When a woman steals the spotlight away from Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, you don't just want to know her name, but everything about her. Or at least that's how I feel about New York comedian Amy Schumer this week when she staged a trip-and-fall stunt on the red carpet for the Time 100 gala, effectively owning the moment right as Kimye were taking their photo op.
It was a cheeseball, slapstick stunt — the most blatant of attention grabs — and it worked. Because, we're all talking about her now aren't we? And after the season three premiere of her sketch comedy show, Inside Amy Schumer, we still are. That’s because the debut episode cemented Schumer as your new go-to comedian for sharp, hilarious takedowns of the patriarchy. Her feminist edge seems all the more potent when you consider the fact that Comedy Central’s audience is predominantly made up of men in their 20s and 30s.
Amy, who got her start on reality competitions such as NBC's Last Comic Standing and Comedy Central's Reality Bites Back, is a relatively new name on this side of the Atlantic. But she has a popular US-based show, Inside Amy Schumer, that is already in its third season with a firm cult following in place.
When it premiered on Tuesday night, Schumer scored a viral hit with a spoof of the old, popular American TV show Friday Night Lights that doubled as a takedown of sexism in the sports world, complete with athletes moaning about their coach's "no raping policy." But what was most impressive about the episode was her relentlessness in calling out misogyny. There’s a twerk moment with Amber Rose in a hip hop video parody called “Milk Milk Lemonade” and a picnic with Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Patricia Arquette in which the actresses of a certain stage gather to toast Julia’s “Last F-ckable Day.” So yeah, she’s having a moment. And with the news that Comedy Central has just renewed her show for a fourth season, it sounds like our fascination with Schumer will only grow from here. Check out the clips below and then look out for her show on Sky TV.
Kenya Hunt is the Editor-in-Chief of ELLE UK. Her career spans working for some of the world's most influential women’s titles on both sides of the Atlantic from her post-graduate days as an Assistant Editor at the seminal magazine, Jane, to her time as Deputy Editor of Grazia UK and ELLE UK. As the founder of R.O.O.M. Mentoring, she advocates for greater diversity within the fashion industry by providing a supportive network for some of the many talented aspiring designers, journalists and image makers of colour London has to offer. In 2021, she was recognised by The British Fashion Council for her work and given a Global Leader Of Change Award at its annual Fashion Awards. An American based in London, she lives south of the river with her husband and two sons. Her critically-acclaimed book, Girl: Essays on Black Womanhood (HarperCollins/HQ), is out now.
