'Laughter is disarming': A new documentary traces generations of LGBTQ comedy
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Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution explores the history and current state of LGBTQ comedy — the pioneers, the breakthroughs and the setbacks. Above, Lily Tomlin, left, Wanda Sykes, Joel Kim Booster and Trixie Mattel.Netflix -
Page Hurwitz gives opening remarks at the Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on June 7, 2024.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet / Netflix -
Robin Tyler in Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution.Netflix -
Scott Thompson/Buddy Cole at The Greek Theatre for Netflix Is A Joke Fest.Beth Dubber / Netflix -
Joel Kim Booster in Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution.Netflix -
Bob The Drag Queen, Trixie Mattel, Rosie O'Donnell at The Greek Theatre for Netflix Is A Joke Fest.Beth Dubber / Netflix
“Comedy’s always a reflection of the culture, good and bad,” says Page Hurwitz. Her new Netflix documentary about the history and current state of LGBTQ comedy is proof. Through archival footage, performances and interviews, Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution spans nearly a century of LGBTQ comedy, including the milestones and setbacks for queer comedians pursuing careers making people laugh.
A multigenerational who's who of comedy fills this documentary. Lily Tomlin, Rosie O’Donnell, Eddie Izzard, Sandra Bernhard, Billy Eichner, Fortune Feimster, Tig Notaro and Solomon Georgio are among the many performers who recount their personal stories of developing their comedic styles and grappling with homophobia.
Hurwitz began her career doing stand-up in the late 1990s in San Francisco’s Castro district. Today, she writes, produces and directs comedy specials and TV series. When she started putting the documentary together, she knew there was something she had to get right: “We’re the gays, so I wanted to make it dynamic. There’s nothing worse you could be than banal.”
To ensure her documentary had some dazzle, Hurwitz organized a massive event at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles featuring a marquis lineup of LGBTQ comedians. She turned the event into its own special for Netflix and interspersed footage from it throughout the documentary.
Among the revelatory moments in Outstanding are interviews with comedians who might’ve been more famous had they not come out.
Robin Tyler, one of the first comedians to come out on national television, says she was never in the closet. "Closets are vertical coffins," she declares in the film. "All you do is suffocate to death."
Tyler’s comedy career suffered when she included jokes about Anita Bryant in her act. Bryant, the former beauty pageant winner, singer and Christian, was one of the most active voices in the anti-gay crusade. One such joke declared that Bryant “is to Christianity what paint-by-numbers is to art.”
“That's why no one knows her name,” says Hurwitz of Tyler, “And she should be a household name because she's so funny and so talented.”
Hurwitz and a small staff pored over hundreds of archival performances and news footage to show how, from one decade to the next, queer comedians either made strides or suffered, depending on the political and cultural climate of the day. There’s Moms Mabley playing an openly gay character in a movie from the 1930s and the so-called Lavender Scare during the Cold War.
As comedian Scott Thompson puts it in the documentary, “I just thought life can change on a dime and society can change on a dime.”
Thompson points to an “embrace” of gay culture in the 1970s – think disco and Village People – to a complete about-face in the 1980s with the AIDS epidemic.
“It went back 30, 40 years, instantly, almost overnight,” he says. “Gay men in those days were considered vile.”
“Comedy at that time was incredibly homophobic,” says Hurwitz, “and we had a lot of well-known comedians who were choosing to turn that tragedy into fodder for their hackneyed comedy acts. So, whether it was Andrew Dice Clay or Sam Kinison or frankly, for that matter, Eddie Murphy.”
But comedians know how to counterpunch and during the AIDS crisis, Sandra Bernhard’s politically charged, cabaret-style performances were a force. As she explains in the documentary, “This became like the next wave of having to be there and jump in full throttle.”
Comedian and actor Joel Kim Booster, who’s interviewed in the documentary, says he was “floored” when he saw the final cut of Outstanding. He says it made him grateful to all of the queer comedians who blazed a trail for his generation. "We were not the ones who busted down the door. We just walked through it," he says.
Outstanding shows how there are still challenges for gay performers, most significantly transphobic material by big-name comedians. But Page Hurwitz says that LGBTQ comedians will continue to take the stage, make people laugh and change the culture.
“You’re sharing who you are with the audience and it's so powerful,” she says, “because laughter is disarming. You make the personal universal, so we can realize that actually, we’re more alike than we are different.”
The audio and digital versions of this story were edited by Ciera Crawford. The audio story was produced by Isabella Gomez-Sarmiento. The digital was produced by Beth Novey.
Transcript
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
"Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution" is a new documentary about the history of LGBTQ stand-up. As NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports, the film spans nearly a century of milestones and setbacks for queer comedians pursuing the career of making people laugh.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: A multigenerational who's who of comedy fills this documentary - Billy Eichner, Fortune Feimster, Lily Tomlin.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LILY TOMLIN: This is Miss Ernestine Tomlin of the AT&T.
