Amy Schumer is a 'sex comic' – and a radical one at that

The US comedian is frustrated at having been labelled, but she should be pleased with the responses to her frank and challenging HBO special

Is Amy Schumer a “sex comic”? That’s the debate that has been raging in the US since her HBO special Live at the Apollo was screened on 17 October. In it, the standup took issue (not for the first time) with being described in those terms. “I feel like a guy could come out here and pull his dick out and people would say: ‘Oh, he’s a thinker.’” For Schumer, the “sex comic” label is used to dismiss her as just another female comic banging on about her periods – which is what people said about Emma Thompson on Saturday Live 30 years ago, and have said about many a female standup since.

Has Schumer got a point? Well, there is plenty of sex in her comedy, including, to cite examples from this most recent show alone, routines about the size and personality of her vagina, her democratic approach to oral sex (“I would let anyone go down on me …”) and her mixed feelings about semen. “It’s not a wonderfully regal moment as a woman when you take a load,” she tells us, before this killer, Sheryl Sandberg-inflected punchline: “When someone comes in you, you’re not like: ‘We can do it! I’m glad I leaned in!’”

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from Network Front | The Guardian http://bit.ly/1XuUAdg