Variety: There’s something simultaneously fascinating and maddening about Sarah Silverman – graced with genuine talent and a well-defined comedic persona on one hand, and a commitment to pushing past the edge in a way that blunts her appeal on the other. Despite all manner of career-friendly gifts – from her looks to solid acting chops – she’s limited herself by appearing determined to prove she can be as dirty and distasteful as the boys, an attribute very much on display in her HBO special “We Are Miracles,” which premieres on Nov. 23.
9 comments:
I haven't seen a lot of Sarah Silverman's work, but what I have seen has been pretty funny, so I think it's a shame that she's wasting herself on trying to be raunchy and obnoxious like this. She seems like a smart comic, perhaps too bewildered by being a girl in a man's world (I still find comedy, especially standup, to be a male-dominated field). The female players in the SNL cast often suffer the same problem, and SNL in general I think is not helping with this trend towards immature and off-color humor, rather than the smart wit we all were used to. I don't think it's too late for Ms. Silverman to turn her career around, we just have to hope she finds the right vehicle to do so.
Not surprisingly, I am a big fan of Sarah Silverman. I don't really understand the point of this article though. Yes, her crudeness will never get Sarah Silverman cast in the next Oscar-nominated movie, but it pays her bills and fills her with happiness. Silverman has been a successful comedian since the early 90s and she seems to be pretty content about it. I'm sure that if she toned it down a bit she would be placed more in the public eye, but that's not the point. She is doing something that she wants and is living comfortably from it. Why ask for more?
In answer to David's comment: I think the point of this article is to show that how you market yourself is incredibly important in the entertainment industry. If you shoehorn yourself into one particular role, it can be very hard to get out of that stereotype and branch out or change the path of your career. I personally find Sarah Silverman funny at times and too over the top at others, but this article just tries to point out that becoming too involved in one aspect of comedy can hurt your further career prospects if you aren't careful, which I think is a good point.
Honestly to me, this whole article feels sexist. I'm not saying that no one writes article about male comedians wasting their talent with stand-up, but I haven't seen one (again, not that that means one doesn't exist). Just from the title "Sarah Silverman's Bad Career Move: Being as Dirty as the Guys," you're getting the sense that its completely acceptable for male comedians to be as raunchy as they want, but when a good-looking girl does it, suddenly she's throwing away her career. That's ridiculous to me. This it playing into the idea that men are funnier than women, so the ladies should just stay away from the tasteless comedy. I'm not saying that I'm a fan of that kind of stand-up, but if that's what Silverman wants to do, more power to her for encroaching on the "guys" territory.
I dont understand what this article is trying to tell me. That the fact that she's a woman making the same level of crude jokes as men is somehow not okay? I feel like the man who wrote this article might be a bit of a prejudice asshole. This article mentions nothing of the fact that men are making these jokes and their careers aren't faltering. Why when Sarah Silverman makes the jokes they're suddenly carreer ruining. I personally think sarah silverman is a funny comedian and i think its great that shes even seen as being on the same level as men comics out there. Female comics are generally seen as not funny and boring just because most men dont understand the jokes. But as a woman i really appreciate them. I think peopel need to get over them selves and stop acting concerened for people-who-they-dont-even-know's lives.
As someone who loves stand up comedy I am familiar with Sarah Silverman's comedy and though it is not my favorite I will admit I laugh at her level of raunchiness in the same way as i would laugh at the comedy of Louis C.K. or Bob Saget. For me this is just because I am not the biggest fan of raunchy comedy in general (I am more of an observational comedy fan. This being said I don't understand what this article is trying to prove. Is it just this authors opinion that women should not be as raunchy as men? To that I ask, why not? If she likes having the reputation of a raunchy comedian then why not? Clearly there is an audience that enjoys this if she is still making money and why should she stop doing what she likes?
I wrote this article off as soon as I read that the author believes Ms. Silverman has such "career friendly gifts" as "her looks." Mr. Lowry is so off-base with his assessment not only of Ms. Silverman but of comedy in general that he makes any point he might have had impossible to bother with. "Her looks?" Seriously? Has Mr. Lowry seen a recent photo of Louis C.K.? Can he even imagine writing an article about Chris Rock where his physical appearance would play into a review of their latest HBO special. I watched "We Are Miracles" the other night, as it happens, just taking a break, you understand, from all the History Channel documentaries on highly enlightened topics like the dietary habits of Hannibal's elephants and re-enactments of the top 25 Civil War re-enactments. It was funny sometimes and kind of boring most times and occasionally insightful: in other words it was stand up comedy. Nothing special and certainly nothing particularly offensive. Comedy for me is really about honesty. From Aristophenes' "Frogs" to Lenny Bruce, comedy shouts aloud all the things we're thinking, all the things we want to say about the sheer ridiculousness of life and society, if we only had the guts. Comics are our raunchy whipping boys (and girls) and we allow them to pull away the veil of propriety for 50 minutes a set because we put up with so much bullshit from ourselves and everyone else all day long. And for what it's worth, Ms. Silverman, I've had that same thought about the Make a Wish Foundation. It is an incredibly obtuse name for that organization. If Mr. Lowry is saddened by a comic throwing away such time-honored gifts as good looks because she uses the "C" word, maybe he should cover another beat. I don't see the Bob Hope style family humor that perhaps he's missing making a resurgence any time soon, thank the gods.
Contrary to the belief of the author of the article responding to "Sarah Silverman's bad career move," I do not think the author of this article is slamming her for being a crude comedian. He clearly states that she has more potential than to do just crude humor and that is definitely ok to think. Furthermore, I believe this author is entitled to think this of her even if it may seem that he does not say these things about other male comedians.
I think it's interesting to think about Sarah Silverman's comedy as "trying to be as dirty as the boys" when in reality, I'm not sure her lack of endless success is actually due to a sexist view on jokes. I honestly think that if her jokes aren't landing it's not because she's a woman and woman shouldn't be joking about rape, I'm pretty sure the jokes aren't landing because jokes about rape aren't funny regardless of who's telling them. I have to agree with Mike though, what exactly is the point of this? If the point is to just be sexist then, congratulations, you've done almost a good job. If the point is to say that Sarah Silverman's crude comedy isn't funny, I'm not sure the author proved that either. Are all raunchy jokes funny? no. What does it matter if a woman is telling raunchy jokes? It doesn't. Some jokes just aren't funny.
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