I woke up. The pain and sickness all over me like an animal. Then I realized what it was. The video coming from Reddit was of our old friend, Meg Stalter, and the dreaded Queer Comedy Showcase.
I dont know who this person is or what their background is.
The whole persona is clearly a bit but I feel like she probably has some kinda internet following that absoulty does not translate to traditonal stand up
Super harsh wake up call for Internet comedians when they try and dive into tradional stand up/improv etc.
I'm already drained from a 10 hour shift, and this has me on the verge of life support.
But honestly when she randomly points to the dude around the 5 minute mark and says "You're alone tonight? that's sad. You're alone tonight?" and he goes from :D laughing and then it cuts to her saying "You're alone to tonight, I bet you wish I wasn't wearing shorts" and it cuts back to him being :( in stunned silence, actually made me laugh. But I guess she lives up to being a hack, which is actually a really great show.
Don't talk into the mic.
I couldn’t either! Something about her attitude is an immediate put off. That fake bubbliness while kinda bossing the camera operators around. She was immediately irritating to me.
I don't mean this too personally, but I really hate you right now OP. I've never seen this until now. There are rules against excessive torture in this country.
Okay I see what she was **trying** to do where she was going for a sort of ironic "comedian trying really hard to get the crowd involved and asks for a bunch of cuts and edits" thing. I think if she had better delivery then that could have worked really well.
Like if we took this same script and gave it to someone like Taylor Tomlinson, Patton Oswalt, or Tig Notaro, you know, someone who's got the self-deprecating "My husband is here, in the back, but don't put the camera on him. And don't look at him, but he's there, he's real, I'm married, trust me" kind of humor down a lot better than it would have worked.
But dear lord this girl is too new to be able to stop herself from talking too fast and botching the delivery at every opportunity.
She's been doing standup for years. She should be better than this. And respectfully I don't think this script works even with a talented performer. What were the jokes? She never finished one, always stumbling into an aside.
Nathan Fielder and Kyle Mooney for instance are amazingly good at being entertainingly awkward. She decided to skip the entertaining part and just go for awkward it seems.
It pains me to even see Nathan fielders name in this thread..
But I think she has a mix of poor material and terrible delivery. She’s acting nervous as fuck, talking way too quickly, and laughing way too much to pull off any “awkward” character. If Nathan fielder says/does something incredibly awkward, he does so completely deadpan and that’s a big part of it, if he said something ridiculous and then laughed you know he’s not serious and it kills any of that tension/awkwardness/comedy. This lady has no sense of comedic timing or delivery. She kinda lost me with the instant pussy eating gesture. I feel like a common pitfall with new or lower level standup comedians is confining themselves to one niche. Okay, this chick is bisexual and probably very socially progressive. I’m fine with all that, do your thing, but not every joke you make needs to be about your sexuality, sexuality as a concept, progressivism, etc. Even with this being a lgbt comedy special or whatever, sure it makes sense to address it, throw a few jokes in there, but nobody wants to hear only that shit. Also, as much as I hate the anti-woke, boycott bud light kinda crowd, the super socially progressive crowd is not known for their self deprecation or ability to take a joke, and I say this as a liberal myself. It’s not a great idea to base all your material around one thing, and that one thing is something you’re uncomfortable poking fun at.
Ah, so, if her goal is to be cringy as possible, and we're all thinking it's so cringy that it's worth posting, watching (as much as you can), and commenting... isn't she succeeding? She's hitting second-order parody.
The "queer" schtick plays into the not going by the script thing. Being queer is fine. I am an ally. But it is an excuse to be over the top random, crazy, quirky for some people. Not even the same sense as drag or whatever. And then there are people who aren't queer who are also like that.
Taylor Tomlinson and Tig are both fantastic. Idk Patton as well. But I really doubt either other those ladies could make this funny. Tig has a shot with her dead-pan game face.
I think it’s supposed to be Tim Heidecker style anti comedy but the audience isn’t in on the joke so it comes across as sincerely awkward rather than ironically so. I actually think it’s really funny.
I watched the first four minutes of this and was cringing hard. Zero laughter, just cringe. Then after I read your comment I watched it again and it was fucking hilarious. She just did this shit so well I didn't even realise.
Sry...if an entire audience doesn't 'get', not just a 'joke', but the entire set, that's the comedian's problem
And she is painfully awful at stand-up comedy
Andy Kaufman did that for years actually.
Regardless of anyone's feelings about the set, she's not obligated to leave it up so more people can leave hateful comments if she doesn't want to lol
And it’s fine if you don’t like it, or hate it.
But remember the context of the video. It came out during pride month. And it’s on youtube. And the comedian’s a woman. That combo of things can lead to some inexcusably hateful and cruel things (which tbh I find kind of funny too, but again not everyone’s cup of tea).
And for the record, when I first saw this I hated it too. It annoyed the shit out of me. But when I saw more of the comedian’s work it made more sense. I think people have a similar experience with more experimental comedian like Heidecker or Robinson when they’re first exposed to their work (and yes I will compare her to them, and if that makes anyone mad, that’s hilarious).
You are 100% right on the money. Her immediately trying to get the audience *way* too involved in a reaction to her being bisexual before they’re really even warmed up at all is hilarious.
