Unfunny

Amy Schumer’s recently released comedy special on Netflix is, by all accounts, (and pardon the reference to her recent film, which I carefully avoided) a trainwreck.  Early comments and ratings give it one star out of five.  That’s pretty bad, even by Netflix original programming standards.  Naturally, she is accepting the implicit and explicit criticism with grace and is publicly committing to delivering better content in the future.  Yeah, that’s happening.

Actually, she’s blaming her critics, who (she says) don’t like women talking incessantly about getting drunk and sleeping around, with plenty of extreme vulgarity thrown in there to hammer the point home.  Lots of people call that “having an opinion.”  I call it “trying to uphold basic moral standards against the rising tide of Hollywood indecency.”  Tomato, tomahto.

So you made a clunker, Ms. Schumer.  Not the end of the world.  Alfred Hitchcock made clunkers.  (Jamaica Inn.  Ugh.)  True artists modify their approach so as to do better the next time.  (Rebecca.  Sublime.)  I think the problem is, Ms. Schumer only has one club in her bag.  And she knows it.  If that one isn’t working, … well, hold out hope for a talk show on Lifetime, I guess.

Take a lesson, Christians.  If your efforts to reach the lost, minister to the sick, or encourage the brethren seem to be failing, change.  Don’t blame the audience.  Hold to God’s truth, of course, regardless of the way it is received (Galatians 1:10).  But modify your approach.  Be “all things to all men” (1 Corinthians 9:22).  “Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person” (Colossians 4:6).  And by the way, that’s a different kind of “salty” than we get from Ms. Schumer.

A side note: I see that 19 of the first 20 Netflix original programming choices that popped up in my browser were rated TV-MA.  Clearly, Netflix thinks Amy Schumer is a fit for the demographic they are aiming for.  And yet her special does not appear among the 40 listings for “Trending” or the 40 others under “Popular.”  So maybe it’s not the prudes who find her so unfunny.  Maybe it’s the, you know, humans.