‘The Break With Michelle Wolf’ Premiere: Will She Keep Up With Politics?
Hot off of her controversial turn at the White House Correspondence dinner earlier this year, comedian Michelle Wolf launched her new Netflix series on Sunday. A weekly talk show entitled “The Break With Michelle Wolf,” it promptly addressed recent headlines involving the NFL, the #MeToo movement and the royal wedding. Also addressed was her performance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
But will the show maximize the politics that has catapulted her into the public eye? Wolf says otherwise, claiming it won’t be an intellectual comedy, a la John Oliver or Samantha Bee, nor will it necessarily be all political.
It’s called “The Break” because it’s supposed to be a comedic break from the unrelenting news cycle that shows no signs of easing up on evidence of our turbulent times.
Indeed, it would be hard for her show to stay entirely relevant with any commentary on politics or recent news, when it’s released once a week on Netflix, compared to a nightly talk show that can stay on top of current events.
On the premiere this week, Wolf’s jokes included a rebuke of the notion that all women have to support each other to call themselves feminists. She followed with a list of five women who she’s choosing not to support right now, including newly appointed CIA director Gina Haspel and Bill Cosby’s devoted wife, Camille.
Another joke addressed the #MeToo campaign in correlation to the Miss USA pageant: “This year the contestants shared their #MeToo experiences in prerecorded videos, which is insane because the whole pageant is one big #MeToo. These women are literally walking across the stage in bathing suits so that judges can score their bodies and then maybe reward them with money.”
Although Wolf may not be aiming for politics on her show, it’s safe to say it will inevitably pop up in the show’s opening monologue, sketches, or comedy bits throughout it—just like on any other regular talk show. It’s always reliable fodder for comedy, and hard to avoid.
Wolf was a former writer for “The Daily Show” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and became a talking point among cable news pundits back in late April, drawing ire for a joke she made at the expense of press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, claiming she lies on behalf of the president.