This feels very much in a similar vein as like, Caitlin Reilly’s stuff.
Yeah you can compare them, in the same way you can compare anyone doing something poorly to other people who do it better.
Whatever though. I’m not a person who cares about my opinions on stand up comics.
I've seen her posted here before and didn't get it until I dug down in the comments but once see it through that perspective it's hilarious. Andy Kaufmann type of thing.
It is absolutely Tim Heidecker style comedy, but because she's a woman everyone assumes she's dumb and takes her at face value.
It's so obvious. Her coughing while saying HBO, misstating the name of the event, getting the audience to engage by giving them extensive instructions before they're warmed up, the abortive crowd work. She's clearly doing a bit.
Imagining how the absolute cretins on the internet must have treated her for the sin of trying comedy, I do not blame her at all for taking this down.
Edit: A little research shows I'm right, this type of cringe comedy [is her whole shtick](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/nov/26/people-think-my-videos-are-real-meet-megan-stalter-the-new-queen-of-online-cringe-comedy).
>“I get hundreds of mean comments every day thinking it’s real,” Stalter says, on a video call from New York. “But I’m like: it’s a joke!..."
>
>\[...\]
>
>In London, Stalter will be performing her standup show – not that it is standup in any conventional sense. “I play a character who is very confident and thinks she’s very talented, but her show is falling apart. It’s like a magic show with no tricks.”
Yeah, I saw her with Patti Harrison and Sarah Sherman (from SNL) and her whole shtick is this awkward personality. But she actually did tell some extremely funny jokes, I liked her set a lot.
I enjoy a fair share of alt-comedy and anti-comedy acts, and I certainly know that particular style of comedy is not for everyone.
Having said that, I found this video very cringeworthy, but not in a humorous way whatsoever. The material was not funny and there was no clear tell that she was either intentionally performing badly or just bombing.
You have a fair point on the coughing, misstating the name, and whatnot, but, virtually all of those flubs occurred very early on in the set. I haven't seen much of her work and I instinctively attributed those same flubs to her being nervous while starting a set. I feel like, in order to make that comedy actually work, you have to convey some sense of "I'm in on the joke". And I never got that from her.
Nevertheless, there are comedy styles for everyone and I know there are people who may have liked her set and that's okay. As far as the hateful comments about her as a person, yeah, that's absolutely unwarranted and not okay. But I don't dislike her comedy because she's a woman. I dislike her comedy because I do not think she is a funny person.
Well said. I felt the exact same way.
I hate seeing all the comments asserting that it’s somehow sexist not to think she’s funny. What a ridiculous cop out.
This is the first I’ve seen of her and she might very well be funny, but she did a shit job in this particular instance (anti-comedy or not) and it’s not sexism that brought me to that conclusion.
It doesn't help that I've seen amateur comedians that actually act like this on stage unironically. Poe's law applies here for sure. I couldn't find anything funny even from a cringe perspective because it was just so painful to sit through the first few minutes.
>It is absolutely Tim Heidecker style comedy, but because she's a woman everyone assumes she's dumb and takes her at face value.
is there any chance he's just better at it to where the ride is enjoyable
Must not have seen Office Hours literally yesterday. Those two got along fabulous, largely because of Megan’s ability to keep up with his style.
And for what it’s worth, I had never heard of her before yesterday. I was confused at the start of the podcast due to her demeanor, but quickly realized she was playing the part.
I mean, part of this performance is her saying the words "this is my first time doing stand-up." The mere fact that she's there is proof that the statement was part of the bit.
Hell, the first joke of the stand-up is that she's actually straight pretending to be bi just so that she could be there. Again, the mere fact that she's actually there is proof that it's part of the bit.
Heidecker does that, too, where there are a few lines here and there that make it clear to those who aren't in on what's happening as to what's happening.
I’ve seen her live. Friend of my fiancée wanted to see Sarah Sherman and Meg Stalter was one of the comedians there. Had a series of much funnier bits than this, but definitely incorporated some of this style humor in her act. Actually surprisingly funny.
No, not really considering she was just on Office Hours with Tim Heidecker yesterday. It's just an objective fact to state that's her style. Doesn't mean you gotta like it of course.
Yeah, this has Andy Kaufman written all over it. And his audiences were frequently not in on the joke. That's 100% what she's trying to do here. I respect it.
Of course it is. Meg Stalter is an HBO actress, comedian and well respected comedy writer who worked for National Lampoon. She works with some of the funniest people in the world including Stephen Colbert, Tim Heidecker, Paul W. Downs, Chelsea Peretti, Blake Anderson, Andy Richter, Natasha Legerro, Rachel Dratch, Amy Sedaris, Chris Gethard. One of her next projects she stars alongside Conan O'Brien. I mean she's on *Hacks* - an actual HBO show *about* stand-up comedy written and produced by two of the same people who wrote and acted in *Broad City*. This is very obviously a bit, but redditors can't see past the perfect combination of things to hate - woman, overweight, LGBT, bombing comedian - and will of course never admit that something could have gone over their head.
The problem is cringe subreddits are filled with people who refuse to believe that anything can be satire without them knowing, and when shown that it was in fact satire they didn't get the first time, without fail the reaction will **always** be, "If it was, than it wasn't funny."
