Why Hannah Gadsby's Nanette is flawed

The Outline

Comedy, says Peter Moskowitz, "is at its best when it helps audiences understand their relationship to trauma, not when it makes them feel comfortably woke." The thesis of Gadsby's Netflix special that "self-deprecation is counterproductive is weighted, whether or not she realizes it, with judgment," says Moskowitz. "There is no 'right way' to experience and process trauma." He adds: "It’s true that popular comedy has become staid and perhaps insufficient for our troubled times (nearly every Netflix special released in the last two years has been terrible), but saying that all comedy is problematic or unable to express trauma is like listening to Macklemore and deciding that all rap is boring, or watching Taken and deciding all movies contain a lot of racism and star Liam Neeson. Comedy can be radical; it’s just that when it is, it’s not typically on Netflix."