Esquire USA - 10.2019

81

“We talk a lot

about our iden-

tities, and we

talk a lot about

working to clear

misconceptions

about those

identities. But

it’d be really

cool to see some-

one like myself

not even have

to talk about

being Muslim or

Egyptian,

because it’s just

understood.

We can all just

be weird

and not have to

explain

everything.”

Just kidding! Turn to

page 116 for No. 25,

Esquire’s very own

retroactive ombudsman,

Whitney Cummings.

FOUR

UP-AND-COMERS

& ONE JOKE

FROM EACH

No

24

ONE

FINAL

THOUGHT

VIA

RAMY YOUSSEF

Stand-up
One person, one mic, one audience. Its most
celebrated performers emerged in the fifties and
sixties with the likes of Lenny Bruce. Elevated in
the seventies and eighties by truth tellers like
Richard Pryor and George Carlin.
The Archetype: Richard Pryor: Live in Concert

Improv

That thing where the performers take a word

from the audience and run with it, but, like, funny.

Comes in two formats, short form and long.

The Archetypes: iO Theater (Chicago), Improv

Asylum (Boston), Upright Citizens Brigade (New

York and Los Angeles)

No 21 AN OVERSIMPLIFIED FIELD GUIDE TO COMEDY

PATTI

HARRISON,

28

Responding to Trump’s

ban on transgender peo-

ple serving in the mili-

tary: “I’m a transgender

woman. And as a trans-

gender person, it’s hard

to articulate exactly how

I feel. I guess if I had

to describe it, I’d say:

Donald, you’re so stu-

pid. You are soooooo stu-

pid. You’re lucky you’re

so hot.” —The Tonight

Show, July 26, 2017

APARNA

NANCHERLA,

37

Recalling being stuck

behind four finance

guys on the sidewalk: “I

really was trying to get

around them, but—I

don’t know how else

to say this—they were

moving at the speed of

privilege. That is just

to say: They weren’t

creating any gaps for

anyone to join them or

advance past them.”

—The Late Late Show,

April 18, 2018

JABOUKIE

YOUNG-WHITE,

25

“L. A. is a city where

you’re in a car, you’re

in a building, you’re in

a car, you’re in another

building... until one day,

someone saw a monster-

truck tire and was like,

‘Enough!’ ” He mimes

flipping a tire. “And

that’s how CrossFit

was invented. He was

like, ‘That felt pretty

good! I think I’ll make

that my personality.’ ”

—The Tonight Show,

October 5, 2018

JO

FIRESTONE,

32

“Soup sucks. It’s either

too hot or it’s just wet.

You take the first bite

of soup, you’d better

like it, ’cause that’s all

the rest of the bites. You

know, if you get a differ-

ent bite in there, some-

thing’s messed up with

the soup. That joke was

for the soup haters.”

—The Tonight Show,

January 25, 2019

NAVIGATING THE NETFLIX SWAMP

Netflix has released more than three hundred stand-up

specials, and not all of them are winners. These are.

Ali Wong

Hard Knock Wife

Hasan Minhaj

Homecoming King

Tig Notaro

Happy to Be Here

Hannah Gadsby

23 Nanette

N

o

No 22

Sketch

Two- to four-minute acted-out vignettes, à la

SNL and MADtv, traditionally built around “one

weird thing.” Some of its best practitioners are

the weird thing.

The Archetype: Mr. Show with Bob and David

Fin