Nice Lady

Michelle Wolf opens her debut HBO special with an immediate, unsentimental defense of Hillary Clinton that doubles as a defense of her own famously high-pitched voice. She argues that “nice” is a useless standard for female leaders, asserting that “shrill” voices are actually the ones that get things done. It sets the tone for an hour that rejects the standard, polite compromises of feminist comedy in favor of aggressive, unsanitized observations about gender, reproduction, and the double standards of modern womanhood.\n\nFilmed at the NYU Skirball Center in New York City, the special caught Wolf at a pivotal moment in her career. At the time of its late 2017 release, she was primarily known as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and a writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers. A few months later, her performance at the 2018 White House Correspondents’ Dinner would turn her into a lightning rod for national political discourse. Nice Lady serves as a snapshot of her comedic engine running at full power just before that mainstream explosion.\n\nRather than saving her most provocative arguments for the end, Wolf spends the hour launching directly into challenging premises. She compares a scrotum to a “goblin’s coin purse,” points out that it is technically more difficult to bake a croissant than to make a human life, and suggests using farts as a rape whistle. When she makes a joke about Bill Cosby’s eye and the crowd groans, she immediately steers into the discomfort, scolding them for being too delicate. The special received strong critical praise for its relentless pacing and Wolf’s complete, unwavering command of the stage.