I think if we’re honest, that famous Eddie Murphy special was pretty one-note raunchy as well. Homophobic too. He was much funnier IMO on SNL and in Trading Places. And it’s not like I’m a prude: I love other risque comedies like It’s Something About Mary and the HBO shows *Girls *and Silicon Valley (their “Mean Jerk Time” bit had me gasping for breath). But that Murphy special was just gross. Same with Schumer’s, from what I saw–but, I’d argue, to a lesser degree (and here’s where sexism if not misogyny comes in: a lot of people, male and female alike, have less tolerance for that sort of thing coming from a female comic).
Echoing what others have said (because it bears repetition): I liked Trainwreck, I really enjoyed a previous standup special of hers (on HBO), I have zero problem with her politics or activism (and probably agree with her on most such stances), I turned this off after 15 minutes due to utter lack of entertainment.
So while I can well believe that some large percentage of the 1-star reviewers are from random gamergate idiots, I doubt it’s all of them.
Just watched it. I’m a fan like Rushgeekgirl is (except I -have- paid money to see her. Ha!) and I don’t think I laughed once during the special. Maybe at the end when she was making fun of the way the press covers her. But the rest of the show was boring as fuck.
Still love her tv show, and I liked the stand up show I saw live. But this latest Netflix special was just something else. Or someone else. Bad shit.
But that’s going to be the narrative, partly because it bolsters Schumer’s brand and partly because it’s a simple Culture War narrative with defined Good and Evil.
This is turning into a litmus test. This kind of stuff will now come up every time she’s mentioned.
I’m so sick of people using the misogyny defense anytime a woman gets criticized. It’s incredibly disingenuous. Unless you think she’s such a transcendentally amazing comedian that no one could possibly dislike her based on merit, it’s bullshit. If a man had the same material as her and people derided him as being a one trick pony, or just going for shock humor, or whatever, no one would ever assume that that came from a place of misandry or racism or whatever. But if anyone criticizes a woman comedian - obviously it’s just angry misogynists at work.
You can see it right here in this thread where multiple people who say they’re even fans of hers admit that this special was garbage and unwatchable while others assume that a negative rating must be misogyny.
If anything, being a woman almost certainly works in her favor, as it seems pretty unlikely to me that a man would become a wildly successful comedian by telling everyone how much he likes it when women suck his dick even though his nuts stink like an animal. She feels like the second coming of Lisa Lampenelli who somehow made a career out of saying “I fuck black guys” over and over while being similarly aggressively unfunny.
You take the weight out of actual real accusations and cases of misogyny by relying an assumption of misogyny every time a woman is criticized.
And if there is some sort of alt-right anti-feminist brigading or whatever, and I’m unconvinced there is - that’s probably a backlash against the idea that disliking Shumer is misogyny rather than simply hating Shumer herself.
Also, by the standards of the sort of people who would support her, she’s pretty clearly a rapist.
I haven’t read the comments enough to know, but I agree with your general point. On the other hand, are there comments that say it sucks because she doesn’t meet some physical ideal?
I said “iconic” not time tested. I agree that it has not aged well at all. But at the time it was a monster hit. It propelled him to be a star 100 times bigger than Shumer. I listen to a lot of podcasts with comics and most of a certain age point to Delirious and Raw as being the reason why they became comics. The movie and the image of Murphy in a tight red leather suit are certainly iconic.
Are thin women not real women?
It’s true. But just to be clear, I first watched it back in the '80s, with eager anticipation because it *was *such a huge deal (and as I say, I had really enjoyed him in movies and on TV) and I was immediately disappointed. I haven’t seen it since, so my description of it is based on my memory from thirty years ago.
I would also dispute that *Delirious *“propelled him” to be a huge star. It was part of the mix, but he had been a wildly popular SNL castmember for a few years at that point, and in the nine months or so before Delirious, he had starred in two hit movies (48 Hrs. and Trading Places). Then the next year, he starred in the even more wildly popular Beverly Hills Cop. When you’re in three big movies and a popular role on a network TV show in a two year span, I’m not sure you can point to the HBO standup special released in the midst of all that and say it’s what’s providing the rocket fuel (even if HBO executives would enjoy that interpretation).
Nope, they’re just hypocrites/sheeple/too stupid to understand they’re being manipulated. If you look a certain way it means you don’t have opinions…unless you look a certain way.
No, it’s just that women have so much social pressure to be thin that if you’re not, you get a crap ton of criticism leveled at you. Especially if your job puts you in the public eye, and even more if you’re on camera a lot. It takes big brass balls to tell people “this is who I am and what I look like, and if you don’t like it you can suck it”.
People can be naturally thin, though.
Many women are naturally thin or don’t have curves. The message ‘Real women have curves’ is exclusionary.
Yeah, I’m super fat and I’d love to think that makes me more “real” but that’s just not true.
It’s true–but there’s also a lot of truth in what is being attempted to be conveyed in the “Real women” shorthand. What is meant, but is more unwieldy to say, is “a more representative cross-section of real women…”.
There are a lot of non-thin women who’ve suffered body shaming and tried to turn it around by becoming the body shamers themselves and declared that they are the normal, the acceptable, and the “real” while thinner women aren’t “real women.”
It’s hypocritical and quite frankly awful - you shouldn’t respond to abuse by trying to become the abuser yourself.
JcWoman could’ve simply said that she appreciates that Amy Shumer is comfortable with her non-Hollywood body, but instead she implicitly tried to shame thinner women instead.
Yes, this, thank you!
You’re welcome!
I don’t know about people saying it sucks because she doesn’t meet some physical ideal; but I have seen people call her fat as an extra insult when saying they don’t like her. There was a recent Facebook post by The Tasteless Gentlemen where she gets slammed pretty hard. When will people learn that adding insults an otherwise good argument only reduce the punch of the argument?
What little I’ve seen of the Netflix show had pretty gross humor in it. Shock Value humor is not my cup of tea. I felt the same thing about some of Louis CK’s stuff too. Humor can definitely be done without being vulgar. Bill Cosby, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, Brian Regan. For that matter George Carlin was never vulgar.
I saw the first 20 minutes or so the other night. I turned it off because I had other priorities come up. I’m usually a fan (although I didn’t like Trainwreck), but this special wasn’t quite working for me. Mostly, it was the fact that it had all the pacing of a schoolkid trying to give a 5 minute oral report with 30 seconds of material.