just feel like she's being hailed for being a lot more revolutionary than she actually is. i'm not so into the slight update of gender norms ('look sexy but with stuff from etsy that says 'KILL ALL MEN' on it !!' that is pop feminism in 2015, so kill me.

It will be interesting to see how her material evolves over time. Right now, she's writing almost entirely for people like herself - women in their late 20s and early 30s who share the politics and values dominant in the culture industry. (Similarly, Louis CK writes for people like himself - middle-aged men at sea in a world that cares less and less about them with each passing day.) Schumer's material is targeted at an audience that writes lots of thinkpieces for high-profile web outlets, so she's having a moment. The interesting question is, what will a 35- or 40-year-old Amy Schumer talk about? Are there (m)any female comedians aiming at a middle-aged female audience? (I genuinely don't know.)

1.) No, not exactly. No more than Key & Peele are writing for mixed-race men in their late 20s and early 30s.

2.) Her material is targeted at an audience who write lots of thinkpieces? Is that why it's on Comedy Central between the Ashley Madison ads?

3.) I dunno where to start. How about any successful comedian from SNL in the last 10 years who isn't Will Ferrrell?

oh cmon you can't think that 'virality' isn't part of a marketing plan these days

also sketch comedy is a pretty different world than sitcoms!

A John Oliver takedown of Amy Schumer would freeze my Facebook page.

Now THERE'S your online thinkpiece guy.

going to guess you don't read much media 'for women'

(and you shouldn't, it's mostly terrible and patronizing. ask polly is great though)

she made a lengthy sketch piece about income equality with a call to arms to visit the Institute for Women's Policy Research; that seems fairly revolutionary
http://notcoolwithit.com/

i get the "why is she in every thinkpiece all of a sudden" backlash but a lot of her material really is clever and groundbreaking

not comparing her to him, but reading the recent Richard Pryor bio I'm amazed when ppl dismiss comedy purely on the basis of "unfunny subject matter." They'd get the torches out for RP and Carlin today.

(RP of course did terrible things to women offstage, but we can do that another time)

"norm-reinforcing ones, like the recent speech where she's like 'i'm 160 lbs and i can still get laid!' great, have a cookie? or don't, it might push you to 161"

The whole 160 lb. thing was supposedly a boxing metaphor and reference to a comment that Ellie Goulding (who had spoken just before her) made about punching above her weight in reference to whatever dude she's dating. I think people are making way too much about that comment considering it was supposedly just an off the cuff remark to something someone else said.

she made a lengthy sketch piece about income equality with a call to arms to visit the Institute for Women's Policy Research; that seems fairly revolutionary
http://notcoolwithit.com/

― like a giraffe of nah (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, June 9, 2015 12:05 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's these sort of things (ass also the birth control stuff) that play a large part in why I like her and think she's pretty great.

The "Milk Milk Lemonade" video worked great in that fundamental way of taking something objectified everywhere in pop music and video and de-objectifying it.

(ass also the birth control stuff)

err I have no idea how that typo happened - I meant to write "see also".

meh. i am bowing out of this discussion. it's ok to be left cold by things.

All great thoughts though, maura - whether she's basic or meta-basic.

it's totally ok to be left cold by things of course and intelligent people disagree. i find her rolling pr campaign and media blitz WAY more annoying than almost anything she's actually done on stage/on tv
i thought the "I'm sorry" bit was excellent too
the amy goes deep segments tend to be really worthwhile imo. conversations with folks in an open relationship, trans women, sex workers done as casual one-on-one bullshit over drinks opens up people outside of that accessible culture in, say, greenbrier tennessee to a big world that they otherwise can't really see.

of course it's ok to be left cold by things!

She seems more important than funny. Glad she is substituting edgy/baiting comedy w important satire but her comedy is a bit heavy handed for me, I prefer a quicker wit a la Sarah Silverman.

i'll admit i haven't been driven to see her recent viral hits because the praise has been more of the "finally! someone said it!" than the "LOL" - and she definitely came off a little eager-to-shock initially. but whether or not she's groundbreaking i think she's funny and think its cool she's getting a little more pointed - just hope it doesn't get to that margaret cho point where there's more applause than laughter. hopeful for that trainwreck movie.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/05/25/amy-schumer-and-the-rise-of-the-woman-crush/

lol cho getting thirsty there

yeah i remember seeing some of her early standup somewhere before all the hoopla and it was reeeally heavy on the racially queasy stuff

The thing that bugs me most about Trainwreck is that they decided a black friend was needed and then they decided to critique the need of a black friend by going all the way and casting Lebron James as himself. I get it. Um, haha.

