It’s female and, yes, it’s funny
The show: Baroness von Sketch Show, Season 1, Episode 2 The moment: The nude locker room
“Happy 40th birthday!” a gym attendant greets a patron. The attendant leads the patron past her usual locker to a special room, filled with women of all shapes: stark naked. “I’m not comfortable with that much nudity!” the patron protests. “Aren’t you?” the attendant asks.
The patron looks down. Her clothes have disappeared. “I am!” she cries. “But how?”
“Welcome to your 40s,” the attendant says. “Welcome to not giving a s--- at the gym.”
The other women cluster around, greeting her.
“In five years you’ll be giving unsolicited life advice to perfect strangers,” one says.
“The mental space that’s freed up by not giving a s---, it’s delicious,” says another.
“Modesty is for them,” a woman says, gesturing to two 20-somethings in towels. “You’re in a better space now.”
Is there such a thing as gender in comedy? Should there be? (If you don’t think it’s a debate, you haven’t seen the Internet war over the upcoming all-female Ghostbusters reboot.)
The four comedians who write and headline this series — Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeill, Aurora Browne and Jennifer Whalen — aren’t doing bits only for women or that only women can get.
But they do take us into places (like that locker room) we don’t typically go and explore them from points of view (women in a boardroom) we don’t normally hear. Is that because they’re women? I think so. Sue me.
The only question that ultimately matters, however, is the easiest one to answer: Is this show funny? Very. Baroness von Sketch Show airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBC. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop-culture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.