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If you watch them back-to-back, they seem to be in conversation, or debate.
But just as importantly, they represent comedys past and its future.
Maher is the past.
Gadsby is the future.
The result is a stand-up special about the distortions that seem built into the very idea of stand-up.
Female artists often defy genre.
One way Gadsby does that is by making comedy itself one of her main topics.
The good ones open up intellectual and emotional responses rather than trying to manage them or shoo them away.
Taking a joke, from her perspective, is a nonphysical equivalent of taking a punch.
The object of the joke is proving that she can withstand pain by laughing.
This is how ideology reproduces itself.
Weve got to laugh because if we dont laugh, it proves the point, she says.
We did laugh, though; Gadsby encouraged us and gave us permission.
Which means next time, the laughter sticks in the throat.
Or maybe it doesnt.
Thats a specific kind of magic trick.
Its a reminder that theres no such thing as just a joke or just a story.
The gap between Gadsbys vision and execution and Mahers is vast.
This is why we lose elections that shit has to stop, Maher says of Damons detractors.
Thats unfortunate, considering that a big part of his routine is based on self-identifying as a liberal.
As an example of craft,Live From Oklahomais even more of a bust.
The worst, like Mahers, amounts to an hour of muttering with occasional shrugs.
brigade by asking, Why is insensitivity something to strive for?
That has to sting.
Stop wasting my time.
Originality and craft are just as important.
Theyre coming at comedy from a defensive, even beleaguered position.
Apparently, Jenner is the only transgender person any of them has heard of.)
This might sound daunting.
Maybe it is, if youre Maher.
Pull your fucking socks up, she says.
How humiliating fashion advice from a lesbian.
That is your last joke.