Probably too off topic for this thread, but something about that seems both "unh, really?" and "try less hard next time."

did you see the movie or read a quote or are you just extrapolating from the trailer?

trailer

definitely wouldn't be shocked if it fell in to that "do the cliche but try to get points for calling out the cliche," was just curious if it had been laid out that bluntly

it's cool that the mere presence of a black face reduces the relationship presented in the trailer between a sports doctor and one of his famous clients to cliche, nothing about that reaction should be reflected upon at all

The thing that bugs me most about Trainwreck is that they decided a black friend was needed and then they decided to critique the need of a black friend by going all the way and casting Lebron James as himself. I get it. Um, haha.

Probably too off topic for this thread, but something about that seems both "unh, really?" and "try less hard next time."
--Johnny Fever

I actually think this is a fairly clever way of poking fun at that cliche! then again I'm also coming at this as a basketball dork inherently loling at bron trying to arrange times to watch prestige TV shows with bill hader

Maura otm

(Many xposts)

I saw Anthony Jeselnik last year at the Soho Theatre in London and he ended his (occasionally very funny) show with a Q&A. Someone shouted something disparaging about Schumer, and Jeselnik got kind of serious and started a little bit of a rant at the guy, going "First of all, she's more talented than you or half the hacks that play this room, you sad piece of shit" and then he kind of caught himself and he was like "sorry, yeah - Amy's amazing and I wish her all the best. And one other thing - if you get the chance to have sex with her - and you will - take that opportunity." It was just a cheap gag but it really seemed like he got kind of emotional for a minute; it was kind of funny

I only saw the trailer once fwiw, probably while watching Schumer's show on Comedy Central. I didn't remember the details. I just remembered Lebron hanging around with Bill Hader doing something in a restaurant emphasizing that he's Lebron James and you should be surprised Lebron does normal things haha. Seemed lazy.

If Hader is a sports doctor, that makes a lot more sense.

xpost I believe they used to date, fyi.

They did.

I just remembered Lebron hanging around with Bill Hader doing something in a restaurant emphasizing that he's Lebron James and you should be surprised Lebron does normal things haha. Seemed lazy.

the potential laziness seems more in tune with the "celebrities are people too!" stuntcasting cliche (bob barker in happy gilmore, lou ferrigno in i love you man, etc) imo

from the same director - eminem in funny people, billie joe in this is 40

when I first heard schumer's stand-up it was prob as part of one of the CC roasts, like her infamous joke about ryan dunn's death and was like "oh, a woman doing jeff ross bullshit, greeaaaaat." or worse, a less openly and unapologetically racist lisa lampanelli.

her sketches since then esp. recently are much more nuanced and interesting and probably valuable

wait, bill hader and lebron james used to date? this explains so much.

that said I also agree w a lot of what maura said in terms of her being jezebel catnip/an easily memeable delivery system for what are obviously important ideas and how that can leave people cold/skeptical

she was great on the bachelorette

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsT8JCHx08U

contestant: "sometimes i think i'm just too smart for 90% of the audience...it gets me in trouble..."

amy: "i wanna make you feel better...you're not"

jezebel catnip/an easily memeable delivery system for what are obviously important ideas

ok yeah but if she plays any part in getting those important ideas out to a wider audience who might not not have been exposed to or thought about them otherwise then i'm all for it

How basic can she be really she was once in a student move with some dude

well the school we went to (Towson University) was full of basics. she seemed cool to me at the time, though i can't say i had any clue she'd develop the comedic voice she has.

cool politics and groundbreaking ideas aside, i feel this show falls victim to the annoying, cringey, mad tv style of filming/editing that all these terrible cc shows are guilty of. kroll show, key and peele, even broad city (do we really need like... dance montages set to dubstep all the fucking time?). like that beauty pageant sketch... that shit is douchechill inducing in its execution.

hah well Kroll show totally does all that on purpose, it's always been part of the joke (and is often the joke)