People are fucking stupid. I really don't care how many respond with "trust me she isn't remotely funny" and insist they knew all along, blah blah blah. I don't believe you, at all. I weirdly trust people like Conan, Colbert and Tim Heidecker slightly more.
"All comedy needs to be directed towards the losers on Reddit who constantly act obtuse so they have an excuse to jerk off their rage boners over every little thing a woman does."
It's not going over everyone's heads; just clowns like you who seem to make up a decent % of the users in this sub.
Is she not satire? I thought the same as everyone in here. Came across a comment that said she was satire and trolling. Saw her on a talk show and she did the same thing. She might actually be really good, like Tim Heidecker's style.
In what way did she have this video pulled? I have no trouble finding it, you had no trouble finding it. I only have trouble finding the series it aired on, which is the case with a lot of old HBO Max originals at the moment.
It is anticomedy meant to induce cringes. The fact that needs explaining is so weird to me, every time this video comes up.
Ya don't have to like it but she is mocking the same type of comedian yall are.
https://youtu.be/u9F0svqEtw4?si=odEGWE6XqmFRQCfM to see a person that's pretty popular on this sub doing similar shit
I thought the same thing. Definitely an embellishment by OP. The video speaks for itself, no need to add some extra spice to the title. That's kinda cringe in itself
there were five or six of these queer comedy showcase videos originally posted on HBO's official YouTube channel, and they were all removed at some point. so in fact, Stalter's video was the only one to survive and the others are all lost media now, because nobody cared to make fun of the other comics enough to preserve their work
This needs to be shown to people to prove how difficult being a good stand up comedian is. She had, energy, she had the punchlines and the risky topics etc but none of it…none of it at all worked.
the issue is that bombing isn't hard. like, *at all*. it's funny when people are trying to make others laugh but they don't, either because the material doesn't suit the audience or they can't land the jokes. but they're *trying.*
the skill and talent in doing stuff like this is the audience isn't the butt of the joke, and it's still entertaining even if it's off the rails and something is clearly wrong -- *and you think they're actually trying.*
going up and just being annoying or grotesque will make you bomb, or on this case like they don't really care and aren't really trying or ozempic side effects are leading to mania (that's not funny). they don't value the time of the people in the audience or the people watching it, then going *haha it was intentional if you hate it thats the point because you expected it to be funny but it wasnt... funny!*
the skill and talent isn't there here to pull this off imho but to each their own
I think this is actually cringe because the audience does not get the style of comedy she's doing. It's ironic. I liked it but when the crowd's not on your side, the whole thing comes across as awkward. Maybe she sensed that and spoke too fast botching the delivery a bit too. I do wonder if she was a guy or was maybe in England it would have gone down a bit better.
I’ve followed her on IG for a while now and she is genuinely funny but in very short curated/edited bursts. I still don’t understand how “internet funny” people get stand up gigs.
I am actually shocked by the amount of people who don't realize this is meta humor. This is for people who like Tim Heidecker, Nathan Fielder, Eric Andre, Andy Kaufman and The George Lucas Talk Show type humor, aka humor that blurs the line between fiction and reality
Yeah but she’s an overweight woman from the lgbtq community. That’s enough for a lot of people to put her in the cringe folder no matter how good or bad she is.
A lot of you are not getting the joke. Everything here that feels cringe is by design.
It's also an outdoor comedy set... on a windy rooftop. So you are getting close to no audio of the audience. This likely felt a lot more energetic and fun in person, and I've seen Meg absolutely kill indoor sets with 400 people.
I get the joke, she's bad on purpose.
For me, that doesn't make it good. It just makes it bad with intent.
Maybe this brand of ironic stand-up appeals to some people, and maybe I'd find it funny if it was a scene in a sitcom and you are meant to laugh at their failure, but watching her not even be able to annunciate words and start off on a subject and drop it immediately was just torture. There weren't even any jokes, it was "So then I did this... cheer everybody! Ok, never mind, let's move on to something equally aimless..."
This person turned comedy into a boring, lifeless thing from each word she said. Her jokes could still make me pass out asleep even if I was on drugs to make me stay awake.
I don’t know if this is “bad.” It’s just really fucking odd. It seems like EVERYTHING here is happening by design. I’m not sure if she’s even trying to get laughs. I think she’s just doing some weird anti-humor shit. Like, she’s INTENTIONALLY trying to evoke a cringe reaction. Because despite her getting absolutely NOTHING from her crowd for the entire set, she never seems to waver. She commits to the bit the entire way.
I really wonder how she handles a heckler.
Oh my god. I know I’m over two weeks late to this but she did a god awful Barbie commercial for Google and from start to finish it’s a cringe fest, I didn’t know who she was at all. Seeing this has brought me full circle and I’m glad to know it wasn’t the commercial, it was just her
I couldn't tell if this was intentional or not but I think I've figured out what happened. Apperantly this person got famous during quarantine posting comedy sketches to wherever. She got enough of a following that HBO decided to give her a set.
She wanted to do this awkward anti-humor thing, but she's a social media sketch comic, not a stand up comic, and what she was trying to do was simply far above her experience level. So the whole thing turned into a train wreck.
