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Promotional art for Girl Daddy
Cover image credit: Promotional image via HBO

Girl Daddy

Beth Stelling

HBO Max · 2020 · 57 min

A dry, highly specific hour on medical neglect and terrible ex-boyfriends.

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Beth Stelling has spent years in the comedy trenches building a reputation as a writer who can make uncomfortable, highly personal stories feel like breezy, effortless conversation. She channels this energy into sharp observations about medical sexism, terrible ex-boyfriends, and the exhausting burden of explaining sexual politics to men.

Filmed at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis on March 7, 2020—just days before the COVID-19 pandemic ground the live entertainment industry to a halt—the special serves as Stelling’s introduction to a broader streaming audience. Produced by Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco for HBO Max, it shows a comic in full command of her deliberate, slow-rolling style. The title comes from Stelling’s assertion that since people insist on calling her a “female comic,” she might as well be called a “girl daddy” if she ever has kids.

The set is packed with memorable, highly specific premises. Stelling details the bizarre side effects of the acne medication spironolactone, recounting how a male doctor casually omitted that it would cause fainting and breast pain. She also targets her male colleagues, delivering a highly accurate parody of male comedians who use their stage time to complain about the #MeToo movement. In another standout sequence, she details her relationship with a literal con artist, which ended with a warning from another woman about a shared chlamydia diagnosis. The New York Times later named it the best debut special of the year, cementing her place as one of the most precise joke writers of her generation.

The set list

5 bits

  1. The Case of the Missing Podcast

    Stelling recounts appearing on an unreleased podcast hosted by a male comedian who complained about #MeToo, confronting him over his joke about needing paperwork to have rough sex after comedy shows.

  2. Blackbeard, the Dad

    Stelling details visiting her divorced father in Orlando, who worked as a mascot playing Blackbeard at Pirate's Cove mini Putt-Putt golf course and strictly demanded his daughters treat him as Blackbeard rather than Dad when wearing the giant head.

  3. FUBU and the Legal System

    She satirizes accused male comedians whining about lack of due process, comparing the criminal legal system to 'the white man's FUBU: just for us, by us.'

  4. The First (and Last) Mary

    Critiquing the one-sided stigma placed on women regarding abortion, Stelling points out that Mary was the only immaculate conception, wonders why God showed the self-restraint to stop at one child, and compares men's care pouring beer to their carelessness with semen.

  5. Post-#MeToo Dating Advice

    Stelling advises men who claim to be confused about how to treat women in the post-#MeToo era to simply treat their partners like cats.

How it plays

Tone
Sharp, incisive, dry, and fearless, seamlessly switching between dark subject matter and playful silliness.
On stage
Laidback, dry, and clever, balancing silliness and vulnerability with unshakeable poise, confidence, and command.
Pace
Calm and conversational with an almost improvised, laidback feel disguising intricate, razor-sharp joke writing.
About
sex and sexual politics, gender differences and double standards, #MeToo and rape culture, abortion and bodily autonomy, family relationships and eccentric parents

What the critics said

Widely praised by critics as razor-sharp, deftly dissecting sexual politics, rape culture, and comedy's gender double standards through intricate, top-notch joke writing and charismatic stage presence.

In the room: An intimate pre-lockdown theater audience that was engaged and responsive, chiming in on prompts and high-fiving Stelling as she left the stage.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: primevideo.com, thedailybeast.com, imdb.com, themoviedb.org, vulture.com, readysteadycut.com, thecomedybureau.com, en.wikipedia.org, teamcoco.com, awardswatch.com.

Backstory

Filmed on March 7, 2020, mere days before live comedy and venues across the United States shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic; informed personally and culturally by the #MeToo movement and gender imbalances in the comedy industry.

Details

Released
Taped
Varsity Theater, Minneapolis
Runtime
57 min
Where
HBO Max
Director
Payman Benz
Topics
Before
Beth Stelling (2017)
After
If You Didn't Want Me Then (2023)

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