...and that was in Freezing Hot. I really, really wanted to like this special, but it was such a step in the wrong direction that I just couldn't.
A lot of what women go through is horrible and unfair, but a lot of what men go through is as well. I get that this special is from a female perspective, and I was really excited to hear about that from Iliza, but what I got was a lot of weak generalizations which fail to address that things really aren't that great for a lot of men either. Most of her special boils down to this: things are hard for women, and this is the fault of men and society (which translates to also men).
One point that I really take issue with is one that was also made by Whitney Cummings in her spectacularly unfunny special "I'm your Girlfriend" about how men don't want to date successful women, that men only want women who appear vulnerable. I get that they aren't men and that their jokes are about this issue from their perspective, but has it ever occurred to them that maybe the reason that some men aren't interested in them is that the men are tired of feeling judged too? Maybe men have self esteem issues as well?
Women are judged primarily on their appearance, while men are judged on their ability to provide. Iliza makes a joke at one point about how men like to think they are so much more observant than women, but she checked his credit score while he was complaining about his seat not facing the right way. So harsh, unrealistic standards towards women are bad, but men just have to accept them?
I think what bothers me about this is that instead of attacking institutions or ideas which make EVERYONE miserable, Iliza decided to go for cheap approval and laughs by catering to half baked, quasi feminist types. There are larger issues here that I do think she is intelligent and funny enough to tackle, but instead she did her whole hashtag shtick, made some goat noises, and then effectively gave carte blanche to any woman with an ax to grind over her current or past relationships approval for blaming everything on their partner.
Look, if the most interesting thing that you can think of to talk about during your 4th Netflix special is very generic material about dating that sounds way too similar to your old material about the same topic, then maybe it's time to take a critical look at your act and start working on some jokes that have punchlines that the audience can't see coming from the opener. Unless, of course, Iliza actually wants to be known as the umpteenth, barely funny female comic with a poorly articulated feminist bent.
Very rarely have I felt so let down by a performer. I thought Iliza was better than this, maybe I was wrong.