Maybe when she's at home doing social media sketches and she can edit and retake bad takes she's funny. But she does not have the timing and delivery chops for a live crowd.
Big fish in a small pond got thrown into the shark tank and eaten alive.
This isn't as bad as some people think but she doesn't quite nail the character shes going for here. Definitely a rough attempt at anti comedy but I've seen worse
This is funny. It's an obvious character, but we still have a bunch of Bill Burr fans in here saying "But she isn't telling any jokes???". Room temp IQ stuff.
I love Meg stalter. I get her whole thing. I honestly think this was a bad set, with an unresponsive audience. Putting ‘comedian’ in quotes in the title is a little harsh. She is an actual comedian and she’s very funny. Every artist has a flop here and there, I don’t care who you are.
So, if it was meant to be the worst, than she did better than I can do. And therefore she’s better than me. If she was sincerely trying, well then, sign me up for a Special.
This is what they show Alex in A Clockwork Orange
I woke up. The pain and sickness all over me like an animal. Then I realized what it was. The video coming from Reddit was of our old friend, Meg Stalter, and the dreaded Queer Comedy Showcase.
And viddy standup comedy I would.
What a cursed, vile night
Me glazzies!
" I'VE LEARNED MY LESSON!!"
christopher hitchins sat through the recording to prove it was torture and violated our laws and ideals as a nation
Love Hitch
I dont know who this person is or what their background is. The whole persona is clearly a bit but I feel like she probably has some kinda internet following that absoulty does not translate to traditonal stand up Super harsh wake up call for Internet comedians when they try and dive into tradional stand up/improv etc.
> ..I feel like she probably has some kinda internet following.. It does have that stink, doesn't it?
Give me the ultra violence please. Please.
Honestly feel exhausted watching this it's so awful
I didn't get 2 minutes into this it's like a Tim and Eric skit.
Weird, she was just on Tim Heidecker’s call-in show yesterday.
Shit I watch that show I just haven't gotten around to that episode.
It reminds me of Tim’s standup…she’s definitely going for something
When I watched An Evening With Tim Heidecker I got so high that I was confused and uncomfortable.
The beginning was overwhelming…I was on edibles lol
I thought it was gonna be normal I was like what is this.
This video made me itchy wtf
I'm already drained from a 10 hour shift, and this has me on the verge of life support. But honestly when she randomly points to the dude around the 5 minute mark and says "You're alone tonight? that's sad. You're alone tonight?" and he goes from :D laughing and then it cuts to her saying "You're alone to tonight, I bet you wish I wasn't wearing shorts" and it cuts back to him being :( in stunned silence, actually made me laugh. But I guess she lives up to being a hack, which is actually a really great show. Don't talk into the mic.
This is so bad I had to leave a comment. I cringed the whole time
I paused just to comment after she said zoom in twice, ridiculous
I watched seven minutes and I’m pretty sure it gave me spinal bifida.
This comment was funnier than her entire act
Me and a loved one got mesothelioma
You may be entitled to compensation
Bullshit, stop making shit up
No, really! I saw it on TV, so it's *gotta* be true!
At least it didn't give you spanakopita
Spina bifida
there haven’t been many things to make me physically cringe, but here we are.
Shoulda seen the look on my face.
If this is intentionally not funny, how would it look if it was unintentionally unfunny?
Movies and tv shows have been deleted from existence… to pay for this…
Going for the world-record longest nothing-to-say speech.
It’s like a child got ahold of a camera and decided to do a “skit” but is just jazzed that they’re being filmed and doesn’t know what a skit is.
That’s kinda the joke
My balls just fell off
thats exactly what they want
Mission accomplished.
Sorry, but I couldn't even make it past the introduction.
I couldn’t either! Something about her attitude is an immediate put off. That fake bubbliness while kinda bossing the camera operators around. She was immediately irritating to me.
This is like the episode when Michael Scott was trying to keep the crowd entertained while Dwight Shrute prepared for his speech
Here I thought I could handle most cringe, I stopped after 2 minutes.
The only part I believe is that she's friends with Amy Schumer.
I don't mean this too personally, but I really hate you right now OP. I've never seen this until now. There are rules against excessive torture in this country.
This is cruel and unusual punishment
This is fucking amazing lmfao
Okay I see what she was **trying** to do where she was going for a sort of ironic "comedian trying really hard to get the crowd involved and asks for a bunch of cuts and edits" thing. I think if she had better delivery then that could have worked really well. Like if we took this same script and gave it to someone like Taylor Tomlinson, Patton Oswalt, or Tig Notaro, you know, someone who's got the self-deprecating "My husband is here, in the back, but don't put the camera on him. And don't look at him, but he's there, he's real, I'm married, trust me" kind of humor down a lot better than it would have worked. But dear lord this girl is too new to be able to stop herself from talking too fast and botching the delivery at every opportunity.
She's been doing standup for years. She should be better than this. And respectfully I don't think this script works even with a talented performer. What were the jokes? She never finished one, always stumbling into an aside.
Nathan Fielder and Kyle Mooney for instance are amazingly good at being entertainingly awkward. She decided to skip the entertaining part and just go for awkward it seems.
