If you thought the Amy Schumer over-exposure was bad now, get ready, because it’s about to ramp up significantly. The critics overwhelmingly loved “Trainwreck (which stars Lebron James and was heavily marketed during the NBA Finals thereby making it technically a “sports movie,” hence discussing it is a “sports topic”);” just further cementing the idea that Schumer can do no wrong in the eyes of the media.
With the romantic comedy being universally applauded, expect the summer of Amy Schumer to rage on. The comedian often gets labelled a trail blazer, but it’s for the wrong reasons.
Other than perfecting the “yeah, I’m a 4 or 5 out of 10, but I get a lot of dick anyway, and here are a bunch of heavy binge drinking and STD references” routine, what has Schumer done that’s never been done before? Almost all of the sketches on her show go back to this bit at some point.
“Inside Amy Schumer” has indeed been truly brilliant at times.
Over the years I’ve raved about how hilarious and insightful it’s been. And at times, her comedy does make poignant social statements, but to define her as a social trailblazer is going way too far.
Praising #AmySchumer in the face of @SarahKSilverman and #MargaretCho is like praising Britney Spears in the face of Tina Turner
— Loving Him Was Red (@TomKolovosTKO) July 18, 2015
Any concept that Schumer gets credit for pioneering could easily get credited to one of the following:
Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Jane Curtin, Candice Bushnell, Melissa McCarthy, Sarah Silverman, Judy Tenuta or Mindy Kaling. Even her “i’m not hot, but I’m average/doable/passable/mediocre” bit was done by the very short-lived TBS comedy series “My Boys.”
Where Amy Schumer has truly broken new ground is in the way her material is universally and unconditionally praised.
It’s hard to find an entertainer in recent memory who’s had such favorable treatment from the press. It’s also hard to recall a movie that was as obnoxiously over-promoted as her RomCom has been.
The two sketches above are totally hilarious, but once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen the exact types of jokes that she does in all her sketches.
And for every single sketch on “Inside Amy Schumer” there’s an article on Salon, Huffington Post, The Hollywood Reporter etc. etc. etc. hailing it as “the most brilliant/socially conscious/hilarious/irreverent/convention-challenging/socially relevant/genius/witty/transcendent sketch she’s ever done.
This happened after every single episode of “Inside Amy Schumer” season three. Many of her sketches were funny and insightful. Like this one. And a small handful of her sketches did in fact make us think harder about societal issues.
But an overwhelming number of them were also extremely self-indulgent and and self-absorbed. This is best exemplified by the “12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer” episode; which was probably also the moment she jumped the shark.
It was a funny, thoughtful and socially relevant episode. But it also had a lot of “I’m a 5/10 but a lot, if not most men, would be very excited to have sex with me.”
There’s nothing wrong with writing and performing self-reflexive, sometimes even masturbatory material. And it’s not Amy Schumer’s fault that the media never point that out. She doesn’t write her own reviews. Rolling Stone nailed it when they declared her the new “it girl,” but becoming an it girl is merely cyclical, not historical.
In a stand-up segment that regularly airs on her television show, Schumer laments that she’s unfairly labeled a “sex comic.” She takes this grievance even further by claiming if a man told the same kinds of jokes that she does, he wouldn’t have the same label affixed to his reputation. Whether that’s true or not is a different conversation independent of the fact that almost every single sketch on her show has something to do with sex. Almost every single time Schumer did an interview to plug her movie, she made the discussion all about sex.
The title and logo of her show itself, “Inside Amy Schumer,” has sexual imagery. If she’s labeled “a sex comic,” the reputation has been well earned.
But perhaps the best example of how Schumer is teflon comes from the small amount of flak she took over making some racist jokes. If any other celebrity, or media figure became associated with the idea of racism, their career would suffer significant, if not irreparable damage. Yet Amy Schumer keeps soaring to new heights of stardom.
I have no idea why everything she does is always labeled the most awesomest thing ever by every single critic. I just know that it’s not going to change any time soon. Amy Schumer is intelligent, funny and very talented. However, she’s not anything close to a transformative figure in American history. Yet the mainstream media claims otherwise.
In 2015, Amy Schumer can do no wrong.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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