With the box office success of Trainwrecks release, here are 10 reasons why Schumer became comedy’s ultimate girl boss.
#10 Practice, practice, practice.
Schumer could coast for a good long while on the success of Inside Amy Schumer and the success of her summer movie Trainwreck, directed by Judd Apatow. Instead, she does stand up regularly all over the country. She’s putting in the hours.
#9 She’s good for women and for comedy, not just “women in comedy.”
The best part about Inside Amy Schumer is that it does two things at once: it shows women the hilarious and painful truths about how we perceive ourselves, while also showing us how those perceptions are informed by the ways we’re portrayed in TV shows, movies, commercials, billboards, cereal boxes, etc. The “Milk Milk Lemonade” music video she released is the perfect send-up of our booty-obsessed culture, and maybe the best example of Schumer’s brand of comedy.
#8 She made Bill Hader the romantic lead in her new movie.
I’m just really into this.
#7 She’s fearless around veteran comedians.
As seen in this exchange she had with Jerry Seinfeld on his hit internet show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee:
Jerry: What in your life of a mechanical nature, or what physical object, when it goes wrong, it’s like you just don’t even want to live?
Amy: My vagina. You knew I was going to say that!
Jerry: How bad can a vagina go wrong, by the way?
Amy: Are you serious?
Jerry: I know it has its moment…
Amy: Its moment sometimes lasts ten days.
#6 Her Instagram account features more than one photo of Tilda Swinton.
More than one, guys. Keep scrolling.
#5 Girl can write a killer speech.
At the 2014 Gloria Awards: A Salute to Women of Vision, Schumer delivered a “well, damn” speech about self-esteem, relationships, and womanhood. It’s the kind of speech you thought you were writing on Live Journal years ago. It’s the kind of speech that would have Meryl Streep shouting “Yes!” from her seat, and that’s all any of us wants. Here’s an excerpt:
“You will not determine my story — I will. I will speak and share and fuck and love and I will never apologize to the frightened millions who resent that they never had it in them to do it. I stand here and I am amazing, for you. Not because of you. I am not who I sleep with. I am not my weight. I am not my mother. I am myself. And I am all of you, and I thank you.”
Sew this on a pillow, and then read the whole speech here. It’s worth your time.
#4 She is the company she keeps.
I trust anyone who texts with the enigma-wrapped-in-an-onion that is Colin Quinn.
#3 Her appearances on Comedy Central Roasts are incredible.
Under the advisement of several close friends and the five unicorns in his backyard, Charlie Sheen signed up for a Comedy Central Roast. The best thing to come of this was Schumer’s set, which propelled her to fame and gave us all a lesson in fearless evisceration. Watch the rest of the panel — a Mad Hatter tea party with the likes of Mike Tyson and William Shatner — look dumbfounded as this cute blonde lady in a nice dress says the most heinous things imaginable.
#2 She’s faster than the Internet.
When Entertainment Weekly released their April cover of Schumer — a shot of her mostly nude body covered strategically with alcohol bottles — she released the un-retouched version of the photo on Instagram. And though she quickly took it down, the point was made and taken.
#1 In a single sentence, she summed up the plight of the modern dater.
“It’s hard to date people, even when you like them, when you just want to be on the fun bus.” Amen.
