There are multiple shows and movies like Late Night, Hacks, and many more that feature female comic characters. It has been almost decided that a fictional female comic needs be more real – free and easy, more unguarded. She should be able to describe painful stories in a funny manner, reminiscing her feelings to sound real.
Television Shows and Their Reality
Various TV shows have followed the same trend. In an effort of trying to make fictional female characters real and easy-going, they have become too real and in some instances, too far from reality. Let’s take a look at a few examples from a few famous and latest television shows, to see how writers, directors, and producers, have incorporated this trend, and how it is appearing on screen.
Hacks featuring Deborah Vance and Hannah Einbinder
Take the example of Hacks. Jean Smart plays Deborah Vance, a Joan Rivers–like figure whose main issue is that she has stopped progressing, have become too comfortable and at any time be replaced as a headliner at the Las Vegas casino where she has worked for centuries. Ava, Hannah Einbinder, her complete opposite, is an emerging young comedy writer who got called off for being too easy on Twitter.
When her carelessness made her not eligible for getting hired, she moves to Las Vegas to write jokes for Deborah. The result turns out to be very interesting that whirls around each of their theories of comedy. Ava encourages Deborah to become more personal and Deborah listens to her advice. The end of the season is mind-boggling.
What is really uncanny is that Ava isn’t really funny. It would be different if she had imaginative thinking towards comedy or a solution to the issue regarding stand-up that didn’t actually depend directly on setups and punchlines. But she doesn’t. Ava looks average and somewhat depressed when she and Deborah exchange insults with each other. She sulks.
We don’t get to fully see her changing her experiences into comedy but she does share a lot about her life without any filter and is not shaped in a special way. This, however, does save Deborah from her old-fashioned ways. Once Ava succeeds in convincing Deborah, she becomes an interesting character to watch her turn into how angry and unfiltered people are. Even though it is a captivating change, is this a good comedy? Certainly not.
Katherine Newbury in the Movie Late Night
This is certainly not surprising. In 2019, Emma Thompson’s character Katherine Newbury in the movie Late Night, a late-night talk show host, is characterized as someone who is arrogant, intelligent, and serious. Her biggest flaw is her resistance to showing her real self – her challenges, passion, and beliefs. When her servant warns her about being cautious to whom she opens up, she stops herself from telling an average joke about Planned Parenthood where she is going through menopause. This joke could have affected her already failing career.
Newbury and Molly
When Newbury fires Molly, she does a stand-up set where she revealed that she is still recovering from the incident. Newbury, as an apology, asks to follow Molly’s act. After revealing how much she dislikes the way social media portrays the word “favorite”, she breaks through joking about her situation that touches on ageism in Hollywood. This movie follows the same trend as well. She spoke from what was in her heart, about her current situation without any rehearsal. In doing so, she unconsciously made her way through the industry that the film calls “good comedy”.
What’s Happening?
It seems that the theory of comedy these fictional shows follows have confused the real meaning of “being funny” and “being your own self”. There are countless other examples wherein the name of comedy, which entails making people laugh by telling jokes and not their life struggles, they use the difficult situations and circumstances that people face and make jokes out of them.
Well, that is not what comedy means. You tell jokes to make people feel better, not make them worse. One can’t laugh at other people’s real-life situations. From the outside, they will act as if they are okay with it and the situation is not bothering them but in reality, they will be hurting from the inside.