You have probably already heard of The Netflix Special Nanette by Hannah Gadsby. It is a few months old, but everyone was talking about it when it was first released, and I recently have watched it, and I can honestly say that it is nothing like I thought it would be, in a good way. This stand-up is nothing like your regular comedy special. Instead of feeding the audience jokes, Gadsby dissects her humor, revealing the harsh reality behind her punchlines. When I first started watching it, I didn’t find it very entertaining, but as it went on, I got something way more meaningful than what I expected. She started with some jokes revolving around her sexuality and self-expression and what that means when coming from a background like hers. However, the jokes begin to dry up, and Gadsby starts to talk about how she’s sick of putting herself down for a laugh. She says that, as a minority, to fit in and be accepted she’s had to make light of the severe and traumatic moments in her life. This is that is seen amongst many comedians, and in everyday life, for various reasons.
This is the first stand up special that touched me. Hannah Gadsby took a different route towards the end of her special when she addressed that her career as a comedian is toxic and she must give it up. She makes the joke “What comedian can’t even make a lesbian laugh? Every comedian ever.” These are the kind of jokes that people like Hannah rely on. She uses her marginalized status as a lesbian and an “incorrect woman” to be the punchline to her jokes. She goes on to explain that if we (those being discussed in the joke) don’t laugh it proves the point.
Self-deprecating humor is at the forefront of comedy but using this type of humor doesn’t show humility – it’s humiliating. Hannah gave some context to her life and explained her internalized homophobia and the jokes she delivered throughout her career have only added to that internalized homophobia, and she refuses to give that to her audience. I enjoyed this special even though it felt weird to be emotional when I thought I would be laughing.
Self-deprecating humor is something I think we all do on an everyday basis. Whether it is on our race, class status, mental health, school, whatever it is, it usually always has to do with something that is causing distress or negatively affecting us. The same thing goes for “harmless” jokes that play into stereotypes. Although sometimes I feel that we should laugh at ourselves, I don’t think that everything should be joked about. This makes us downplay our experiences and This makes us downplay our experiences and see serious events as not important at all. There is also a lot of harm in doing this, especially through jokes because jokes allow people to think that what is being delivered as a joke is the reality of those experiences: just a joke.
Overall, what I took from Nanette was that punchlines rely on trauma because they need tension. Many people say that laughter is the best medicine, and that laughter can bring a room of people together, but it also spreads blind hatred. We should be sharing our stories as a means of healing instead of downplaying our experiences through punchlines and jokes.
“Laughter is not the medicine. Stories hold the cure. “- Hannah Gadsby
If you haven’t watched this, please do.