I felt like Ernestine could change the world (laughter). Like, she would stop AT&T from being a monopoly.
BLAIR: There's Solomon Georgio, Eddie Izzard, Margaret Cho.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MARGARET CHO: I told my mother when I was 14, I wanted to be a comedian. And she said, or maybe it's better if you just die.
BLAIR: "Outstanding" was directed by Page Hurwitz, who's been working in comedy for decades as both a stand-up herself and a TV producer, writer and director. When she started putting the documentary together, she knew one thing for sure.
PAGE HURWITZ: We're the gays. So I wanted to make it dynamic. I was like, nothing worse than you could be than banal.
BLAIR: So for the documentary, she organized a massive event in Los Angeles, featuring a lineup of gay comedians, including drag queen, Trixie Mattel.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TRIXIE MATTEL: And you know, I've had such a meteoric rise to fame and fortune. The only people I can really relate to are the rich people. Poor people up there, Mama, I don't even know you.
BLAIR: Hurwitz did dozens of interviews with iconic comedians, and those who might have been more famous had they stayed in the closet...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ROBIN TYLER: Never was in the closet. Closets are vertical coffins. All you do is suffocate to death.
BLAIR: ...People like Robin Tyler. In the 1970s, she became one of the first comedians to come out on national television.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TYLER: And then he said the one thing that was really supposed to upset me, he said, hey, are you, a lesbian? And I said, hey, are you the alternative?
BLAIR: Tyler and her partner, Pat Harrison, landed a deal to develop a TV comedy variety show for ABC. Around the same time, Tyler started making jokes about Anita Bryant, the former beauty pageant winner, singer and Christian. Bryant was also one of the most active voices in the anti-gay crusade.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TYLER: And then I did a joke saying Anita Bryant is to Christianity what paint by numbers is to art, right?
HURWITZ: As a result, Robin lost her contract - her television contract. And that's why no one knows her name. And she should be a household name because she's so funny and so talented.
BLAIR: Page Hurwitz and a small staff poured over archival performances and news footage to show how from one decade to the next, queer comedians either made strides or suffered, depending on the political and cultural climate of the day. As comedian Scott Thompson puts it in the documentary...
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "OUTSTANDING: A COMEDY REVOLUTION ")
SCOTT THOMPSON: You know, I just thought life can change on a dime, and society can change on a dime. Like, in the late '70s, there was a movement to kind of embrace the homosexual.
BLAIR: There were glitzy variety TV shows, disco, Village People. But then in the 1980s, came the AIDs epidemic.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "OUTSTANDING: A COMEDY REVOLUTION ")
THOMPSON: And it went back 30, 40 years, instantly, almost overnight. Gay men in those days were considered vile.
HURWITZ: Comedy at that time was incredibly homophobic. And we had a lot of well-known comedians who were choosing to turn, you know, that tragedy into fodder for their hackneyed comedy acts, so whether it was Andrew Dice Clay or Sam Kinison, or frankly, for that matter, Eddie Murphy.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
EDDIE MURPHY: It petrifies me 'cause girls be hanging out with them. And one night, they could be in the club having fun with their gay friend and give them a little kiss (imitating kissing sound) and go home with their AIDS on their lips.
BLAIR: Of course, you can't get AIDS from a kiss on the lips.
HURWITZ: Well, comedy is always a reflection of the culture, good and bad.
BLAIR: And to counterpunch homophobia during the AIDS crisis, you had comedians like Sandra Bernhard.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "OUTSTANDING: A COMEDY REVOLUTION ")
SANDRA BERNHARD: So this became, like, the next wave of, like, having to be there and jump in full throttle.
BLAIR: Bernhard's politically charged cabaret style performances went viral before viral was a thing. Throughout the documentary, gay comedians talk about taking inspiration from each other. Here's Wanda Sykes.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "OUTSTANDING: A COMEDY REVOLUTION ")
WANDA SYKES: It was rough, but Sandra was so bold, like, just the wild woman pointing out hypocrisy.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "OUTSTANDING: A COMEDY REVOLUTION ")
BERNHARD: Jerry Falwell tries to fight the funk. And he tells us to fight the funk. Jerry Falwell will give in to the funk.
BLAIR: The film shows how there are still challenges for gay performers, most significantly transphobic material by big-name comedians. But Page Hurwitz says LGBTQ comedians will continue to take the stage, make people laugh and change the culture in the process.
HURWITZ: You're sharing who you are with the audience. And it's so powerful because laughter is disarming. You make the personal universal, and so we can realize that actually we're more alike than we are different.
BLAIR: "Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution" begins streaming on Netflix this week. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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