2023 Is the Year of Traumedy

In the most recent entry of Jason Zinoman’s “On Comedy” column, titled “That’s the Funny Thing About Grief,” the prolific New York Times comedy critic dissected the modern movement within American stand-up comedy to process loss, trauma, abuse — process every traditionally unfunny topic through a medium typically known for things like “jokes” and “levity.” 

This trend is plainly apparent to anyone who has watched a Netflix special released in the last few years – Zinoman describes the subgenre by quoting Chappelle’s Show co-creator Neal Brennan’s descriptor of “traumedy,” a class of comedy that threatens to devolve into a therapy session wherein the patient is the one who gets paid handsomely by a theater full of captive counselors. Zinoman argues that, while some online critics complain that “navel-gazers” like Hannah Gadsby who use comedy specials as a crutch in the healing process shouldn’t even count as comedians, “This policing of genre boundaries does comedy no favors. A flexible, broad art form is a healthy one.”

To be clear, comedy intermingling with tragedy is not a new concept in stand-up — George Carlin, Richard Pryor and many other greats have mined their most horrific experiences for artistic value. As Sam Morrison quipped in his heartbreaking breakthrough show Sugar Daddy, “What is trauma but unmonetized content?” However, the new generation of so-called “broken toys” has brought about a shift in focus toward the dismally intimate that demands examination, as Zinoman has done diligently. 

Here are some of the most depressingly personal contemporary comics and comedy specials cited in “That’s the Funny Thing About Grief”…