Confirmed: Iliza “Kills” In Her Third Netflix Comedy Special

In Forever 31, Iliza Shlesinger and her friends struggle with what it means to act like a grown-up in modern society.

Her webseries at the heart of her ABC Digital series, Forever 31’s “The Iliza Show” finds her and her best friend/sidekick Alexis (played by Alexis Archer, who previously appeared with Shlesinger in their real-life streaming webseries, “The Weakly News,” in the early part of this decade) referencing her own past experiences, all while calling out stupid, overly sexualized women on YouTube, bad friends, men who call women “psychos,” and the blackout drunken alter-egos known as “party goblins.”

In her third Netflix stand-up special, and second in two years, Confirmed Kills, Shlesinger at 33 has leaned in hard on party goblins, opening with an expanded routine on her concept of them, and also dropping her last-name. We’re now on a first-name-only basis with Iliza, it seems. She’s introduced that way by the p.a. and her name in lights as a backdrop, and shows up first-name only in the end credits.

So Iliza it shall be, then.

Iliza continues to focus her observational humor on the social behaviors of women, whether how they relate to one another or to the opposite gender. Iliza especially enjoys categorizing women, and as a self-categorized Millennial, she not only employs hashtags in her act but also displays them onscreen to encourage fans to spread her funny wordplay to the masses. Iliza acknowledged doing this in last year’s special, Freezing Hot, so “I could spy on my fans.”

They’re also a handy guide to which points Iliza wants to emphasize over the course of her hour-plus during Confirmed Kills.

To wit (her hashtags, my paraphrasing descriptors):

  • #PartyGoblin: Your havoc-wreaking personality during a drunken blackout
  • #ChinaTownDrunk: So drunk you’re not sure if you cannot read because you’re drunk or because you’ve wound up in Chinatown
  • #SearchClaw: Your designated hand for digging through your giant purse in public
  • #DickGun: What it feels like to have an ugly man’s eyes on you when you walk past him
  • #MakeItPointy: Any Instagram photo of more than four women becomes a pose-off
  • #ConfirmedKills: Just because your grandfather has a disgustingly cute nickname doesn’t take away from the fact that he fought and survived World War II
  • #SometimesToFeelAHumanEmotionILikeToDrinkMyOwnHair: The more hashtags in an Instagram photo, the more likely the final one has nothing to do with the photo
  • #FuckBitchesGetMoney: If you’re not happy, there’s no reason to stay in bad relationship out of fear. So answer like this when a magazine article asks: You’re single, now what?
  • #Sandwich: Would be a man’s response if GQ ran the same “you’re single, now what” article
  • #SharkTankBit: How Iliza imagines watching hot women mentally unravel if she could only see a live episode of Shark Tank

Here’s one more lesson from Iliza: Women are constantly battling themselves with their actions and their words, when they should be standing up for themselves more. Because most men still have the advantage of physical strength, and that’s the threat, “the underlying notion” behind every catcall and instance of sexual harassment. So why should women make it easier for men to dismiss them or otherwise objectify them? Words such as “whores,” “sluts,” “walk of shame” or even “mermaids” set women back. Iliza wants women to command respect rather than demand it. “You teach people how to treat you,” she says, even if she later jokes that she “will say this as The Lorax of my generation.”

Iliza may have been the only woman so far to win NBC’s Last Comic Standing, but she also has learned to remain the only winner of that competition who commands our full respect and attention. Iliza has earned her status and then some.

Hashtag that.

[Watch Iliza Shlesinger: Confirmed Kills on Netflix]

[Watch Iliza Shlesinger in Forever 31 on the ABC app]