From The Comic's Comic

March 2022

Comedy doesn’t have a Human Resources department, so leave it to Piffany to dole out honors and/or discipline accordingly. Piffany’s Employee of the Month for March 2022 is Amy Schumer. Congrats Amy!

Did you think I was going to say Chris Rock?!? No. Even Rock himself immediately acknowledged the joke that got him smacked across the face was only just a “G.I. Jane joke.” Then he covered with a dumb joke calling it “the greatest night in the history of television,” and then a worse joke that he planned putting down the Oscar-winning producers who worked with Questlove on Summer of Soul. So, no. That Rock didn’t have a meltdown or escalate the situation while caught flat-footed on global live TV is worth ample amounts of gratitude from comedians everywhere. But not top honors for funny people in March.

That would go to Schumer, who in co-hosting the 2022 Academy Awards, delivered a blistering but pretty great opening monologue, went to greater heights in the costume bit as an amazing hanging Spider-Man, and was the sole co-host in her trio to even make an indirect reference to The Slap an hour later.

Schumer already was having herself quite the month, as she poured her heart and soul into a new series for Hulu, Life & Beth, which premiered March 18. Schumer explicitly mined her own life experiences, creating, executive producing and starring in the series, writing six of the 10 episodes, directing four of them. Schumer has said in interviews that Life & Beth is about semi-autobiographical, influenced by events that happened to her, but taking liberties with Beth’s own journey (as in, Beth’s a wine-rep, not a comedian) and the characters who surround her.

Let’s take a look at that

Here was Schumer’s opening monologue from the Oscars:

And how she broke the tension in the theater later, following The Slap, with a planned bit about seat-fillers involving Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons. But notice how she has to handle not only the awkwardness of it all, plus deliver lines about The Governors Award Honorees — whom should’ve been honored in the live telecast if Hollywood actually cared about them or us — and then deftly threw in a couple of lines about the Ukraine and women’s rights. That’s a hard-working comedian. Congrats again, Amy, for all you did this past month.

Past Piffany Employees of the Month have included: Volodymyr Zelenskyy (February 2022), W. Kamau Bell (January 2022), Nicole Byer (December 2021), Jackie Kashian and Laurie Kilmartin (November 2021), James Austin Johnson (October 2021), Phoebe Robinson (September 2021), Ms. Pat (August 2021), and Kevin Hart (July 2021).

Please let me know who you think should be considered for honors this past month or for the month to come!