Esquire USA - 10.2019

79

Hey, Bill,

Us Again.

A Few More Q’s:

Are there subjects
that are too taboo
for comedy?
I mean, everyone and
everything is fair game.
But in the current
environment, there are a
lot of things that people
don’t want to touch.
I’ve talked to a lot of com-
edy people who now look
back at things they
did, myself included, where
you go, “Oh, man, I
would never do that now.”
Such as?
A good example is [SNL
Weekend Update club kid]
Stefon saying “midget.”
Also, any time I played
different ethnicities. By
virtue of being a sketch
show, we had to do that.
But I remember play-
ing Chinese people, and,
I mean, there’s a lot of
stuff that I’m just like...
What led to that
shift among you and
fellow comedians?
Having a racist misogynist
for a president.
Is the election
really the defining
moment?
You have a guy in office
who would walk over some-
one dying in the street
if they were African-
American, or Hispanic, or
a woman. I think
people are sick of that
and hurt by it. And
by telling jokes that hurt
people’s feelings, in
a weird way you’re aligning
yourself with the presi-
dent, who is the worst
insult comic in the world.

No 12

The comedy bubble is bursting.

Its storied institutions are husks

of their former selves, and the

old guards are fading. Mad mag-

azine is kaput. The late-night cir-

cuit is run by toothless Jimmys,

too close to power to speak truth

to it. Saturday Night Live is still

led by its septuagenarian cre-

ator, who held the show back

from mentioning Harvey Wein-

stein after his downfall: “It’s a

New York thing,” Lorne told the

paparazzi. What a riot.

And what of live comedy?

Clubs are flailing, one rent hike

away from nonexistence. Yet they

remain set in their old ways, wed-

ded to two-drink minimums and

male-heavy lineups.

Then there’s the Internet—

or what’s left of it. A moment

of silence for the fallen: go90.

Seriously.tv. Super Deluxe (see

No. 19). Pour another for those

that survived by becoming more

like the TV studios they were

supposed to disrupt: CollegeHu-

mor, Jash, Funny or Die. The new

streaming powerhouse, Netflix,

seems less interested in making

good comedy than all comedy. It

also paid industry aristocrat Jerry

Seinfeld $100 million for a couple

of stand-up specials and a show

about driving fancy cars with his

famous friends. In July, the plat-

form lost $26 billion in a week. Is

it too big to fail? Stay tuned.

If the bubble has burst, we’re

hardly in a comedy recession.

The proliferation of formats has

created massive new audiences.

It’s also given comedians new,

direct ways to reach those audi-

ences and to make money from

them. Social media, live stream-

ing, podcasts, Patreon: These

allow joke tellers to work outside

the old, tired systems. The future

of comedy won’t be determined

by institutions; it will be guided

by we the people, and those who

make us laugh. —SETH SIMONS

COMEDY,

MEET

DISRUPTION.

YOU’RE

GONNA LOVE IT.

No

13

Netflix I Think You Should Leave, Tuca & Bertie • Amazon Fleabag • Showtime Desus & Mero • Hulu Shrill • FX What We Do in the Shadows

No 14

The Curious

Problem of

Surely the co–head writers

and Weekend Update

anchors have their moments.

But Che has a habit of

hectoring female critics on

social media, and he

defended Louis C. K.’s much-

maligned recent stand-up

appearances. For his part,

Jost has made transphobic

jokes, then refused to

apologize when questioned

about them. Too often, it’s

not their jokes that go viral;

it’s their missteps.

—GABRIELLE BRUNEY

No

16

ONE THING

(AMONG MANY)

SNL GETS RIGHT:

MENTAL

HEALTH

Love it or can’t stand it,

SNL deserves credit for

recently tackling one of the

most important, most often

ignored issues of our time:

mental health. And no cast

member has done more to

advance the cause than Pete

Davidson, who has used the

show as a platform to share

his struggles with border-

line personality disorder.

It’s not just him—check out

“Friendos,” a music-video-

as-therapy-session by a

Migos-esque crew. Bonus: It

features Donald Glover and

A$AP Rocky. —DOM NERO

BOWEN YANG

He cohosts one of our favorite podcasts,

Las Culturistas (see No. 9),

and the excellent live show “I Don’t Think So,

Honey!” He’s a staff writer for SNL.

And this year, after Yang, twenty-eight,

appeared in a sketch as a sassy

Kim Jong Un, fans urged the show to add him

as its first (!) Asian-American

cast member. We couldn’t agree more.

15

SNL’S (^) NEXT CAST MEMBER IS
SHOULD BE
N
o