Her trailblazing feminist TV sketches are viewed by millions on YouTube. She drops honesty bombs on glitzy award ceremonies. Serious A-listers are queuing to work with her. Here’s why Amy Schumer is the funniest woman in Hollywood.
1. Her comedy show rocks
After scoring a show on Comedy Central, Amy Schumer leapt at the chance to satirise sexism in the industry. In ‘12 Angry Men’, she enlists the likes of Jeff Goldblum and Paul Giamatti to play jurors deciding if Amy Schumer is ‘hot enough to be on TV’. In the witty, subversive ‘Last Fuckable Day’, she stumbles upon Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Patricia Arquette having a picnic in the park to celebrate Julia’s ‘last fuckable day’. You see, they explain, Hollywood decides when women stop being believably fuckable. Frank and bitterly funny, Schumer gets right to the crux of a problem most A-listers pretend doesn’t exist – and she’s persuaded three major stars to talk about it.
2. She drops an honesty bomb wherever she goes
Attending this year’s Glamour magazine Women of the Year awards and receiving a trailblazer gong from Jennifer Saunders, Schumer gave a speech that became an instant viral sensation. She told the room full of skinny models: ‘I’m 160 pounds right now and I can catch a dick whenever I want. That’s the truth.’ This, with comedy goddess Saunders cracking up hard in the background. As always, Amy smuggled a serious message into the comedy: ‘I’m not going to apologise for who I am, and I'm going to actually love the skin I'm in,’ she told the audience. The footage has been seen 3.5 million times on YouTube.
3. She’s made one of the summer’s funniest films
‘Trainwreck’ is a hilarious portrait of a hard-drinking, commitment-phobic woman in her mid-thirties, turning typical gender roles on their heads harder than ‘Bridesmaids’ ever did – at least in its knockout first half (the ending cops out big time). Schumer wrote and stars in the comedy, which is directed by Judd Apatow. It’s funny, honest, subversive and it makes outrageous jokes about tampons.
4. Tilda Swinton is her BFF
When Amy was looking for an actress to play her character’s bitchy magazine boss in ‘Trainwreck’, her fantasy casting was Tilda Swinton – then she’d discovered that the British actress was a fan. ‘I was thrilled,’ said Swinton, and a friendship was born. Here’s Schumer in gushing girl crush mode: ‘She’s the greatest friend you will ever have. She is the coolest. That someone can be that present and selfless, and still someone that you’d want to drink Scotch with till you black out. That is a real lady.’ Swinton responded by writing a poem for Time magazine:
Amy’s got your back.
She’s in your corner.
She’s an honesty bomb.
And she’s coming for you.
Awww, they really like each other, don’t they?
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5. Her favourite subject is sex
‘Aren’t you that girl from the television who talks about her pussy all the time?’ asks Julia Louis-Dreyfus in a sketch on Schumer’s show. ‘Yes! Thank you!’ comes the delighted response. Amy has no qualms about referring to her own genitalia on a regular basis. Women like sex and enjoy talking about it – what’s the big deal? is her message. She even fought for the right to use the word ‘pussy’ on her show without it being bleeped out. And, as with every fight Amy squares up for, she won.