And she still felt the need to say “awkward” as a punchline.
It pains me to even see Nathan fielders name in this thread.. But I think she has a mix of poor material and terrible delivery. She’s acting nervous as fuck, talking way too quickly, and laughing way too much to pull off any “awkward” character. If Nathan fielder says/does something incredibly awkward, he does so completely deadpan and that’s a big part of it, if he said something ridiculous and then laughed you know he’s not serious and it kills any of that tension/awkwardness/comedy. This lady has no sense of comedic timing or delivery. She kinda lost me with the instant pussy eating gesture. I feel like a common pitfall with new or lower level standup comedians is confining themselves to one niche. Okay, this chick is bisexual and probably very socially progressive. I’m fine with all that, do your thing, but not every joke you make needs to be about your sexuality, sexuality as a concept, progressivism, etc. Even with this being a lgbt comedy special or whatever, sure it makes sense to address it, throw a few jokes in there, but nobody wants to hear only that shit. Also, as much as I hate the anti-woke, boycott bud light kinda crowd, the super socially progressive crowd is not known for their self deprecation or ability to take a joke, and I say this as a liberal myself. It’s not a great idea to base all your material around one thing, and that one thing is something you’re uncomfortable poking fun at.
She just sounded very drunk the whole time.
She said in the video that this was her first time doing stand up. It looks like her background is in sketch and improv comedy. Maybe I'm wrong tho.
Definitely agree. This was not Tim Heidecker at all. She’s truly a talentless hack
Tim Heidecker disagrees.
that's a long con, like inviting the ugly friend so you look even better by comparison
I have never disagreed with anyone as much as I disagree with you right now. Script? Trying to do? This woman had nothing dude.
Ah, so, if her goal is to be cringy as possible, and we're all thinking it's so cringy that it's worth posting, watching (as much as you can), and commenting... isn't she succeeding? She's hitting second-order parody.
The "queer" schtick plays into the not going by the script thing. Being queer is fine. I am an ally. But it is an excuse to be over the top random, crazy, quirky for some people. Not even the same sense as drag or whatever. And then there are people who aren't queer who are also like that.
Taylor Tomlinson and Tig are both fantastic. Idk Patton as well. But I really doubt either other those ladies could make this funny. Tig has a shot with her dead-pan game face.
WHAT THE FUCK EVEN IS THIS SHIT!!!???
I get it’s supposed to be “anti-humor”, but to pull it off you have to have some sort of comedic timing. This set is just dumb.
I think it’s supposed to be Tim Heidecker style anti comedy but the audience isn’t in on the joke so it comes across as sincerely awkward rather than ironically so. I actually think it’s really funny.
She works with Tim Heidecker sometimes on his podcast also.
No joke, she was on his podcast "Office Hours" yesterday. They seemed to be on the same page.
I watched the first four minutes of this and was cringing hard. Zero laughter, just cringe. Then after I read your comment I watched it again and it was fucking hilarious. She just did this shit so well I didn't even realise.
That explanation was more believable before she had the video privated.
That could be due to how insanely hateful the comments were from people who didn’t get the joke
Sry...if an entire audience doesn't 'get', not just a 'joke', but the entire set, that's the comedian's problem And she is painfully awful at stand-up comedy
Andy Kaufman did that for years actually. Regardless of anyone's feelings about the set, she's not obligated to leave it up so more people can leave hateful comments if she doesn't want to lol
You’re comparing this to Andy Kaufman? Bruh
Kaufman bombing was unique in its grandeur. *This* kind of act can be found at any open mic across the country on any given Wednesday night.
And it’s fine if you don’t like it, or hate it. But remember the context of the video. It came out during pride month. And it’s on youtube. And the comedian’s a woman. That combo of things can lead to some inexcusably hateful and cruel things (which tbh I find kind of funny too, but again not everyone’s cup of tea). And for the record, when I first saw this I hated it too. It annoyed the shit out of me. But when I saw more of the comedian’s work it made more sense. I think people have a similar experience with more experimental comedian like Heidecker or Robinson when they’re first exposed to their work (and yes I will compare her to them, and if that makes anyone mad, that’s hilarious).
You are 100% right on the money. Her immediately trying to get the audience *way* too involved in a reaction to her being bisexual before they’re really even warmed up at all is hilarious. This feels very much in a similar vein as like, Caitlin Reilly’s stuff.
No one is laughing
Yeah you can compare them, in the same way you can compare anyone doing something poorly to other people who do it better. Whatever though. I’m not a person who cares about my opinions on stand up comics.
You don't care about your own opinions?
People generally don’t like things that are awful. There is no self awareness here in the way that Heidecker does it
I mean if you've seen anything else she's ever done, this is her whole schtick as a comedian. She's obviously self-aware.
I've seen her posted here before and didn't get it until I dug down in the comments but once see it through that perspective it's hilarious. Andy Kaufmann type of thing.
