Three days earlier than Donald J. Trump turns into president once more, Roy Wood Jr., a artful progressive-leaning comedian, has launched a particular, “Lonely Flowers,” that begins with this ominous line: “We ain’t going to make it.”
It will get your consideration and raises questions. Who is “we”? What aren’t we going to make? Is this going to be humorous or bleak?
Wood, who has described his comedy as a form of journalism, likes teasing introductions that throw you into the center of a thought. His 2017 hour, “Father Figure,” opens with this nice joke: “But if we eliminate the Confederate flag, how am I going to know who the damaging white persons are?”
“Lonely Flowers,” on Hulu, is just not instantly about Trump, however it’s the primary main particular because the election to seize the fractious temper within the tradition that gave him a victory. This hour, each humorous and bleak, doesn’t focus on topical political bits, however jokes that construct a broader, deeper argument: Less newspaper editorial, extra journal essay.
As the title hints, the brand new particular focuses on the implications of the rising solitude of Americans. It’s comedy that echoes completely with the Atlantic cowl story “The Anti-Social Century,” by Derek Thompson, who makes the case that the novel decline in time we spend with different folks is the hallmark of our period. But whereas that article deploys details, statistics and reportage as an instance the repercussions of this lack of connection, Roy Wood cracks smart in regards to the grocery retailer cashier. He will get throughout the identical cautionary level.
Wood’s present is melding small-bore observational humor right into a resonant metaphor. Americans was identified for our customer support. Now, he says, you may’t even anticipate an amiable reception at a gun vary. “How you going to be impolite to somebody who confirmed as much as observe homicide?” he asks, flabbergasted.
Wood tells us that shops as soon as employed many extra folks, together with greeters whose solely job was to say hey to clients. “You have been additional particular when you have been Black as a result of they’d an worker who adopted you round,” he stated, one among many times on this hour he deploys mock innocence to promote a punchline.
But it’s the cashier Wood makes essentially the most of, partially as a result of the altering nature of the job displays one of many dominant causes for our lack of connection, the push of know-how, like self-checkout. The complete level of getting an individual take your cash, Wood argues, is just not comfort or help; it’s to make lonely folks really feel seen. The case towards self-checkout is often in regards to the lack of jobs, however Wood focuses on the opposite aspect of the interplay: What are the implications of these vanished smiles, the absence of eye contact, the lack of small speak?
This topic should be within the zeitgeist, as a result of it components in one other new comedy launch this week that finds the constructive aspect of automation: that it makes it simpler to steal from Whole Foods. “You ever use these self checkout issues?” Ari Shaffir asks in his irreverent particular “America’s Sweetheart” earlier than including: “Where you pay for some of your issues.”
Like Shaffir, Wood is a lopingly informal, cerebral comedian. When he’s animated, his supply evokes a little bit of the stand-up type of Bill Cosby. But Wood shows extra lyricism and vulnerability. With a receding hairline, he permits his insecurity about his age or profession or romantic decisions to develop into the joke. When he tells a sentimental love story, he makes you are feeling it, utilizing a lot specificity and emotion that you simply neglect you might be watching standup comedy. That’s when he makes his pivot. His jokes are full of unusual shifts. And you would possibly even say this particular is one, too.
Not way back, Wood, who labored as a correspondent on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, appeared like an excellent wager to develop into its subsequent host. I believed he would get the job — so did he. Midway via his new particular, he describes telling his mom that she didn’t want to fret about working anymore as a result of Trevor Noah advised him he was stepping down as host of “The Daily Show” and this meant Wood would take over.
It was one among a number of jokes encouraging the viewers to snicker at his naïveté. Comedy Central went with a rotating forged of hosts (earlier than bringing again Jon Stewart on Mondays), and Wood left the present. He describes calling his mom again, a bit humbled. “You didn’t give up, did you?” he stated. “Got to go to Plan B.”
So far, that has meant internet hosting a CNN panel present on the news and, in line with a recent interview with NPR, promoting a couple of scripts and writing a ebook. There’s additionally this particular, a hotter, extra wandering effort than his earlier work and one which flexes totally different muscle groups than these he displayed on “The Daily Show.”
Nightly topical humor involving Trump requires agility and directness. That form of state-of-the-nation comedy is extra layered, mixing political tales with private ones. He makes elusive references to romantic relationships, and by the top of the particular, the thought occurred to me that the opening line about not making it had as a lot to do with these relationships because it did with society.
Wood places all of himself on this particular. When he talks about how exhausting it’s to make associates in your 40s, you get the sense that the problem of connecting is one thing he understands.
Comedians right this moment react to the news faster than ever. And there’s already been work that speaks on to what’s coming within the second Trump time period. Josh Johnson launched a thoughtful set on the tensions between Elon Musk and the MAGA motion that featured a pointy part in regards to the apparent unhappiness of the richest man on this planet. Yamaneika Saunders put out a riotous, visceral special that indulges excessive pessimism, strategizing about slavery’s return.
In Wood’s tales, folks right this moment come off as exceedingly fragile, one misstep away from violence. We’re all the time pingponging between progress and backlash, he says, however what’s new is how isolation has modified us. His jokes about offended varieties who snap and write manifestoes really feel well timed.
What retains us from giving in to our violent tendencies is just not politics and even goal, however easy human gestures you may get from the cashier. Talk to 1, he says, and an entire life can shift: “I obtained a buddy on the grocery retailer,” he says, performing out the thought course of. “I can’t be out right here murdering.”
Content Source: www.nytimes.com