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Hard Knock Wife

Ali Wong

Netflix · 2018 · 64 min

An energetic, graphic take on the miseries of early parenthood.

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Ali Wong spent her debut special dreaming about lying down and being a kept housewife. Two years later, she is back on stage, heavily pregnant with her second child, to report that the stay-at-home dream is actually a grueling, solitary confinement sentence spent with a human Tamagotchi. The physical toll of postpartum recovery and the mechanics of breastfeeding get a graphic treatment, stripped of any maternal sentimentality.\n\nFilmed at Toronto’s Winter Garden Theatre, this 2018 release arrived at a pivotal moment in Wong’s career. Her 2016 debut, “Baby Cobra,” had unexpectedly launched her into mainstream stardom, transforming her from a working TV writer and club comic into an arena-filling name. Rather than backing away from the maternal themes that made her famous, she doubles down here, treating the visceral, often disgusting details of early parenthood with the same casual vulgarity most comics reserve for bad dates.\n\nWong uses her entire body to act out postpartum physical ailments and the mechanics of pumping milk, comparing the experience to a bear attack. Between the graphic bodily humor, she targets broader systemic issues, pointing out the absurdity of America’s lack of mandated maternity leave and the low bar society sets for fatherhood. It is a physical performance that swaps the soft-focus glow of modern motherhood for something much louder and sweatier.

The set list

4 bits

  1. Motherhood as a solitary confinement job

    Revisiting her fantasy of being a kept stay-at-home mother, describing caring for a baby as a wack-ass job in solitary confinement with a high-stakes human Tamagotchi that has no reset button.

  2. The physical brutality of breastfeeding

    Characterizing breastfeeding as a torturous ritual where the body becomes a cafeteria, drawing comparisons to the bear attack in The Revenant, the Bellagio fountains, and Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree.

  3. Postpartum bodily damage and the need for maternity leave

    Demanding three years of paid maternity leave for women to hide and heal demolished bodies, illustrating post-birth anatomy with graphic, uncompromising bodily act-outs.

  4. Becoming the household primary earner

    Addressing her newfound wealth and breadwinner status over her husband, subverting the premise of her first special and lording her prenuptial agreement over her in-laws.

How it plays

Tone
Visceral, irreverent, candid, and cathartic.
On stage
Unapologetic, raunchy, blunt, and fiercely physical, pacing the stage leading with her baby bump while wearing a cheetah-print dress and red glasses.
Pace
Deliberate pacing anchored by long, dramatic pauses, deadpan stares into the distance, and explosive vocal shifts into hoarse outrage.
About
new motherhood and parenting, breastfeeding and physical postpartum trauma, marital dynamics and female breadwinning, paid maternity leave, sex and marriage

What the critics said

Ali Wong emerges a mother still perturbed in Hard Knock Wife, a hilariously honest hour of comedy that highlights the joys and oh boys of motherhood with fearless energy and just the right amount of squirmy detail.

In the room: Rapt and vocal crowd responding warmly to her unvarnished, relatable accounts of marriage and postpartum reality.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, rottentomatoes.com, vulture.com, theringer.com, forbes.com, elle.com, deadline.com, decider.com.

Backstory

Filmed while visibly pregnant with her second child, released on Mother's Day 2018 to explore the visceral aftermath of new motherhood, the lack of federal paid maternity leave, and shifting household financial dynamics.

Details

Released
Taped
2017, Winter Garden Theatre, Toronto
Runtime
64 min
Where
Netflix
Director
Jay Karas
Honors
100% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes
Topics
Before
Baby Cobra (2017)
After
Don Wong (2022)

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