Ellen Deneres and Ali Wong, both have their Netflix specials out this week. Not the first for either. Both successful women with previous specials that did well and I watched.
Ali Wong has had 3 before this and it seems like most of her specials mark an important event in his life. Her first 2 specials were shot when she expecting each of her babies (who are 6 and 8 now) and one after that. This one is celebrating her divorce and being single again. I did not know that she got divorced but this seemed like big news because she does mention her husband in her previous specials. And no being an Asian has no bearing on the surprise because she's lived in the west long enough for that to not matter.
Ali has always been outspoken in the stand up. From indulging in gross scatology to declaring hideous pregnancy truths, there is room for little in terms of intelligent jokes. I mean potty jokes are just scraping the bottom of the barrel and isn't the hallmark of a great comedian (Vir Das is usually my benchmark for stand up and I haven't seen him ever do toilet humour)
But this one took the cake. She is at her raunchiest and crudest so far. The pussy/dick joes can easily be used to make for a drinking game. Add the number of times she alludes to her millionaire status and you'll be drunk as hell by the end of it. It was like her sex playbook of single life on display for everyone. Joke after joke was about how her freedom from the cage of marriage had led to sex with a string of men and her observations on each.
Why anyone would want to know about her sex and single life is beyond me. Or maybe that's what sells on Netflix.
The whole time I was watching it, I was like her husband must have watched this and her kids can NEVER watch it. It's their mom literally talking about her lady parts, P in V jokes and with her hand on her pussy, no less. As if the only meaning to being single again is to unleash the sexual animal in you and brag about it on international TV. At one point she actually described going down as - putting the whole where food goes to the whole where food comes out! Gross jokes don't make an intelligent comedian.
Her slipping in her millionaire status as an Asian woman is also off putting. She bragged about paying off her husband's business school loans in a previous special. She has no qualms openly flaunting her ego of a successful woman who is richer than men in her life. About how her giving head is a privilege because the man gets to come on the face of a millionaire!
To think that she has the great opportunity to use her power and voice to talk about the issues women face - like Iliza Shlesinger - she talks about how she wants the man to lick her taint as an apology! What a waste!
Maybe she was trying to talk about how liberating a divorced woman in her 40s can be in today's times. But for me, it totally missed the mark! I should have guessed what's in store for the next hour when she starts her show by saying, as a single mom, all she's interested in is being "dicked down'.
This special can also be especially triggering for unhappy couples. Or just couples married for over a decade. She declares - "for women, 40 is the golden age — to get divorced". I don't think women feel empowered about being married - they are missing all the sex with different people - or being divorced - not everyone is having their pussy licked by a different man every 3 weeks. Single moms have jobs to go to and kids to raise by themselves. And she is the epitome of how happy she is dating different people through an app. She brags about the "single mom energy" that's so attractive. Alas, everyone isn't a millionaire, Miss. Wong! And some of us would like to make things work especially when they get hard. So while the "fun" she's having is a very personal experience, I don't understand why it is broadcast on a Netflix special!
And at the end of it, the title is ironic since she is not even single anymore - one more thing I learnt on the special (Since I do not follow celebrity gossip). It's like she took us through all the fun she's having as a single person only to tell us at the end that she has once again given in to the confines of a relationship - which can turn into a cage - as she describes the institution of marriage.
For me, the show was a 2/5 because it lacked the humour that a comedy special should have. It felt like listening to the sex diary of a single mom - something I am super not interested in. And the presentation is obscene and bawdy instead of being intelligent and empowering. What a waste of an hour!
I also watched Ellen's Netflix special this week. I did not even know that she was kicked out of her own show for bad publicity about her being mean. And since her special is a whole other sitstorm, I have decided to do a whole other post on it. So stay tuned!
Have you watched Ali Wong's latest special? What did you think about it?
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