Hannah Gadsby: Nanette Analysis

Hannah Gadsby: Nanette (2018)

A Netflix Standup Special

I loved this special, not for the comedy - but for her riveting narration of her traumatic experiences. When we go through a bad experience, we often don't understand what's going on with ourselves, and only in hindsight we are able to figure out why we were feeling the way we were. It's the way she spoke about how she felt while things happened to her, that moves us because otherwise we only sympathise with her, but by the way she deconstructs her feelings - we can empathise with her because we would've felt those emotions in our lives in varying degrees.

My concern with this was that she totally rejected the form of comedy, which is what is happening in a lot of films - where they have strong propaganda and they entirely forget the purpose of the form. I absolutely love Ava DuVarney's films - her films are strongly activist, she empowers the black voices and I cried watching her work, and I have nothing to do with the racism in U.S. It worked because it has cinematic drama built around oppression. This set worked for the same reasons because of the oppression she talks about. Having said that, this set could be an inspiration for people to forget about the form, and speak about their concerns with the world, which can not always work, and I hope that doesn't happen.

Hannah spoke about how you need to be open to different perspectives, and yet she herself was being so corny about feedback, and how she wants her to express herself in a way that she wants. I don't think the intention of self-deprecating humor is to show humility - I think it's to accept ourselves for who we are and not let others to make fun of us. I loved listening to her story, I had goosebumps once in a while but I had some other perspectives as well, which I'm not sure if they would be welcome. This show depicts the current socio-political movements happening in the world, where there is a lot of angst in the young people against racism, sexism, homophobia and many more - but I'm concerned if we'd end up building our identities around correcting the mistakes of the older generations.