Why should you read this article about the hottest comedy in the world right now? Here’s how the author, John Lahr, puts it:
With Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge has caught lightning in a bottle. When someone hits with such a seismic wallop, it’s both a miracle and a mystery. Why now? Why her?
In other words, Phoebe Waller-Bridge may well be the person so many of us are hoping to become, so let’s try and find out what, exactly she’s all about:
Louche Cannon
by John Lahr
Roseanne used to end her stand-up act this way: “People say to me, ‘You’re not very feminine.’ Well, they can suck my dick.” Phallic fun used to be the province of men—a mission broadcast by the totemic Fool in cap and bells, whose scepter is actually a penis, that emblem of transgression, the source of panic and elation. In earlier, primmer days, the great American comediennes—Fanny Brice, Judy Holiday, Lucille Ball—got away with mischief by ditzy indirection; nowadays, in our unabashed, newly liberated times that echo with the impudence of independence, when facing down the male gaze, comediennes increasingly prefer the headbutt to the velvet glove.