Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Whitney Cummings: Jokes’ On Netflix, The Comedian’s Thoughts On Mixed Messaging In Love And Parenthood

When last we saw comedian Whitney Cummings on Netflix, she was showing us a sex doll custom-made to look like her. How do you follow that up? Particularly when we’ve endured a violent election cycle and a global pandemic in the interim? Perhaps all we need are jokes. Just jokes. That’s what Cummings figured, too.

WHITNEY CUMMINGS: JOKES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: You may know and recognize Cummings from her sitcom work. In 2011, she pulled off a major coup by scoring sitcoms on two broadcast networks at the same time, starring in Whitney for NBC while simultaneously co-creating 2 Broke Girls for CBS.
This is her fifth stand-up special, and her second for Netflix. Her previous four hours aired on Comedy Central in 2010 and 2014, then HBO in 2016, and Netflix in 2019. This time around, she decided to self-fund her taping in Newark, N.J., before selling it to Netflix for distribution. She also told Variety that for this hour, she wanted to appeal to the broadest audience possible. Which means: “more nostalgic and emotionally cozy: no politics, no lecturing, no self-indulgence.”

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: She’s observational and physical onstage, and willing to confront her own emotional and psychological baggage as she is those of her peers or the kids these days. You could try to categorize her with the likes of Iliza Shlesinger or Amy Schumer, but Cummings remains single, for better or for worse. Or somewhat like Michelle Wolf or Chelsea Handler, but not as political.
Memorable Jokes: Right at the top, Cummings fills us in on what we’ve missed in the three years since her previous special, where she announced her engagement. Now? “Nope, nope, nope.” And she’s not referring to Jordan Peele’s latest cinematic spectacle.

Cummings revels in acting out how her romantic and sexual entanglements have become more cumbersome in her late 30s. She’ll demonstrate not only how she reacts to R. Kelly’s “Ignition (Remix)” but also how she no longer can pull off a “Reverse Cowgirl.”

In the second half of her new hour, Cummings revels in revisiting how her friends have become paranoid parents about their children’s privacy, comparing that nostalgically to how the parents of her generation allowed kids to roam shopping malls for hours, stay out til dark, and even enter bounce houses with abandon.
And her closer somehow manages to find a surprising take on the “Aristocrats” joke format. I don’t dare say anything more.
Our Take: Whitney Cummings contains multitudes. Or for the purposes of comedy, contradictions.
Twerking to an R. Kelly song while joking about how we’re not supposed to listen to him any longer. Role-playing as submissive to trick her partner into massaging her. Telling us she’s into older men now, then revealing her current boyfriend is nine years younger than her. Complaining about a sexual position because it hurts her knees, but also demonstrating that position to the point where she admits it’s time to retire that joke, too. But nothing sums up the modern mixed-messaging of dating in a post-#MeToo world than Cummings telling her partner: “If I’m crying, it’s consensual. What’s the confusion?”
Except perhaps when she suggests men not bend the knee to propose to her because it’s a bad angle to view her neck — immediately pivoting to a camera angle where Cummings threatens the camera operator for doing just that, while looking into that camera.
As for her more nostalgic routines, there’s an inherent danger in becoming too hack and getting laughs for the sake of recognition rather than any special insight into how our lifestyles have changed over the years.
Cummings gets more mileage out of mining her own personal struggles with body issues and electronic privacy than she does out of pointing out the dangers of traditional childhood playground equipment. Because the former topic affords her greater authority and wisdom when she hears others complain that technology and social media have given us a generation of girls who define themselves through their appearance instead of their intelligence. To which Cummings can pause, hand to her face as if she’s holding back tears, only to retort: “But there’s also an epidemic of hot girls who think they’re smart.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Cummings knows her audience. If you’re already primed to hearing the elder millennial take on how much has changed for kids and for lovers, then this is right up your alley.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch Whitney Cummings: Jokes on Netflix