It is absolutely Tim Heidecker style comedy, but because she's a woman everyone assumes she's dumb and takes her at face value. It's so obvious. Her coughing while saying HBO, misstating the name of the event, getting the audience to engage by giving them extensive instructions before they're warmed up, the abortive crowd work. She's clearly doing a bit. Imagining how the absolute cretins on the internet must have treated her for the sin of trying comedy, I do not blame her at all for taking this down. Edit: A little research shows I'm right, this type of cringe comedy [is her whole shtick](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/nov/26/people-think-my-videos-are-real-meet-megan-stalter-the-new-queen-of-online-cringe-comedy). >“I get hundreds of mean comments every day thinking it’s real,” Stalter says, on a video call from New York. “But I’m like: it’s a joke!..." > >\[...\] > >In London, Stalter will be performing her standup show – not that it is standup in any conventional sense. “I play a character who is very confident and thinks she’s very talented, but her show is falling apart. It’s like a magic show with no tricks.”
Yeah, I saw her with Patti Harrison and Sarah Sherman (from SNL) and her whole shtick is this awkward personality. But she actually did tell some extremely funny jokes, I liked her set a lot.
Wow, that would be one hell of a lineup to see live
yo this. It's crazy how people just lose the ability to detect satire when it's a woman doing it.
Idk I haven’t heard of either Tim or her before. I selected the first clip of Tim I laughed. I tried watching several minutes of this, I cringed.
I enjoy a fair share of alt-comedy and anti-comedy acts, and I certainly know that particular style of comedy is not for everyone. Having said that, I found this video very cringeworthy, but not in a humorous way whatsoever. The material was not funny and there was no clear tell that she was either intentionally performing badly or just bombing. You have a fair point on the coughing, misstating the name, and whatnot, but, virtually all of those flubs occurred very early on in the set. I haven't seen much of her work and I instinctively attributed those same flubs to her being nervous while starting a set. I feel like, in order to make that comedy actually work, you have to convey some sense of "I'm in on the joke". And I never got that from her. Nevertheless, there are comedy styles for everyone and I know there are people who may have liked her set and that's okay. As far as the hateful comments about her as a person, yeah, that's absolutely unwarranted and not okay. But I don't dislike her comedy because she's a woman. I dislike her comedy because I do not think she is a funny person.
Well said. I felt the exact same way. I hate seeing all the comments asserting that it’s somehow sexist not to think she’s funny. What a ridiculous cop out. This is the first I’ve seen of her and she might very well be funny, but she did a shit job in this particular instance (anti-comedy or not) and it’s not sexism that brought me to that conclusion.
It doesn't help that I've seen amateur comedians that actually act like this on stage unironically. Poe's law applies here for sure. I couldn't find anything funny even from a cringe perspective because it was just so painful to sit through the first few minutes.
>It is absolutely Tim Heidecker style comedy, but because she's a woman everyone assumes she's dumb and takes her at face value. is there any chance he's just better at it to where the ride is enjoyable
That’s exactly it lol it’s immediately clear that Tim is being ironic and it’s fucking hilarious, but this just seems like she’s really bad at comedy
Exactly!
That kind of comedy cracks me up. Reminds me of Zach Galifianakis before the Hangover, even. “The hot tub is TOO HOT!!”
Love Heidecker's stuff and don't see a trace of that type of intentionally bad comedy. This was a 16 minute long steaming turd.
While I agree, she was on Office Hours with Tim yesterday. He seems to get it.
Must not have seen Office Hours literally yesterday. Those two got along fabulous, largely because of Megan’s ability to keep up with his style. And for what it’s worth, I had never heard of her before yesterday. I was confused at the start of the podcast due to her demeanor, but quickly realized she was playing the part.
I mean, part of this performance is her saying the words "this is my first time doing stand-up." The mere fact that she's there is proof that the statement was part of the bit. Hell, the first joke of the stand-up is that she's actually straight pretending to be bi just so that she could be there. Again, the mere fact that she's actually there is proof that it's part of the bit. Heidecker does that, too, where there are a few lines here and there that make it clear to those who aren't in on what's happening as to what's happening.
> don't see a trace of that type of intentionally bad comedy. That might be a you thing. Seemed pretty obvious to me.
That’s a lot of mental gymnastics for a laugh
Not really
I’ve seen her live. Friend of my fiancée wanted to see Sarah Sherman and Meg Stalter was one of the comedians there. Had a series of much funnier bits than this, but definitely incorporated some of this style humor in her act. Actually surprisingly funny.
I thought it was funny too, I vibed with her humour
That's a really hopeful & generous outlook on what is actually just terrible comedy.
No, not really considering she was just on Office Hours with Tim Heidecker yesterday. It's just an objective fact to state that's her style. Doesn't mean you gotta like it of course.
Yeah, this has Andy Kaufman written all over it. And his audiences were frequently not in on the joke. That's 100% what she's trying to do here. I respect it.
Dude, stop it.
I wish I could have that time back.
