Ali Wong Photo: Courtesy of Netflix
More compared to halfway in to Ali Wong’s stand-up special, Baby Cobra, she says to a silent room: “I don’t already know if you guys can easily tell, yet I’m seven-and-a-half-months pregnant.”
Everybody laughs, mostly since the joke is that yes, you can easily tell. Though Wong starts her set by making a joke regarding having to pee every one of the time, this deadpan announcement marks the start of the portion of her set that is obtaining the most attention: the pregnancy jokes. She’s already told jokes regarding “trapping” her Harvard Business School–educated husband in to marriage and Sheryl Sandberg (“I don’t wanna lean in, I wish to lie down”). yet by spending a severe chunk of her special on pregnancy and parenting-related material, Wong has actually done something unusual: She’s pointed out exactly how funny pregnancy can easily be, while she is actually pregnant.
It’s vital to note from the start that, unlike you or I (speak for yourself, I guess), Ali Wong is fairly funny, and she’s been performing stand-up for a long time. She’s additionally a writer for ABC’s Fresh off the Boat. None of this would certainly job if it weren’t funny, yet it really, truly is.
It’s additionally worth noting that she is fully aware of exactly how radical the act is. “It’s fairly rare and unusual to see a female comic perform pregnant,” she says. “since female comics don’t grab pregnant. Just attempt to believe of one. I dare you: There’s none of them. Once they do grab pregnant, they disappear.” She has actually a point: Most of the well-known women comedians in recent memory haven’t focused their material on motherhood, and they definitely don’t grab up onstage very, fairly pregnant.
The couple of notably pregnant performances in history are so rare that they’re nearly iconic. Joan Rivers appeared on The Tonight Show in 1967 as quickly as she was seven months pregnant, which was “unheard of” at the time, as she later told the Telegraph. (Of path it would certainly be Joan Rivers, God adore her.) A pregnant Amy Poehler rapped along with Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live, while MIA performed at the 2009 Grammy Awards on her due date. yet the visibly pregnant physique in the office — especially a fairly public office such as a stage — is still a fairly brand-new and uncomfortable phenomenon. Couple that physique along with anal-sex jokes, and you’ve got something for good new.
Wong knows that male comics don’t pull the exact same disappearing act as quickly as they become fathers. “Once they have actually a baby, they’ll grab up onstage the week after and be like, ‘Guys, I Simply had this fucking baby,’” she almost screams. It’s a gag, yet she sounds angry for actual as she continues in character as the male comic: “That baby’s a little piece of shit. It’s so annoying and boring.” Then the lesson: “And their fame Simply swells since they become this relatable family man.”
What Wong is talking regarding here is true of quite considerably every one of careers: One moms and dad suffers much Much more compared to the others for their decision to have actually a child, and it’s usually not the dad. yet the realities of the comic life — executing late at night four or 5 times a week — make it hard to pull off unless you have actually the your hard earned cash or resources. Or at least a husband to watch the baby.
Wong’s point goes a little deeper compared to that, though. In a recent interview with Elle, she spoke about her decision to film the special while pregnant, saying, “Pregnancy for a functioning woman is generally perceived as a weakness.” In fact, pregnancy at job is legally considered a disability. “I wanted to usage my pregnancy as a source of electricity and turn it in to a weapon as opposed to a weakness,” she said.
And she does. On Wong’s small frame, accentuated by a tight minidress, her big belly resembles the best prop. “Empowered” is a tired term, yet she does looks powerful up there, making graphic sex jokes and gesticulating about her bump.
The truth is that pregnancy is frequently treated as a weakness since it is, in some respects, a fragile state. You can’t actually jinx your child-to-be’s good health by talking shit, yet several otherwise pragmatic women locate themselves thinking superstitiously throughout their pregnancies and in early motherhood. Straight talk regarding pregnancy is taboo partly since we’re still uncomfortable along with women’s bodies (“A great deal of women tried to freak me out regarding childbirth by saying, ‘Ali, did you already know you’re gonna poop on the table?” and I was like, “Yeah, I anticipate it’”) and partly because, well, not every one of pregnancies job out.
Ali Wong deals along with that head on: “Last year, I had a miscarriage, which is fairly common,” she says, to a for good silent audience of individuals that are probably wondering where the joke is. yet there isn’t one for a couple of minutes, as she explains that her miscarriage, which happened fairly early, was something she talks regarding since they are so common, and since several young women don’t already know that. Finally, she lets the air from the room by saying she “used it as leverage” for “enjoy a month,” ultimately wrangling her husband in to taking her to see Beyoncé.
Wong has actually said that even though she started performing the miscarriage bit right after it happened, it didn’t job until she was visibly pregnant, a signal to her audience that points turned out okay. That makes sense in the context of Wong’s life, and in the context of this set.
But it additionally explains, I think, why women may shy away from making jokes regarding pregnancy and performing jokes while pregnant: Something in us Simply has actually to wonder if we’re inviting unsatisfactory luck. That’s Just what I believed as quickly as I watched her special. I thought, enjoy I have actually every time I’ve written a little one-liner regarding wondering if my baby had died of SIDS overnight, “Just what if?” Just what if we say this thing, if we attract fate and talk regarding our healthy and balanced babies prior to they’re even here Then something unsatisfactory happens? This is, obviously, a silly means to think, yet as quickly as your job includes making jokes from the material from your very own life, it’s a recurring fear. yet Ali Wong, to her credit, has actually turned Just what is frequently perceived as weakness in to her strongest material.
Wong is executing again after the birth of her daughter. “I’m still going out at night,” she recently told Vogue. “My daughter is asleep after 8:00 p.m. We stored a bunch of dairy in the freezer. If she gets hungry, my husband can easily feed her. I don’t strategy on disappearing.” Hopefully, she’ll be weaving brand-new bits of her life as a mother in to her routine. We sure could usage a fresh, filthy take on breast-feeding or sleep training.
