To See or Not To See: Baby Cobra

ali wong

Ali Wong’s new Netflix comedy special, “Baby Cobra,” debuted on Netflix May 5th. In a tight 41 minutes, she manages to cover a lot of ground: race, pregnancy, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, sex, marriage, age, feminism–while also keeping the laughs coming.

Ali Wong is also a staff writer on Fresh Off the Boat, a family-friendly show on ABC. This comedy special is decidedly not family-friendly–she is vulgar, hilarious, and ribald. She riffs on the whole “homeless or hipster” issue with a very fresh, up close and personal perspective (yes, she accidentally hooks up with a homeless man). She also talks about the “Asian-American woman and white dude” coupling and how any major city is a “Yoko Ono factory.”

She isn’t afraid to speak it how she sees it, including addressing a past miscarriage openly and honestly. She doesn’t hold back on many topics that people only usually talk about amongst their closest friends, like HPV, or how being married to an Asian guy is great because “you get to go home and be racist together.”

There’s an interesting common thread that she returns to a few times throughout the hour about how feminism has ruined the lives of women, not improved it. A twist at the end shows how she’s actually demonstrating that feminism today can comfortably fit many different ideas of what a woman wants because there is more choice than in the past.

It’s rare to see a female comic with her own stand-up special and it’s even more rare to see an Asian-American female comic in the spotlight (with the exception of Margaret Cho) performing seven months pregnant. Based on how funny this special was, one can only hope to see more from Ali Wong in the future. Watching this laugh-out-loud special is definitely recommended.

★ ★ ★ ★

Photo Credit: Alex Crick/Netflix

Christine

Christine lives & works in New York City. She devours all things pop culture like they are astronaut ice cream (her favorite food). Shows she’s loving right now include Broad City, Nathan for You, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Discussion about this post

  1. Jonargan says:

    loved the recommend! it was super funny

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