When I find myself annoyed with or upset with something, my general reaction is to throw jokes at it. Not
being the most aggressive of people, I find it a cathartic way to state
my opinion. The babble going on a few months before the election,
spurred by the rape comments made by Todd Akin and Richard
Murdoch made me laugh a lot. Then I got annoyed that such stupid statements were getting so much air time. Then I laughed a
little more. And then I texted ten of my comedienne/actress girlfriends
and said, "Hey I have a really funny idea for a sketch about rape. Do
you want in?" Luckily almost all of them trust my comedic sensibilities and two days later we had our
cast of five beautiful funny chicks.
Rape is such a sensitive topic and I worried about
offending people. Not really just any people. But survivors. That
thought horrified me, and we tried to approach it in such a way
that wouldn't be offensive but would make people laugh, but also think about sexual violence and the reality that we live in a world where rape is way too common.
The PSA was scripted, but a lot of improv ended up in the final cut.
I'm so happy with the way it turned out. I'm proud of what it says. I hope people enjoy the satire but understand the statement.
Annie is an LA-based stand up and improv comedienne. See more of her stuff at http://3rdwheelcomedy.com/.
As part of the duo, Micucci is well known on the West Coast for shows at the Steve Allen Theater and if you're a Scrubs fan, she was goofy lawyer Ted's girlfriend, Stephanie Gooch, this season. You can see her around town playing her ukulele or on the beach building sand sculptures (they're quite spectacular). I'm pleased to sit down and talk (via email) with Kate "Oates" Micucci.
LP: How does Garfunkel & Oates come up with the fun, true diddies, like Present Face? Kate: Oftentimes Riki (Lindhome) says, "We should write a song about this." Then from there we sit with the piano and guitar and a tape recorder and just go.
LP: Do you consider yourself (or your duo) socially conscious humor? Kate: I never think of my solo songs as socially conscious. I think my songs have pretty simple subject matter. But with Garfunkel and Oates, we touch on some social ideas. Our latest song is a pro gay marriage song called Sex With Ducks. With G and O, it is nice to be able to be more bold with both subject matter and melodies.
LP: What's your favorite experience or moment as a comedian? Kate: I've only been performing for a little less than two years. But in that time I have a lot of favorite moments. Last month's Playin' With Micucci at the Steve Allen Theater was pretty special. It was the first time my mom and dad were seeing me perform. It was 420. And it also happened to be my mom's birthday. So it was the "Let's Get High With My Mom Birthday Show." Over 100 people sang happy birthday to my mom. It was pretty special. I'm not sure how many of those people then got high.
LP: Where did building sand castles come from? What's your inspiration behind this very cool hobby? Kate: I studied sculpture in college and I always enjoyed sculpting in the sand. Then my brother told me that a fancy hotel in Santa Monica was looking for a sand castle building instructor. I got the job and spent every Sunday evening teaching kids how to build in the sand. The best part was, most of the time, nobody showed up for class so I got paid to go to the beach. I don't teach classes anymore but I do still go to the beach to sculpt when I have the time.
LP: Do you consider G&O the female version of Flight of the Conchords? Do you get that a lot? Kate: We've been getting that a lot. I've actually never seen Flight of the Conchords although people tell me all of the time that I should check it out. That is the popular comedy band right now, so that is the automatic comparison. If it were ten years ago, we'd be the female Tenacious D. But it is all very flattering. I think as girls, we are able to get away with saying things that guys could never say. I don't think a guy could get away with singing Pregnant Women Are Smug. So I think it is new hearing songs like this from a female perspective.
LP: and lastly, do you think humor can be used as a tool for social change? Kate: Absolutely. I wouldn't doubt Tina Fey's portrayal of Palin swung some votes Obama's way.
Hopefully she and her partner-in-crime, Riki Lindhome, will be able to swing some votes to overturn the Prop 8 decision in California with this:
If you're looking for Kate to come your way, she's thinking about it and would love to take her show on the road. Kate loves Chicago - maybe a Wisecrack event? I'm crossing my fingers.
Lee Drutman has written this excellent article over at Miller-McCune about research on viewers' perceptions of Stephen Colbert's actual politics:
They then asked participants to evaluate Colbert's ideology and his attitude towards liberalism. What they found was that the more liberal participants reported their own ideology to be, the more liberal they thought Colbert was. And the more conservative they reported their own ideology to be, the more conservative they thought Colbert was. Both, however, found him equally funny. The results are published in the April edition of the International Journal of Press/Politics. "Liberals will see him as an over-the-top satire of Bill O'Reilly-type pundit and think that he is making fun of a conservative pundit," LaMarre explained. "But conservatives will say, yes, he is an over-the-top satire of Bill O'Reilly, but by being funny he gets to make really good points and make fun of liberals. So they think the joke is on liberals."...
..."The nature of satire, when you boil it down, is that messages are to varying degrees implied messages," explained Lance Holbert, a professor of communications at The Ohio State University who studies the intersection of entertainment and politics. "It requires the audience to fill in the gap, to get the joke. And it requires a certain bit of knowledge to fill in the gap. ... Certain types of humor are much more explicit. In satire the humor is very complex."
Just like 12 year olds and college professors can love the same South Park episode. Or the Simpsons. Or the Sarah Silverman Show.
Is it possible for irony to ever be used transformatively? Does it matter if the audience understands when you're winking? Is this simply a brilliantly inclusive form of comedy?
Like my friend Andrew says, "Even when you're doing it ironically, in the end, you're still just doing it."
