'A must-watch for anyone interested in comedy, politics and speaking truth to power'

Jena Friedman shares her Perfect Playlist

Jena Friedman is heading to the Soho Theatre next week for a work in progress of her new show Motherf*cker. The American comic has hosted the comedic true-crime series Indefensible on AMC, been a field producer at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and has written for Late Show with David Letterman. Here she shares her Perfect Playlist of comedy favourites.

George Carlin: The Planet Is Fine

The older I get, the more I appreciate George Carlin. He was the epitome of comedian as philosopher and so much of his material rings true to this day. As climate change keeps getting worse, I often think about his nihilistic but weirdly calming (at least to me) joke about how the planet will be fine (and how we’ll all be fucked).

Now, two months after wildfires have swept through Los Angeles and microplastics have been discovered in everything from our oceans to our brains, Carlin’s ‘bit’ feels more prescient than ever.

The Good Liars

Jason Selvig and Davram Steifler are the comedy duo The Good Liars. They’re most well-known for infiltrating conservative rallies and campaign events in America to troll, I mean ‘interview’ politicians and their supporters and the resulting footage is often jaw-dropping and hilarious.

I first fell in love with them when they got kicked out of a Trump rally in 2015 for calling him ‘boring’ and I have been a fan ever since. Their stunt at the 2022 National Rifle Association Convention was pretty epic, but it’s this scene of them shooting guns with Republican politician Rick Santorum that makes me laugh every time:

@thegoodliars The time we called Rick Santorum dad. From Undecided: The Movie. #fyp #prank #fathersday #dad #funny #tglnyc #pennsylvania ♬ original sound - The Good Liars

Stephen Colbert’s White House Correspondence Speech

The fact that a comedian could say all this to a sitting president is a testament to the strength of American democracy, or what it was circa 2006. I believe this period was the height of political satire in America and it makes me sad to think we may never get back there… are you noticing a theme?

Kathy Griffin: A Hell Of A Story

No comedian working today is as raw and unfiltered as Kathy Griffin. Regardless of your politics, she’s doing all of us a service by standing up for free speech and freedom of expression. This special is a must-watch for anyone interested in comedy, politics and speaking truth to power. It’s also really funny!

Hannibal’s Joke About Cosby

I started comedy in Chicago in 2006, where Hannibal Buress was already a household name. From the first time I saw him perform, I was blown away by how uniquely funny he was. I remember watching him at an open mic one time just stand onstage, quiet, for five minutes straight, as if he was practising perfecting the pregnant pause.

He has always been one of my favourite comics and it’s wild that this joke about Bill Cosby ‘allegedly’ being a rapist (which had been an open secret in the comedy scene for years) would be the thing that would get the ball rolling on a criminal investigation.

Hannibal would probably hate me for including this here, but his joke (performed in Cosby’s hometown) is one of the ballsiest things I have ever seen. Every time I question my career choice and wonder if anything comedians say actually matters, I think about how much impact this one performance had, then again,

Cosby is now out of prison and possibly also touring so maybe I should quit comedy to become a musician too.

The Yes Men

The Yes Men walked so The Good Liars could run. They are true American heroes and the stunts they’ve pulled off, from infiltrating the WTO to pretending to be Dow chemical executives compensating victims of the Bhopal chemical disaster, are legendary.

My motto has always been, ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, shame ‘em’ and in this current Muskian dystopia we’re living in, I don’t know what role comedians will play, but I hope it will look something like this:

• Jena Friedman’s Motherf*cker – about life, death and this current political moment – is at Soho Theatre from February 27 to March 5. Tickets. Here’s a clip of her in action: