I first watched Sebastian Maniscalco in 2014, during his special Aren’t You Embarrassed? While I think it used to be on Netflix, it isn’t anymore. And that’s too bad, because I remember it being a good one.
I’d never seen “physical comedy” before. Not really. As a kid, I was exposed to Dane Cook and vividly recall being uncomfortable with his material. And so when I saw Sebastian move on stage for the first time — jerky, lanky, giraffe-like movements and all — I was really interested. Pair that with his dry sense of humor (and the awareness of his own bitchiness) and I was sold. For awhile.
Things are different now. I’m almost a decade older, I’ve been through more, and I’ve seen more – moments and happenings I’d never thought I’d see in my lifetime. Sebastian seems to have changed as well.
What was once a colorful, funny reimagining of his admittedly strict upbringing is now thinly-veiled political commentary aimed to satisfy those on a specific end of the spectrum. He’s famously known for claiming his stand-up is devoid of politics in an effort to “provide a little escapism”. If that’s true (which I don’t think it is) then what the hell happened?
This quote was taken from a convention last year where he also explained this “lack” of politics, saying that “whatever a president who is in office is doing is not funnier than what my father is doing.” And I actually believe that. I do. I really do.
This precise type of material is what got me into him in the first place, and partly why I’m so disappointed to be writing about this now. But I was angry, and felt I needed to explore why.
This is why.
It’s Ridiculous
I understand comedy isn’t meant for everyone and that most comedians have target audiences. I also understand how comedy, even when well-intentioned, can be divisive because art is subjective, and blah blah blah.
But… and be for real. When was the last time you heard either a liberal, a leftist, or a communist (because those are, in fact, not the same thing at all) unironically use the word “woke”?
Most of the language first coined by activists (such as “triggered” and “safe spaces”) has been co-opted by the right in an attempt to kill all meaning the words afforded people who actually needed them. Which I believe they succeeded in. Thank God language is so easily invented, right?
Which poses the question: who is still using these exact words? The people who first created them? Or the people who stole them to undermine this group? We all know the answer to that.
It’s just inane. And sad. And kind of… simple. Shouldn’t this be funny? Nevermind Sebastian’s complete failure of offering a break from the real world, but shouldn’t his comedy at the very least be… inspired? Why do I feel like I’m watching Fox News?
It’s Harmful (But We Know This)
Well, it’s kind of funny. Writers for Fox News do think Sebastian will end up winning new converts for them, despite denying any and all allegiances to the political spectrum.
Is anyone surprised by this?
I’m not of the opinion that all art should be politicized or inherently belongs to our political infrastructure. But, holy shit. I don’t see how you could perform this on stage and then claim innocence when you have political writers and news anchors who unflinchingly use the term “snowflake” praising your work, even after you already used the word “snowflake” in the stand-up. I mean it. Like–
“Sebastian Maniscalco Torches Woke Snowflakes”
… That’s an ACTUAL headline in response to Sebastian’s new set. Is… is any of that fragment… not ridiculous?
Right. Back to Fox News and harmful comedy. You know, in a world where I do want and enjoy escapism, I automatically gravitate towards younger comedians. Mostly women – comedians like Iliza Shlesinger are divinely inspired apostles of The Funny Word, in addition to being extremely intelligent and educated.
Similarly, while Bo Burnham has committed some dumbass transgressions in the past, his newest special Inside was nothing short of a masterpiece to me. He’s also an incredibly intelligent human being.
Contrast that with youngin’s such as Andrew Schulz – who I tried to watch last night and then turned off after five minutes because of a fumbling trainwreck of r*pe jokes – and (former) personal favorites like Sebastian… it sucks.
There’s so many bad comedians out there in the world. Finding good ones who are both smart and sincere seems harder to do these days. But when your comedy routines are literally conflated with extremist ideology… yikes. When your comedy routine — no matter how “detached” from the political sphere you think it is — is actively being used to justify legislation which takes rights away from the American people… BIG yikes.
It’s Just Tired
Frankly, it’s boring. Good comedy is ever-changing, a reflection of current social events, trends, zeitgeists, etc. If we’re to dig deeper, one could say these things are just a recycling of collective ideologies and not mere vacuums by themselves in that the sins of the present almost always mirror the sins of the past. They’re just packaged differently.
So, when I say the jokes posited by Sebastian’s Is It Me are tired, I don’t mean the objectively new content. The ideologies behind these jokes are the true “sins”. Buzzwords like “woke culture” and “safe space” and “snowflake” are frequently addressed and then labeled as silly and frivolous. This is reminiscent of Sebastian’s monologue at the VMAs in 2019, where his jokes went “full boomer” which subsequently alienated MTV’s target audience. Needless to say, it was an odd choice.
As one would expect, he received a lot of backlash for this. Take away the morality of this, though.
Isn’t this type of monologue exactly what you’d expect from your imbibed uncle/aunt who always ruins the holiday dinners?
As a former Calvinist-Baptist fundie (think the Puritans), every dinner included monologues such as these… and not just on the holidays. Dinner consisted of a large, proverbial echo chamber, amplifying the most hateful voices among my conservative family members – people who, for the most part, aren’t terrible, but who suffer from such severe cognitive dissonance that a lot of the time it doesn’t seem to matter because their words say otherwise.
My point is that I grew up with these monologues. Hell. I still come across them if I’m unlucky enough to be stuck in a house with everyone together at once (although that is slowly changing, as the Trump administration quite literally rocked my family’s world and thank GOD for that).
Society, and the cultures fueling our society, will always, always evolve. Since time travel doesn’t exist – except inside one’s mind and distorted perceptions of reality – we have no choice but to live in the present, where the universe declares a never-ending cycle of change to be its natural state.
Therefore, ideologies which remain little more than platitudes (ex. MAGA) regardless of a person’s morality are woefully irrelevant and… wrong. It’s just wrong. You will never be able to fully live in the past, no matter how much you align your own ideologies and actions with this goal.
So, why should our comedy be anything but an acclimation to the subtle and not-so-subtle changes of the universe + our society? Probably because of money. And ignorance. And then willful ignorance, which is so much more obnoxious.
Whether or not comedians such as Sebastian actually agree with the material in their stand-up is another thing entirely. I’m just tired of ideologies which have already seen their day in the spotlight. It’s like the equivalent of a high school quarterback who peaked in high school and won’t allow himself the opportunity to change – which is so frustrating because he can!!
It’s tiring. It’s boring. But it seems only to those whose eyes look to the future and hope for better days to come. I’m not sure what that says about Sebastian’s new routine, but I know it’s not good.
livs torres 