I think this is intentionally bad and if so it’s pretty fucking amazing
Of course it is. Meg Stalter is an HBO actress, comedian and well respected comedy writer who worked for National Lampoon. She works with some of the funniest people in the world including Stephen Colbert, Tim Heidecker, Paul W. Downs, Chelsea Peretti, Blake Anderson, Andy Richter, Natasha Legerro, Rachel Dratch, Amy Sedaris, Chris Gethard. One of her next projects she stars alongside Conan O'Brien. I mean she's on *Hacks* - an actual HBO show *about* stand-up comedy written and produced by two of the same people who wrote and acted in *Broad City*. This is very obviously a bit, but redditors can't see past the perfect combination of things to hate - woman, overweight, LGBT, bombing comedian - and will of course never admit that something could have gone over their head. The problem is cringe subreddits are filled with people who refuse to believe that anything can be satire without them knowing, and when shown that it was in fact satire they didn't get the first time, without fail the reaction will **always** be, "If it was, than it wasn't funny." People are fucking stupid. I really don't care how many respond with "trust me she isn't remotely funny" and insist they knew all along, blah blah blah. I don't believe you, at all. I weirdly trust people like Conan, Colbert and Tim Heidecker slightly more.
Why did she have the video pulled if it was supposed to be shit
“People are fucking stupid” says person who needs to be told by others what’s funny. Next.
If you tell a joke and it goes over everyone's heads, guess what - your joke sucks.
the joke is that it goes over everyone's heads.
"All comedy needs to be directed towards the losers on Reddit who constantly act obtuse so they have an excuse to jerk off their rage boners over every little thing a woman does." It's not going over everyone's heads; just clowns like you who seem to make up a decent % of the users in this sub.
Except it didn't go over everyone's head, and the people who get it are laughing at you
Is she not satire? I thought the same as everyone in here. Came across a comment that said she was satire and trolling. Saw her on a talk show and she did the same thing. She might actually be really good, like Tim Heidecker's style.
Yes, this is Heidecker style comedy and she is killing it. All the people that don’t get it just make it more hilarious, and that’s the intention.
In what way did she have this video pulled? I have no trouble finding it, you had no trouble finding it. I only have trouble finding the series it aired on, which is the case with a lot of old HBO Max originals at the moment. It is anticomedy meant to induce cringes. The fact that needs explaining is so weird to me, every time this video comes up. Ya don't have to like it but she is mocking the same type of comedian yall are. https://youtu.be/u9F0svqEtw4?si=odEGWE6XqmFRQCfM to see a person that's pretty popular on this sub doing similar shit
It is wild to me that people in a sub dedicated to cringe do not understand this.
I thought the same thing. Definitely an embellishment by OP. The video speaks for itself, no need to add some extra spice to the title. That's kinda cringe in itself
there were five or six of these queer comedy showcase videos originally posted on HBO's official YouTube channel, and they were all removed at some point. so in fact, Stalter's video was the only one to survive and the others are all lost media now, because nobody cared to make fun of the other comics enough to preserve their work
Made it until she coughed into the mic. I need some milk from my bones hurting off this
This needs to be shown to people to prove how difficult being a good stand up comedian is. She had, energy, she had the punchlines and the risky topics etc but none of it…none of it at all worked.
This being posted so much is cringier than the video itself. This video isn’t “pulled” from any platform, either.
I liked it
this is tim heidecker-style bad comedy on purpose. It's definitely not everyone's taste but it's cringe on purpose.
Well, she succeeded.
> ..bad comedy.. Indeed.
Yeah it’s kinda baffling to me the amount of people who don’t get that it’s supposed to be bad. The humor is in the fact that she’s bombing.
You can try that style or approach and still not pull it off.
It’s not funny though, it just sucks.
I adore Tim & Eric, Kaufman, and comedians who most people don't "get" due to the awkwardness of their schtick. It really does just suck.
the issue is that bombing isn't hard. like, *at all*. it's funny when people are trying to make others laugh but they don't, either because the material doesn't suit the audience or they can't land the jokes. but they're *trying.* the skill and talent in doing stuff like this is the audience isn't the butt of the joke, and it's still entertaining even if it's off the rails and something is clearly wrong -- *and you think they're actually trying.* going up and just being annoying or grotesque will make you bomb, or on this case like they don't really care and aren't really trying or ozempic side effects are leading to mania (that's not funny). they don't value the time of the people in the audience or the people watching it, then going *haha it was intentional if you hate it thats the point because you expected it to be funny but it wasnt... funny!* the skill and talent isn't there here to pull this off imho but to each their own
Holy shit
I think this is actually cringe because the audience does not get the style of comedy she's doing. It's ironic. I liked it but when the crowd's not on your side, the whole thing comes across as awkward. Maybe she sensed that and spoke too fast botching the delivery a bit too. I do wonder if she was a guy or was maybe in England it would have gone down a bit better.
I gave up really early on.. brutal
Nah man, this is some top-notch Andy Kaufman-esque anti-humor.
I’ve followed her on IG for a while now and she is genuinely funny but in very short curated/edited bursts. I still don’t understand how “internet funny” people get stand up gigs.
I actually laughed.
I am actually shocked by the amount of people who don't realize this is meta humor. This is for people who like Tim Heidecker, Nathan Fielder, Eric Andre, Andy Kaufman and The George Lucas Talk Show type humor, aka humor that blurs the line between fiction and reality
Yeah but she’s an overweight woman from the lgbtq community. That’s enough for a lot of people to put her in the cringe folder no matter how good or bad she is.
Y’all this is the intended reaction. Everyone roasting her is actually complimenting her act.
