Julia Scotti is a comedian who has enjoyed a career resurgence in her 60s, performing on America’s Got Talent in 2016, and in 2020 as part of Carole Montgomery’s Showtime comedy showcase, More Funny Women of A Certain Age, alongside the likes of …
Continue ReadingWhile ‘cancelled’ comedians continue to succeed after making transphobic jokes, their trans peers are still finding it an often unwelcome industryA month before the transgender comedian Jaye McBride was supposed to appear at a festival, she got a phone…
Continue ReadingPeople are praising Saturday Night Live host Don Cheadle for standing up in defense of trans youth. Cheadle hosted SNL in what was a bounceback episode for the Saturday night sketch series. When he introduced musical guest Gary Clark Jr., the Black Monday star sported a shirt saying, “Protect trans kids” in all caps. The silent but powerful message was a reminder that trans children, as well as much of
The post Don Cheadle wore a pro-trans shirt on SNL; Queer Twitter rejoices appeared first on LaughSpin.
Continue ReadingIn an era where everyone is telling you to ‘stay woke,’ can you be too woke? Comedian Nore Davis’ new album asks just that question. His newest album, Too Woke, comes out November 23 a.k.a Black Friday. The album is something new from the Inside Amy Schumer alum. In the album, Davis plays a range of characters that represent different ways to be a black man in America. He uses
Continue ReadingIn his Netflix shows the comic defends his right to provoke, but protests against his gags about misconduct allegations and transgender people are justified
Dave Chappelle’s first Netflix specials, released last spring, left his reputation in need of recovery. Those two sets were widely criticised for their transphobia. Suddenly, a comic once considered radical for his super-smart critiques of race in America was toeing a conservative line on a new generation’s struggle for social justice. But now Chappelle’s back with two more Netflix offerings – and he’s not in the business of recovering his reputation at all. At least, not in the way you might expect.
Yes, in the first of the specials, Equanimity, he addresses the row over his trans material. “You know who hates me the most?” he asks. “The transgender community.” He’s not here to express regret. He likes transgender people, he says, and supports their struggle to live equally and without fear. But he reserves the right to joke at their expense. And he does so, once more from the vantage point of a self-satisfied straight guy who finds their identity inherently comical.
Related: Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais and comedy’s ‘ironic bigotry’ problem
Related: Dave Chappelle stand-up specials review: ‘More interested in re-litigating the past’
Continue ReadingThe same day that President Trump announced on Twitter that he’d ban the tens of thousands of active military members who are transgender from continuing to serve, Jimmy Fallon didn’t know quite what to say in his monologue for The Tonight Show. So he asked transgender comedian Patti Harrison to comment. Roll the clip! (Fallon […]
Continue ReadingIan Harvie came out to his family three times in Maine, as gay at 19, as transgender at 22, and as a stand-up comedian at 33. Now a trans man in his 40s, Harvie produced one of the best stand-up specials of 2016, Seeso’s May the Best Cock Win. In between, he met Margaret Cho […]
Continue ReadingThe comic has been accused of transphobia after riffing about Caitlyn Jenner in his standup show. So does giving him a favourable review endorse those gags?
Ricky Gervais sometimes gets people’s backs up and so, it transpires, do reviewerswho write about him. “B4 you write another @guardian review endorsing jokes about #trans people,” I was advised on Twitter after covering Gervais’s recent show, “please consider the impact.” Gervais dedicates a section of his show Humanity to jokes about (specifically) Caitlyn Jenner but also, by sly association, the idea of transgendering more widely. “If I say I’m a chimp, I am a chimp,” one riff begins, as Gervais makes merry with the culture of identity as self-assertion – and scores dependable laughs with rudimentary monkey business too.
Related: Ricky Gervais review – ruthless, self-revealing show is his best yet
Continue Reading