the stand-up comic jena friedman has suggested a new campaign slogan for hillary clinton: <u+201c>give uninspiring a chance: settle for hillary.<u+201d> michelle wolf, another acid-tongued stand-up in her early 30s, has also been telling jokes about the lack of excitement about mrs. clinton. <u+201c>her name would be a good safe word,<u+201d> she said in a set last month at the village underground. remarkably, it<u+2019>s been a better election for comedy about hillary clinton than donald j. trump, an unexpected development considering that when mr. trump announced his candidacy, it became clich<u+00e9> for comedians to declare their good fortunes. but while trump jokes on <u+201c>saturday night live<u+201d> have been outmatched by the flamboyance of their subject, kate mckinnon<u+2019>s caricature of mrs. clinton found a pleasingly goofy physical language to reveal the rusted gears of political calculation churning inside her head. for a broader comic critique, best look to stand-up, where ms. friedman and ms. wolf grapple with the same questions: why does a large portion of the electorate find mrs. clinton unlikable <u+2014> and what does it mean that the charged question of likability has become a fixture of the discussion about the first female presidential nominee from a major party? their comedy slyly vacillates between articulating this animus and then skewering it. along with impressive r<u+00e9>sum<u+00e9>s, which include stops at the edinburgh festival fringe and multiple jobs at late-night shows (ms. friedman worked at <u+201c>the daily show,<u+201d> where ms. wolf is now a correspondent), these comics both seem most comfortable when veering into areas that are decidedly uncomfortable. their acts do not preach to the converted (they barely touch on mr. trump) or traffic in the kind of jokes likely to earn applause. ms. wolf, whose first solo show is <u+201c>so brave,<u+201d> criticizes political correctness as often as mr. trump does. <u+201c>i<u+2019>m not a pay-for-my-own-drink feminist,<u+201d> she says. <u+201c>everyone has their own line, and mine is at the bar.<u+201d> and the title of ms. friedman<u+2019>s show, which has its premiere on seeso and amazon on oct. 20, includes a highly inflammatory gendered obscenity. when telling jokes about abortion and ebola (an obsession of hers), ms. friedman often slowly leans forward, flashing a just-us-friends-here smile, to test how far the audience will tolerate her pitch-black sense of humor. but when she turns to mrs. clinton, she adopts a more prosecutorial stance, asking why americans don<u+2019>t like this trailblazing politician. after offering suggestions <u+2014> too insincere, inauthentic <u+2014> she asks her listeners, who shout out insults like <u+201c>sellout<u+201d> and <u+201c>liar.<u+201d> <u+201c>americans have more words for why we hate hillary than inuits have for snow,<u+201d> ms. friedman says, adding with a deadpan expression that it couldn<u+2019>t possibly have anything to do with gender. <u+201c>if only we could gauge american misogyny,<u+201d> she mock-mused, sarcastically imagining the perfect social experiment that would reveal <u+201c>what percentage of american democracy would rather have a tweeting asteroid crash into american democracy than a woman leading.<u+201d> what ms. friedman is arguing, of course, is that mrs. clinton is widely disliked because we live in a sexist society, end of story. even among democrats, this is the kind of blunt point you often hear in private, but rarely on sunday-morning television shows. loudly asserting what most pundits whisper about is one of the finest traditions of political stand-up. and yet, many of ms. friedman<u+2019>s jokes support the idea that mrs. clinton is hard to like. <u+201c>i love her like i love lady macbeth,<u+201d> she says. <u+201c>i love her like i love any unlikable female protagonist netflix throws my way.<u+201d> like ms. friedman, ms. wolf finds virtue in mrs. clinton<u+2019>s lack of appeal, which she is, if anything, more forceful about describing. at one point, she says that if mrs. clinton started talking to her at a party, she would probably excuse herself to go to the bathroom. <u+201c>hillary is braces,<u+201d> she said on <u+201c>the daily show,<u+201d> adding, <u+201c>they<u+2019>re awkward, painful, you don<u+2019>t want to be seen with them. but they get the job done.<u+201d> this is a variation on the viral <u+201c>saturday night live<u+201d> <u+201c>weekend update<u+201d> bit by tina fey and amy poehler arguing that <u+201c>bitches get stuff done <u+201d> from several election cycles ago in 2008. it<u+2019>s no accident that female comics who have flourished in the largely male comedy scene speak with conviction to the challenges facing mrs. clinton. swaggering men have long dominated the genre of truth-telling political humor. while that<u+2019>s starting to change, there<u+2019>s an extensive history of female comedians trying to navigate the impossible obstacle course of needing to be aggressive and forceful but not alienating male audiences (and gatekeepers ). what makes these comics<u+2019> material resonate is that it has the specificity and heft that comes from experience. with a floppy mop of red curls and a nasally voice that trails off at the end of sentences, ms. wolf projects an almost cartoonishly distinctive persona, perfectly suited for commanding attention. when she brings up the persistent critique of mrs. clinton<u+2019>s voice as shrill, she shifts the register of her voice even higher, moving from the realm of jennifer tilly to something closer to a car alarm. <u+201c>sometimes that<u+2019>s just the voice you have,<u+201d> she shouts, exasperated. eight years ago, when mrs. clinton was asked in a debate to address the <u+201c>likability issue,<u+201d> her voice grew softer as she said the question hurt her feelings. then barack obama interjected that she was <u+201c>likable enough.<u+201d> one notable aspect of this notorious exchange is that she appeared to be trying hard to be sympathetic, while he wasn<u+2019>t at all. it<u+2019>s a reminder that powerful men don<u+2019>t seem to have <u+201c>likability issues<u+201d> the same way that their female counterparts do. what<u+2019>s bold about the political comedy of ms. wolf and ms. friedman is that they appear to mock the metric of likability itself, pointing out how laden it is with double standards. what<u+2019>s most prescriptive about their material is that they treat the idea that it matters as utterly ridiculous. <u+201c>people always complain that hillary doesn<u+2019>t seem like a candidate you can get a beer with,<u+201d> ms. wolf said on <u+201c>the daily show,<u+201d> an edge creeping into her deepening voice. <u+201c>maybe she doesn<u+2019>t want to get a beer with you.<u+201d> a version of this article appears in print on october 10, 2016, on page c1 of the new york edition with the headline: hating hillary clinton: the likability trap. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
hating hillary clinton: female comics skewer the sexism of the likability trap
jason zinoman