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Stand-up comedy pushing boundaries

INTEREST SPARKS. Stand up comedy has recently spiked in popularity.
INTEREST SPARKS. Stand up comedy has recently spiked in popularity.
Aarushi Bahadur

In a world where the line between humor and offense often feels razor-thin, stand-up comedy remains one of the few art forms with the power to challenge, entertain, and heal all at once. Good stand-up comedy balances humor with thoughtfulness, timing with delivery and originality with relatability, making it a powerful form of performance. Thanks to podcasts, streaming specials and social media, comedy is everywhere and more accessible than ever.
Stand up comedy can serve a further purpose than entertainment. Comedians are uniquely able to use humor to discuss, inform, and influence opinion on social issues because of their ability to question norms in ways that might be more challenging to approach directly. Comedy can turn oppressors into jokes, break down the serious, disempower abusers and make the trying elements of day-to-day life seem less mundane. It’s also a form of catharsis–as laughter has been scientifically proven to be beneficial to health. It is an effective coping mechanism that naturally releases stress-relieving chemicals.

It’s for these reasons that stand up is an invaluable form of contemporary performance art. Comedians, though, especially performing at high-profile events, have a fine line to walk between jokes that go too far and not far enough. Last year’s Golden Globes host Jo Koy largely fell into this latter category, with a series of tepid jokes panned by critics and viewers alike in his opening monologue. However, other comedians in recent years have swung hard beyond provocative to downright insulting. Last year, comedian Matt Rife earned himself a Netflix special and fumbled it by making a joke about domestic violence; the year prior, Ricky Gervais’s anti-trans statements in his Netflix special led to a clip from James Acaster’s tour Cold Lasagne Hate Myself lampooning “edgy” comedians’ reliance on bigoted jokes going viral.

While comedy is intended to entertain, it can easily tip into offense if it trivializes sensitive issues or targets vulnerable groups–but where the line is drawn between offensive jokes or distasteful commentary is subjective. So what makes good comedy? Take a recent example: this year’s Golden Globes host Nikki Glaser proved that it was more than possible to entertain with jokes that poked fun at celebrities, politicians and cultural moments but didn’t veer into insulting territory.

When Nikki Glaser began putting together her Golden Globes monologue in early December, she told her writing staff, “Don’t be scared to be weird.” Known for her candid and often raunchy comedy specials, such as last year’s Nikki Glaser: Someday You’ll Die—for which she herself received a Golden Globe nomination—Glaser didn’t shy away from pushing boundaries. She poked fun at the night’s nominees, saying, “The Bear, The Penguin, Baby Reindeer… these are not just things found in RFK’s freezer, these are TV shows nominated tonight.” She also took aim at a scandal–of Luca Guadagnino’s hit Challengers, Glaser said, “That movie was more sexually charged than Diddy’s credit card!”

Her performance exemplifies why viewers are drawn to comedy. What sets comedians like Glaser apart is their ability to confront difficult or uncomfortable subjects without punching down. Comedy can be a lens through which to examine the world, and when done well, it invites audiences to laugh at the absurdities of life without reinforcing harmful norms or isolating others; Glaser and comedians like her can do this with respect and tact.

As the future of comedy continues to evolve, comedians like Glaser are setting the tone for a more inclusive, thoughtful approach to humor and redefining what good humor means—where the punchline is not just a laugh but a gateway to understanding the world from different lenses.

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