Cis Woke Grief Slut

Laurie Kilmartin has built a reputation on her willingness to lean directly into personal and political tragedy, making her one of the few comics who can discuss her mother dying of COVID-19 or getting doxxed by Fox News viewers and make it sound like a casual Tuesday. She pairs a dry, matter-of-fact delivery with a philosophy that almost any dark reality can be made manageable if you sandwich it between enough dick and boob jokes.

Filmed at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood, the 2024 special catches the former Conan staff writer at a point in her career where she has nothing left to prove. Having spent decades in late-night writers’ rooms and on the road, Kilmartin approaches her set with calm confidence. Her targets are varied: she mocks Gen X men on dating apps as “horny, brain-damaged, shaken babies” who played high-school sports before concussion protocols, questions the sudden feminism of men who only care about women’s rights once they have daughters, and recounts her viral 2022 MSNBC joke about tracking down the Supreme Court leaker to get pregnant and “joyfully abort the fetus”.

While some of the cultural observational bits, like a joke about “Karens,” feel a bit familiar, the hour excels when Kilmartin gets highly specific. She riffs on receiving a $100 JetBlue voucher after sitting next to a masturbating passenger, jokes about Boy Scout circumcision badges, and details her grief. She is far more interested in finding absurd angles on the grim reality of her mother’s death than trying to offer comfort.