Whenever I see “comedy” at the theater, I want to run away
Having watched countless plays, the number of times I can count as true comedy performances on one hand is very few. Most of the time, it’s clear that actors are trying to be funny but fail, resulting in awkwardness both on and off stage. On another level, even if sitting next to the audience, whether it’s true comedy or not, sometimes viewers can laugh at moments the director planted as bitter humor in tragedies. Whenever this happens, as someone immersed in the plot, I feel helpless and disappointed for them.
London Life, Phoebe
I’ve watched dozens of NT Live performances, and “London Life” is the only one that I had access to but didn’t want to add to my collection. When I first saw the unanimous praise online, I was excited, but after watching it, I was filled with questions. Unlike “Hangman,” which had a strong accent, I understood most of the references here, but still couldn’t figure out what was actually funny. A year and a half later, wanting to write a review, I tried watching again but 15 minutes was really all I could tolerate. Below are all the laugh points from those 15 minutes by the live audience—I didn’t laugh once; instead, the longer I watched, the more serious my expression grew. This is a show I would definitely leave midway through:
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- Trying to take off the jacket because it’s too hot at the start of the interview
- Telling the interviewer, “I’m not trying to sleep with you, look at yourself”
- “I ordered a slutty Pizza, the bitch was dripping” — a pun
- “I wish the banker could come on me for 10K pounds”
- “Zack Efron is a good actor,” “Obama is attractive”
- Saying goodnight to boyfriend by the bed after watching porn
- Handprints on the wall left during a threesome on her period
- Threesome was great
- “I spent half an hour doing makeup and it ends up amazing”
- “I dress like a slut but can go home and change; the man passing by has a body full of fat he can’t take off at home”
Among these 10 “laugh points,” there is physical acting, personification, bold descriptions of her sexual fantasies and experiences, as well as body shaming of men. Since this is performed in a theater for effect, naturally it cannot be judged by social norms outside. But what I strongly resent is that except for point 6 with a hidden joke, the rest are very blunt, like an unfiltered emotional outburst. As a male audience member, I was not insulted because of the “male” identity, but rather felt that my “audience” identity was insulted—paying for a ticket only to be force-fed unprocessed garbage.
In our last podcast episode “Three Sisters”: Why Is a Boring Play Performed Year after Year?, a senior mentioned the concept of “low comedy”: it refers to a dramatic or literary form of popular entertainment with no major objectives besides generating laughter through boasting, loud jokes, drunkenness, swearing, fighting, slapstick, and other rambunctious activities [Encyclopædia Britannica]. “London Life” is a typical low comedy. Low comedy is not appreciated by most of society and looked down upon compared to high comedy. The sole purpose of low comedy is to evoke laughter. Because most forms of low comedy lack any contextual information, they have not earned high respect [B. A. (Jan 21, 1934). “Salute to low comedy”. New York Times.]
★★☆☆☆
Ali Wong, Yang Li, Uncle Roger, and Norah
As another female low comedy, besides “London Life,” the most popular must be Ali Wong’s Netflix special. Watching their performances elicits similar feelings: “What is this? What’s funny about it? Why is it popular?” The only slight difference might be that Ali Wong, as an Asian woman, leverages Netflix to skyrocket and simultaneously contributes slightly to breaking American Asian stereotypes. If I were to rate and review, it would also be a fail.
Yang Li, whom I first knew because of her “ordinary yet confident” meme—so good that even someone like me with a timeline cleanliness obsession follows her heavily ad-ridden Weibo. She drops that punchline within the first minute, which felt a bit lacking in buildup at first, but then follows it up with jokes about a dumb person scoring 40 points and “rational women won’t come after you,” making the first three minutes well-structured and surprising. Returning to the most viral recent “Men Have No Bottom Line” video, similarly, no laughs in the first three minutes; it even had “You male viewers are really hard to please” type comments. It makes one wonder if this is just setup for later jokes or genuine complaint? Calling it stand-up, why does it look like a celebrity interview post-fame?
Another breakout star who rose to fame by reviewing egg fried rice is Uncle Roger. Though not female, he has seriously been led by capital every step of the way. His channel has many videos of Nigel Ng’s live performances as himself, and nearly 100 podcast episodes of “Rice to Meet You.” With various racial jokes, cultural clash bits, audience interactions, and podcast spontaneity, they are top-tier. But since the egg fried rice video made him three million subscribers, he keeps recycling the same old Uncle Roger stereotypical Asian uncle skit. It’s annoying enough to make me unsubscribe, but I’m still glad talented people can make money.
So who’s actually good?
Norah, don’t ask, just search!
In the show “So-so” with those four foreigners, Norah was purely awkward acting, but who would have thought years later she blossomed so impressively! Apart from the Rainbow Chorus, she’s the Shanghai performer I most want to see!