Ali Wong Second Show Not as Funny
Ali Wong has long known what people want from her. She knows what jokes work best for her so well, she built an entire merch line based on material from her first two Netflix specials, Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, that went viral. But that awareness falters in her latest Netflix special, Don Wong, now streaming; the stand-up comedian, striving for broad appeal, ultimately loses the specificity that made her routine special in the first place.
Upon the release of Baby Cobra in 2016, Wong was hailed for her willingness to trespass what had previously been considered the male-only domain of poop, sex, and dick jokes; and for doing so while seven months pregnant. Wong's second Netflix special, Hard Knock Wife, which was filmed after she'd given birth to her first child and while she was pregnant with her second, was equally hilarious and groundbreaking. (If the United States government ever passes paid parental leave it will be in no small part thanks to Wong's five minutes on the perils of breastfeeding.)
Much of the success of both these specials came from Wong's undeniable talent for calling out and describing in gross detail the obvious but under-discussed double standards that are applied to men and women when it comes to sex, parenthood, and, well, bodily functions. "My husband occasionally changes diapers and people can't believe it—'What a doting father!'" Wong joked in Hard Knock Wife. "I was doing skin-on-skin contact with my baby girl to bond with her: she shit on my chest. Where's my trophy at?" Wong again seeks to call out various gender imbalances on Don Wong, but this time around, the situations she attempts to wring universal truths out of feel artificial, or at least too murky and personal for her preferred "tell it like it is" style of joke slinging. Too often she tries to speak for "all women" instead of just herself.
Take, for instance, her theory that men don't like powerful women. The problem is, outside of some nasty encounters in her DMs (more on this later) Wong doesn't seem to have much evidence of this phenomenon in her own life. To get around this pesky inconvenience, Wong tells stories about other people, like her nephew who wants to break up with his successful architect girlfriend, and resorts to gender-based observations, like young dudes only wanting to date "chill girls."
This broadens into an ongoing segment in which Wong unfurls a long list of declarative statements about (cis, hetero) men and women: "All women are extremely good at being very unpleasant"; "You can't tell any woman what to do"; "No man wants to have sex with a powerful woman"; "Men never forget to take a shit"; "It's always an emergency when a woman has to shit"; etc. "Do you know how much more successful I would be if I had a wife?" says Wong, after delivering a lame joke about men not using duvet covers. It's a cliched premise, bordering on the kind of "the problem with men is" type of commentary that less clever comedians like Whitney Cummings traffic in.
When Wong lowers the stakes and only speaks for herself, the jokes improve dramatically. Her bit about the difference in quality between the DMs female and male comedians receive is both disturbing and hilarious. "My DMs are full of these Silence of the Lambs motherfuckers," Wong says. "It's always these dudes who have zero followers." Then comes the best part of the joke, the question with an answer so obvious, most people wouldn't even think of it. "Do you know anybody, who doesn't know anybody?" Wong asks punchily, as if there's a period at the end of each word. The question perfectly illustrates the overall point Wong is trying to make: "fan dick is frightening."
This disparity between "fan dick and fan pussy" (her words) is disturbing to Wong on a personal level which is why the jokes about it are better than the ones she attempts to make about the female orgasm gap—one of the main, universal reasons why women don't cheat on their husbands, according to Wong. Cheating is Wong's other, major topic of discussion. "I want to have a family, a career, and a side piece," says Wong. The line makes for a nice sound bite but something about the joke rings hollow. It just doesn't seem true, and truth is the ground that a good joke stands on. Anyone who wanted a side piece badly enough could figure out how to get one—either through cheating or some kind of open or polyamorous arrangement. So why doesn't Wong have a side piece? Instead of answering the question for herself, Wong hides behind generalizations, like a politician trying to dodge a damning question. Women don't cheat, Wong reasons, because it's too taboo.
Even if the truth were that simple, it still wouldn't be as compelling as why Wong, personally, doesn't cheat, despite "thinking about it every five minutes." Unfortunately, she only begins to broach this topic on an individual level in the last (and best) ten minutes of Don Wong. Turns out, she doesn't cheat because her husband is a pretty great dude. "He's got all these wonderful qualities," Wong says. Not to mention he's got that "shaman connect." After telling the audience her husband introduced her to mushrooms and ayahuasca, Wong delivers a perfect joke: "So in addition to being my husband, he's also my drug dealer."
Wong's honest reflections on her seemingly healthy marriage prove a much more effective and funny means for exploring power, sex, and gender dynamics than the universal claims that make up the majority of Don Wong. In fact, the biggest laughs of the night come when she discusses people asking her husband how he feels about what she says on stage (a dated question in and of itself). "You know, right now, while we're all here" teases Wong. "My husband is at home, in the house that I bought, telling time on the Rolex I got him for Father's Day, jacking off to porn that he streams on the high-speed internet that I pay for every month … ." As Wong continues, the paradigm shifts and the perfect punchline comes into view: "He doesn't give a shit about what I say on stage, because he's too busy living the life I wanted for myself!" Turns out some men do like powerful women, and that Wong's jokes about her happy, supportive partnership can be just as incisive and funny as the more confrontational ones she built her well-earned reputation on.
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Source: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a39104729/ali-wong-don-wong-netflix-review/