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Don Wong

Ali Wong

Netflix · 2022 · 59 min

An explicit confession about the grueling boredom of marriage.

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Most comedians wait until after the divorce papers are filed to build an hour around hating their marriage, but Ali Wong chose to do it while still legally bound.

Filmed at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, New Jersey, this third Netflix hour is less of a standard stand-up set and more of an extended, hyper-explicit plea for release from the confines of domesticity. She is wealthy, famous, and completely miserable about the reality of monogamy, using the stage to detail her deep jealousy of single people and her fantasy of sleeping with the entire cast of The Avengers.

Wong frames her material through the lens of gender disparity, starting with how much better male comics have it when they achieve fame. While successful men end up dating supermodels, she points out that successful female comedians are left dating two-star Yelp-rated magicians. The rest of the hour leans heavily into graphic sexual confessionals, including the low quality of her direct messages, which are mostly populated by creepy, zero-follower accounts requesting to smell her feet, and the exhaustion of maintaining a marriage where she wants to cheat every five minutes.

Released on Valentine’s Day in 2022, the special took on a retrospective status when Wong and her husband announced their amicable split just two months later. Critics and audiences were divided on the performance. While some praised her high-energy refusal to court likability, others felt the hour lacked the grounded specificity of Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, occasionally slipping into repetitive complaints about the burdens of her own fame and wealth.

The set list

5 bits

  1. High-earning women performing oral sex

    Argues men should feel blessed and honored when an important, wealthy woman takes time away from lucrative opportunities to perform oral sex on a low-earning man.

  2. Disparity between fan interactions in direct messages

    Contrasts the models and adoration male comedians receive against the creepy, zero-follower accounts sending disturbing messages to female comics.

  3. Logistics and desire to cheat on her husband

    Expresses exhaustive yearning to break out of monogamy while detailing petty logistical hurdles, like having ten-year-old ratty underwear that needs replacing first.

  4. Severe constipation during Always Be My Maybe production

    Recounts how the intense stress and busy schedule of filming led her to forget to poop for the entire production, resulting in an OBGYN diagnosing her as literally full of shit.

  5. Husband's reaction to her provocative stand-up material

    Reveals her husband does not care about what she says onstage because he is comfortably at home enjoying a Rolex and streaming porn on high-speed internet she pays for, effectively living the pampered life she originally envisioned for herself.

How it plays

Tone
Raunchy, blue, frank, and confrontational.
On stage
Indignant, unapologetic, bitter, swaggering with wrestler-like intensity and earned pompousness.
Pace
Striding, punchy delivery, enunciating lines with ire and deliberate pauses.
About
Monogamy and marital strain, Fantasies about infidelity, Gender double standards and power dynamics, Wealth, fame, and success, Bodily functions and health

What the critics said

Critics praised Wong's incisive delivery, singular comedic voice, and sharp personal confessions about fame and marriage, though some found her broader, generalized gender observations less effective than her deeply personal routines.

In the room: Riotous and engaged, offering equal measures of laughter and groans to her blue, boundary-pushing material.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: app.com, metacritic.com, a24films.com, tvinsider.com, vulture.com, esquire.com, theatlantic.com, popmatters.com, en.wikipedia.org, pro.imdb.com.

Backstory

Filmed in November 2021 during the global pandemic, marking Wong's first special performed while not pregnant, amidst a major personal and financial shift in her lifestyle.

Details

Released
Taped
2021, Count Basie Center for the Arts, Red Bank
Runtime
59 min
Where
Netflix
Director
Nahnatchka Khan
Honors
Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy Award
Topics
Before
Hard Knock Wife (2018)
After
Single Lady (2024)

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