Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Nikki Glaser: Bangin’ on Netflix, a Far-Beyond-Raunchy Hour of Standup Comedy

With Nikki Glaser: Bangin’, the comic graduates from an episode of The Standups to her own headline-status special for Netflix. She’s currently riding a publicity wave after savaging Alec Baldwin on The Comedy Central Roast, thus drawing more eyes toward Bangin’, which surely ranks among the most literal titles for a standup show ever. Because, you know, she talks about sex a lot. And when I say “a lot,” I mean “for at least 99% of the show.”

NIKKI GLASER: BANGIN’: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: I hesitate to say Glaser’s latest hour of material is “blue,” because it connotes masculinity, and she even goes off on a lengthy bit about how said color is used in popular vernacular as a non-literal descriptor for a man’s testicles when sexual activity fails to result in his climactic discharge. So if we’re going to reframe our vocabulary outside of typical patriarchal parameters, maybe we should call Glaser’s comedy very, very, extraordinarily pink.

Exactly how pink is it? Glaser opens the special with 14 minutes on fellatio, and later returns to the subject matter for another seven minutes. That’s one-fifth of the show, dedicated to the **ahem** ins and outs of a single topic. She segues so easily and naturally back into it, you don’t notice until she’s halfway through the bit, and you’re trying desperately to avoid a double-entendre about lubrication when describing it.

Glaser covers the minutiae of sex and the social bubble around it thoroughly, like Tom Brady completing passes to eight different receivers in one game: Genitalia. Masturbation. Sex toys. Porn. The folly of casual sex while sober. Alabama’s abortion laws. The sexual politics of control. What it’s like to schtup a man who wears a necklace. You know. All that.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Amy Schumer’s The Leather Special similarly tackled orificial topics, but less obsessively (and with fewer laughs).

Performance Worth Watching: Glaser never says “politics,” “#MeToo” or other such of-the-moment phrases, but it’s all there in the subtext of her bits — the bits that aren’t pure raunch for its own sake, that is.

Memorable Dialogue: “I’m better at (fellatio) than I am at sharing my true feelings,” she says, having already established that she’s not very good at (fellatio).

Sex and Skin: ALL OF IT. Although she indulges one bit about growing up “an ugly child,” which is only indirectly about sex, because you can make a leap and indulge the usual pretentious intellectual bluster about how childhood trauma creates the adult psyche.

Our Take: Is it possible to avoid political subtext when it’s 2019 and you’re a female standup comic addressing sex? Nope. To assert your sexuality — its peccadilloes and dark desires and such — is a form of feminism, especially when Glaser’s descriptions of situations involving (fellatio) detail how the male participant’s attempts to control the situation result in the female participant’s inability to breathe or, for that matter, voice consent. She’s too smart to present this material as simple, crass escapism, and the subtext is more than a little bit angry. Another bit addresses the decrepit norm that male climax is the primary goal of sex, and she acts out her partners’ sense of needy entitlement like he’s a whiny little boy who wants more ice cream: “Mooooooommmmmmmmmm!”

Of course, my dehydrated description sounds like a textbook, and hers sounds like the ugliest stuff you’ve ever deleted from your browser history. But that’s the point. Air it all out. We think it and she says it, as goes the catchline for Bangin’.

Yet I’m torn between praising Glaser for her boldness and feeling worn out by her bludgeoning a single topic into dust. Is 20-plus minutes on (fellatio) too much? Probably. Would this 63-minute special work better as a taut 45? Maybe. Smaller amounts of explicit raunch pack a stronger punch; overindulging the prurience is like putting too much fiery hot sauce on the chicken wings. She tends to go on too long, and there’s probably a metaphor to be indulged right now, but I’m gonna leave it hanging.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Glaser is occasionally uproarious, and occasionally admirably progressive in her poly-sci takes on sexual norms. And although a little bit of vulgarity usually goes a long way, you can’t say she isn’t thorough. Prudes need not apply.

Your Call:

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Nikki Glaser: Bangin' on Netflix