Amy Schumer, a Comedy Central staple who competed in
Last Comic Standing and Reality Bites Back, is taking her comic routine persona
into political arenas. A recent top-billed actress in the conservative-themed
“Trainwreck” (which
conservatives gave rave reviews) and a “hot Hollywood” commodity according
to some LA insiders, Schumer recently promised supporters that she would work
to fight gun violence. After the Lafayette, LA shootings, Schumer
assured her supports that she is “on it” in fighting for gun control.
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| Amy Schumer (Mario Santor) |
Now she’s bolstering pro-choice enthusiasts with an
irreverent and inaccurate send-up of birth control and the Hobby Lobby decision last term which prevented corporations from
providing contraception in violation of their religious beliefs.
In
a commercial prepared by NARAL Pro-choice America, Schumer plays a busy
career woman starting her day, with a litany of snide situations which follow,
ending with a preposterous outcome which upends the humor as well as the
message of the commercial.
The transcript reads:
You
live a busy life. The last thing you want to have to worry about is your birth
control pill.
Strangely enough, Schumer portrays a highly engaged
professional. Who would assume she has the time for intimacy let alone raising
a family?
That’s
why we’re introducing OrthoEsterin,
a new low-dose, daily birth control pill with little to no side effects.
The video spot opens up like many TV promotionals
advertising diverse medical treatments, like Speariva.
Ask
your doctor if birth control is right for you.
The commercial stops talking about the specific drug
and veers into a general focus on birth control.
Then
ask your boss if birth control is right for you.
This segue jabs at the Hobby Lobby decision directly.
Schumer proceeds to ask her boss’ priest, then to
find unrelated individuals, like a boy scout (an institution which has featured
prominently on issues relating to group leaders’ sexuality as well as histories
of sexual abusive among certain leaders).
Tap
a mailman on the shoulder. Tell him you didn’t mean to startle him, then ask
him if birth control is right for you.
This transition into government employees makes no
sense. The list of arbitrary individuals whom Schumer contacts for “permission”
does not add anything noteworthy let alone funny to the message or agenda of
this commercial.
Put
it online, and see how many “Likes” it gets.
Why would anyone be asking anything so personal on
Facebook in the first place? Some troll writes “ur fat!” What? Who cares?
Ask
an old black man and an Asian boy playing chess in the park. Then ask them how
they became, because there’s just got to be a story there.
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| Schumer in stand-up (Maryanne Ventrice) |
How does she know that they are friends? Playing the
race card is old and tired, and no one will find this amusing. Schumer has been
criticized for her insensitive comments about race, although irreverent comics
in general do best upending political correctness on this issue.
Ask
someone who just got one of those cochlear implants, and is hearing for the
very first time
If someone finally learned to hear, why would she be
asking him anything? Is the joyous assent of a formerly deaf man who can
finally hear the kind of answer she would want?
Ask
Jeeves
Why not Google for answers while she’s at it?
Ask
your Mom’s new boyfriend.
Then
ask the Supreme Court.
A better question: why didn’t the woman ask her
parents or her partner?
Finally,
ask yourself why you insist on having sex for fun?
Another question: why did NARAL produce this flabby
commercial? No one is having fun watching it.
Schumer then asks in a frustrated tone:
No
refills? You mean I have to through all of this again next month?
The correct answer would be: no.
The pharmacist, to persist in this pathetic one-note
joke states Yep.
The final scene is the most fatuous and outrageous.
A little boy walks up to the same pharmacy counter and asks: “Can I have a
gun?” The pharmacist tosses him a
pistol, stating “Remember, that’s your right.”
Uh, no it isn’t (not for a child, anyway.
Reflection
The irreverent theme in this commercial, that women
are facing greater hurdles to birth control, is irrelevant and false, and
therefore the commercial is not funny.
Aggressive Birth control proponents, mostly
Democratic operatives, have forgotten that from
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to US
Senate candidates (now Senators) Cory
Gardner of Colorado and Thom
Tillis of North Carolina, Republicans have effectively seized the debate
about birth control and favored over-the-counter contraception. The “War on
Women” meme foisted on views in this commercial is out-dated and out of touch.
Once again, nothing to laugh at.
The funnies aspect of Schumer’s pro-pill message
from this pro-abortion group is how startlingly off-message and un-funny it is.
The sheer extremism of the last scene, allowing a child to take a handgun – at
a pharmacy – is another not-so-subtle jab which suggests that birth control is
too hard to get. A kid cannot buy a gun, and adults must pass background checks
and demonstrate that they pose no threats to possess a firearm. It is easier to
get birth control than a gun in this country. Period.
Humor, in order to work, has to be based on true
sentiments, even when expressing political sentiments, however much the
audience may agree or disagree.
With more revelations of life within the womb and
rising opinion opposing abortion, there is less which people find funny about
abortion in general, an argument which has little connection with contraception
of any kind, to begin with.
An overdone punch line which never hits its target,
Schumer’s over-worked career woman shtick, who is trying to get “The Pill”,
does down like a bitter pill, and really exposes the desperate lengths which
pro-choice forces are going during a media cycle, from the horrific
deaths of live-born babies in an Philadelphia Planned Parenthood to
the disturbing video recordings of Planned Parenthood affiliates
negotiating the sale of fetal parts.
In other words: Schumer’s commercial is a
trainwreck.
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