Don’t Let the Alt-Right Stop You From Saying Amy Schumer Sucks
Trolls poison honest conversation
The alt-right’s touch is so toxic that it poisons honest conversation about, well, almost everything.
One example — right-wing trolls have made it impossible to reasonably criticize new stand-up comedy specials.
Including Amy Schumer’s.
Schumer’s new hour of comedy on Netflix — The Leather Special — isn’t good. The critical and fan reviews reflect that. If you Google The Leather Special right now, you’ll get two explanations why.
One side — represented by sites such a Breitbart — says Schumer sucks and she’s ruining comedy. The other side claims those negative reviews are part of a concerted effort by internet bullies to drag Schumer through the mud.
It feels like every new, controversial piece of art provokes a fight that forces everyone to form up along political lines — and it’s fucking exhausting.
The Leather Special begins with the embattled comedian strutting onto stage, baby-talking to a bottle of wine and explaining her all-leather outfit. “Every comic has some special where they wear all-leather and they regret it later,” Schumer explains.
Were I Schumer, I’d regret The Leather Special. Not because of her clothing, but because the set just isn’t very good. Look, I like Schumer. I think she’s funny. Her television show Inside Amy Schumer is frequently brilliant.
Her special Mostly Sex Stuff is great. If Trainwreck trimmed half an hour off its run-time, it’d be a classic. But that’s director Judd Apatow’s fault.
Save for an anecdote about Schumer’s Peabody Award nod and a great bit about gun-control, The Leather Special just isn’t up to snuff. Her last special for HBO wasn’t stellar, either.
I have a few friends who are working the stand-up circuit. I asked them why they think the last few Schumer specials haven’t been great. They explained that it’s really hard to come up with a new hour of fresh material every year, tour the country, make a movie and produce a hit T.V. show all at the same time.
Fair enough. Dave Chapelle also released new material on Netflix in late March 2017. It includes two different sets, each about an hour long. They’re both brilliant. They’re tight, well-crafted and full of hilarious and uncomfortable insights.
But Chapelle hasn’t produced anything big in a decade. He’s hardly over-worked.
This is the part of a review where I’d normally dive deeper into why there’s such a stark difference in quality between the two sets, tie it back into a conversation about how comedians work and the pressures of the road.
But I’m not going to … and that’s because of the fucking alt-right.
Schumer’s Leather Special has not been well-received. If you believe the Netflix reviews, most people — even her die-hard fans — have given it low marks. The star rating for the special hovers around one or two.
But, here’s the thing. The new white-nationalists hate Schumer. Days after the special aired, Netflix announced it would change its review system from a star-based affair to a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down.
Breitbart wants you to think the system is changing because Schumer sucks. It’s also possible Netflix had no choice but to change the system in order to prevent the alt-right from assassinating Schumer’s reputation.
On 4chan and Reddit’s the_Donald, Schumer is a favorite target of abuse. Last year, Bud Light aired ads featuring Schumer and Seth Rogen hawking beer. Bud Light sales declined, the company pulled the ad and the online trolls cheered and claimed responsibility.
So when Schumer’s new special hit Netflix, the festering white-nationalist movement organized in order to tank her ratings. It worked. But it’s hard to tell just by reading through the reviews how many come from trolls and how many are actual honest critiques from normal people.
And that’s the problem.
The Leather Special has more than 2,800 written reviews on Netflix now and if they’re all trolls, then they’re well-conceived. “I barely made it through 15 minutes of this drivel,” one user writes. “I laughed more during Schindler’s List. Zero stars.”
That’s an obvious unfair critique. Indeed, so many reviewers compare the special to Schindler’s List that it can’t be a coincidence.
But for every obvious troll, there are two reviewers whose critiques seem reasonable. “Amy’s work has always managed to be hilarious, bawdy and … vulgar,” one reviewer writes. “Her Leather Special unfortunately falls under none of the aforementioned categories. There’s nothing more painful to watch than a half-assed routine and an unforgiving live audience. Two stars — only because I loved her HBO special and Trainwreck — c’mon Amy, your fans deserve better.”
In an attempt to save her sanity, Schumer seemingly decided to ignore all criticism of the set. “Call me a whale,” she wrote on Instagram. “Call me a thief and I will continue to rise and fight and lead. I know who I am. I am strong and beautiful and will use my voice my whole time on this earth.”
It’s a position I understand, but it’s also a frustrating. Especially when she repeatedly called out journalists in her response and implored us to do better. “I am only alarmed by the people printing their organized trolling as ‘news’ this is what the current administration wants,” she wrote. “Journalists, do better — it’s embarrassing.”
Look, I’m a fan. I like Schumer. But her Leather Special just isn’t up to her usual standards. Her fans have called on it. It’s true that the troll army has also mobilized, but that doesn’t give her permission to shut down honest criticism.
But I also understand why she did it. I don’t read the comments on my own work. Ever. Too much of it is just hateful bullshit — and a waste of my time. I can’t have an honest conversation with my own readers. And, apparently, neither can comedians such as Schumer.
Which brings me back to my biggest complaint about the neo-fascist movement. It murders conversation. The alt-right’s mere presence forces right-minded people to take the opposite stance so they don’t seem to be agreeing with Nazis.
Granted, a comedian’s mediocre Netflix special is about as low stakes as it gets these days. But the Schumer special is a microcosm of what’s happening across American culture. Gun control. War. Health care. They all get filtered through the alt-right’s toxic screen.
For the sake of conversation, we must fight the trolls. And stay defiant.
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