I think you’re wrong about where Schumer is. She’s not where Silverman is today, but she’s beyond the crass, sexy phase. You really ought to see her skits. There is a whole lot of substance there.
It’s flat out satire. Satire that often gets a bunch of people up in arms. Hell, just as I was writing this, someone came in to whine about how it was “preachy.” You can’t be preachy without substance.
I saw the show first, and I think it affects how I view her standup. It’s through the lens of satire–she’s making fun of the women who do those things you describe. And, I think that becomes more clear as you get to her more modern stuff–hence why I said her standup gets better the newer it is.
Maybe, but you can certainly be preachy without being funny. And preachy without funny is generally tedious.
I’ve little opinion on Schumer herself. The couple things I’ve seen with her were somewhere between amusing and forgettable and Trainwreck was okay but also nothing especially memorable.
I like Amy Shumer, I agree with most that sketch comedy is her best format, but I liked Trainwreck just fine, it had some brilliant bits in it. I think it had some novice issues, she should probably have worked with a really good screenwriter on her first go round. I find her standup to be generally funny, but uneven.
I think she does play the dirty card and the pretty girl card, but what makes it forgivable is, she often plays them brilliantly, in ways that often depend for their humor on running counter to the sexy elements in the comedy.
I find her quite funny. Love her show, like her standup and liked Trainwreck quite a lot. (Bonus point for featuring Brie Larson, who I love.)
If anyone’s curious, here’s a link to the sketch itself in an article about it. (Scroll down for the video.) The article also links two other good ones: Compliments and I’m So Bad.
EDIT: I’ve actually been re-watching several Inside Amy Schumer sketches recently, and am continually surprised to see Nikki Glaser in almost all of them. No particular reason, just wasn’t aware of her until Not Safe premiered.
Wasn’t she accused of stealing gags from other comedians? Anyway, no, I don’t find her funny at all. Louis CK is funny. Sam Kiniston was funny. In comparison this woman’s stuff is insipid.
I find her material to be crude. Haven’t seen Trainwreck or her show. What little of her standup I’ve seen strikes me as juvenile and unfunny. Maybe there’s more to her that I’ve missed, or maybe I’m just not her target audience. (FWIW, I don’t think Seinfeld is funny, either. Maybe it’s me…)
She IS talented and she CAN be funny. I’d just hate for her to wake up 20 years from now and say, “Holy Shit…! Those agenda-fucks Melissa McCarthy’d my career! Now if I go on stage and milk doesn’t curdle for 20 blocks square, people will say I’m not being the ‘Real’ Amy Schumer…”
It’s interesting. It’s kind of rare that someone who is a good sketch writer is also a good stand-up. People like Dave Chappell are few and far between. It doesn’t really suprise me that a lot of people only like her show. They are really different skills and different types of comedy.
Her show is clearly her best work to date and anyone who hasn’t watched, at the very least, the clips posted in the thread here, really shouldn’t judge her work. It would be like saying you didn’t like the Beatles because you heard a couple of solo albums from Ringo and some of John’s experimental stuff but never listened to Abby Road.
This is a crappy analogy, sorry. Better would be you don’t like Bob Dylan because you read that book of poetry he released and thought it was terrible. But you have never heard his music.
My wife and I find her stand-up to be hysterical. I first got exposed to her stand-up via Sirrus radio/Comedy Central channel. We finally saw her live about a year or two ago and really enjoyed it. I’ve only seen bits and pieces of her show so I have a fairly uninformed opinion but what I’ve seen I did not find as funny as her stand-up.
And I think she is hot. My wife thinks she is just ‘kinda cute’ and seems somewhat surprised at my opinion that she is hot.