Ilana Glazer: The Planet Is Burning

I felt like she went into little dramatic thinking she was cute or affable but it didn't land for me. It seemed that she was playing to the small crowd there that is really into her versus a wider stage that this format is intended for. I think she has the goods as an actor but doesn't know how to play to a medium that's bigger than the room she was in there just yet as a comedian.

At first I thought there was something wrong with *me* because I wasn't laughing. Before I knew it I'd turned away to, like, fold laundry while I listened. It never got funnier; in fact it never got funny. You can be woke or not, be feminist or post-millennial or blasé or blue or observational or slapstick a damn mime as long as you're funny. If you're not funny -- then you're doing it wrong.

I give this one star because it's technical aspects are at least competent.

There's so much wrong here it's hard to wrap my head around it. Nothing works. Her timing is terrible. Her setups are terrible. It's not insightful. Her jokes pander to the absolute lowest, laziest rung of radically left, millennial woke culture, with punchlines like "cause that's what a typical MAN would do, right?" Even her intro looks absurd and ridiculous unless you're already on her hype train.

It isn't that progressive gender topics are off-limits for comedy. Joan Rivers did that as far back as the mid-1960s. It's that there's almost zero evidence of the craft of comedy to be found. She's not turning a contentious talking point on its ear and making us see it in a different way via her humor. She's not poking fun in a witty way. She's not challenging the audience by illuminating why their stereotypes might be flawed or ridiculous. All she's doing is trotting out these stereotypes one after another and taking unfunny cheap shots at them to get predictable affirmation from a crowd that either thinks exactly like her or is being coached. Or plied with lots of booze. Likely all three.

It's the equivalent of a group of middle school bullies surrounding one kid and saying "His face is funny, right? What a stupid, funny face this kid has, right?" And all the other bullies start laughing hysterically. "You're right! His face is so funny and stupid. You nailed it! You're hilarious! You should be a comedian." It's zero comedy and one hundred percent appeal to her tribe to agree that somehow what's coming out of her mouth is funny.

It's not my first rodeo with this kind of thing. Go to any open mic or thrown together comedy event and you'll have to suffer through a few acts that still haven't figured out that being angry and ranting doesn't make you a comedian. But what defies comprehension and utterly blows my mind is that Amazon put a camera in front of one such example. And as of this writing on 1/9, it's been out nearly a week and it's still being pushed at the top of the Amazon Prime page. I assumed they'd be furiously burying this or or encasing it in concrete and evacuating everyone for hundreds of miles like Chernobyl.

But whatever. Unless you want to see the most toxic, humanity-destroying corner of supposedly woke, progressive culture set to what feels like a laugh track, avoid this.

I think she needs Abby. Broad city is pretty great, but based on this. I don't think Ilana has been doing standup very long. She has charisma but the writing is super weak. She should Stick to surreal absurdist type stuff it's def her strong point. I get it, discrimination sucks, and there are hateful people in the world. I'm so tired of hearing about the same 5 woke topics, beyond that, at this point it's simply lazy and over safe. I can't wait for the first comic or writer to evolve us past this pretend to be woke to appease/entertain/ market to a bunch of people who pretend to hate capitalism.

Then don't ruin your memories of how hilarious she is in that by avoiding this "stand up comedy" special. I watch a lot of stand up and thus barely qualified as that. She's trying really really hard to act aloof but the heavy handed SJW vibe and cringe worthy quips barely register with her obviously excited venue audience thus on TV it comes off flatter than unleavened bread. If you want to watch it consider yourself warned.