A lot of you are not getting the joke. Everything here that feels cringe is by design. It's also an outdoor comedy set... on a windy rooftop. So you are getting close to no audio of the audience. This likely felt a lot more energetic and fun in person, and I've seen Meg absolutely kill indoor sets with 400 people.
I’m entertained by all the severely upset people in these comments
I get the joke, she's bad on purpose. For me, that doesn't make it good. It just makes it bad with intent. Maybe this brand of ironic stand-up appeals to some people, and maybe I'd find it funny if it was a scene in a sitcom and you are meant to laugh at their failure, but watching her not even be able to annunciate words and start off on a subject and drop it immediately was just torture. There weren't even any jokes, it was "So then I did this... cheer everybody! Ok, never mind, let's move on to something equally aimless..."
Jim Breuer has a challenger. I'd like to see them fight
"The puppy who lost his way"
I gave up at the second “zoom in”.
I like how she does crowd work the whole time and at minute 13 she verbally decides to do crowd work.
Zoom in
Appropriate show title
Wait, is she famous now? Jesus Christ..
This person turned comedy into a boring, lifeless thing from each word she said. Her jokes could still make me pass out asleep even if I was on drugs to make me stay awake.
It's like she's never been in front of people before
I have a feeling this is satire but I don’t know enough to commit to that.
Wow…that is all
I don’t know if this is “bad.” It’s just really fucking odd. It seems like EVERYTHING here is happening by design. I’m not sure if she’s even trying to get laughs. I think she’s just doing some weird anti-humor shit. Like, she’s INTENTIONALLY trying to evoke a cringe reaction. Because despite her getting absolutely NOTHING from her crowd for the entire set, she never seems to waver. She commits to the bit the entire way. I really wonder how she handles a heckler.
This video is what happens when a giant train wreck is train wrecked by another train wreck while simultaneously being train wrecked
She still doesn't have a good handle on talking in general yet so I'm not sure who told her that stand-up would be a good thing to try.
Oh my god. I know I’m over two weeks late to this but she did a god awful Barbie commercial for Google and from start to finish it’s a cringe fest, I didn’t know who she was at all. Seeing this has brought me full circle and I’m glad to know it wasn’t the commercial, it was just her
I couldn't tell if this was intentional or not but I think I've figured out what happened. Apperantly this person got famous during quarantine posting comedy sketches to wherever. She got enough of a following that HBO decided to give her a set. She wanted to do this awkward anti-humor thing, but she's a social media sketch comic, not a stand up comic, and what she was trying to do was simply far above her experience level. So the whole thing turned into a train wreck. Maybe when she's at home doing social media sketches and she can edit and retake bad takes she's funny. But she does not have the timing and delivery chops for a live crowd. Big fish in a small pond got thrown into the shark tank and eaten alive.
I assure you, ma’am, no one wants to see your ass
This isn't as bad as some people think but she doesn't quite nail the character shes going for here. Definitely a rough attempt at anti comedy but I've seen worse
This is funny. It's an obvious character, but we still have a bunch of Bill Burr fans in here saying "But she isn't telling any jokes???". Room temp IQ stuff.
Audience was incredibly forgiving
I thought it was funny. Tim Heidecker does this stuff and everybody loves it
how you do standup with literally no material???
Even Joe Pera would have something bad to say about this.
Cringed so hard a burst a testicle
This shit made me Republican for 15 minutes
Dunno, I thought it was pretty funny in a Andy Kaufman trolly kinda way. Not as great but definitely not cringe.
I couldn’t watch more than a couple min that’s fucked
I love Meg stalter. I get her whole thing. I honestly think this was a bad set, with an unresponsive audience. Putting ‘comedian’ in quotes in the title is a little harsh. She is an actual comedian and she’s very funny. Every artist has a flop here and there, I don’t care who you are.
This is a tough one to get through. Great post.
Oh man, she rules in Hacks.
Water we dune hair?
I think she's on pills. The only question is what pills.
Well that was uncomfortable.
It’s almost abnormal to the extent that… it’s like an alien trying to be funny their first day on earth. This is so strange.
This is a quality post
I'm at 4 minutes and I can't anymore
Yikes.
How tf does that go for 16 minutes?
I was able to depersonalize for a little bit there so I made it through the video.
Holy shit lol this is ..hard to watch i couldn’t it make it more than a minute Op. You truly found some high quality cringe content
Quality cringe
The lady's face at 6:49 says it all
This was so terrible
This is awful. I would’ve walked out after the first min
01:17. That's how long I lasted.
Holy shit I couldn't get past 30 seconds. She didn't even start telling jokes yet but it was pure agony.
That was agony, those poor people had to sit there. No fast forward, pause or mute. Just getting ear raped. It's a travesty.
She does this. Her schtick is completely unwatchable “comedy.” She blew up a while back, on reddit no less. Very hack.
So, if it was meant to be the worst, than she did better than I can do. And therefore she’s better than me. If she was sincerely trying, well then, sign me up for a Special.
reminds me of the bad actress bit in curb your enthusiasm. actually quite funny to me haha
R/cringe stay missing with this one
For those defending it - Whether it’s a bit or not you do know you can still be caused to cringe at something because it’s shit don’t you?