Whitney Cummings Offers The ‘Girlfriend’ Experience In Her New HBO Special

The past five years may have made Whitney Cummings a great big pile of money, as the co-creator of the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls (now in its fifth season) and the creator and star of NBC’s Whitney for two seasons. Both of those sitcoms premiered in the fall of 2011, and broke Cummings big as a comedic voice good for more than just a Comedy Central Roast or three.

But all of that money and stardom didn’t buy Cummings happiness. And it certainly didn’t buy her love.

So now Cummings releases her first HBO comedy special, Whitney Cummings: I’m Your Girlfriend, at a time in which she’s a little bit older (now 33), wiser and jaded about being anyone’s girlfriend.

Just last month, Cummings published a revealing essay on Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner’s LennyLetter documenting how she has recently come to terms with her codependence issues.

Onstage, she has dialed down the volume from her two loud Comedy Central specials, although her insight into men, feminism and the delicate dichotomy that makes relationships work (or not so much) in the 21st century speaks even more volumes.

While Amy Schumer and the late Patrice O’Neal were content enough just to describe outlandish sexual positions, Cummings takes it a literal step further, not only acting out some of the more popular sex moves among teens and 20-somethings today, but also chastising these Millennials for making the perverse so mainstream.

Cummings recognizes that in her 20s, she, too, was a bit arrogant and delusional in what she wanted out of a relationship.

Now that she’s in her 30s, she realizes how those traits translate to a man: “I’m just a dick. I’m the worst. I’m loud. I’m obnoxious. I’m bossy.”

Then again, she has worked hard in the past decade to carve out a successful TV career. That might not turn men on, but it means that she now can negotiate her relationships from a position of strength. “I’m not a gold digger,” Cummings jokes. “I’m the one with the gold, dummy.”

And she’ll fight for the right for women to hold themselves in higher regard, whether it’s access to higher-quality and effective birth control, or for the principle of choosing a tech wizard over an alpha male for a mate.

“I think feminism is working, but I don’t know if you guys like it,” Cummings observes.
What guys seem to like, she jokes, is calling women “baby” in bed while asking them to do violent, subservient and humiliating things in the bedroom. Cummings knows she’s on HBO, so she can get away with provoking audience members in the room or at home into wondering if they’re really into anal, squirting, gagging or making love to a woman’s bosom. Men continue to see women as objects, and Cummings isn’t going to stand, or twerk there, and take it.

At one point, she says that sexual mores need to bring back taboos, and she’s certainly not going to put up with even one broke pervert: “Stay away from my butt. I have a house. I worked too hard.” And adds later: “It’s not whack-a-mole. I’m a human being. I have feelings and dreams, and parents.”

She even dedicates her hour to her father, and then allows (with director Marty Callner) the camera to keep rolling as she invites her fans to approach the stage to take selfies with her to feed their Instagram feeds. But don’t get too selfish.

As she says at the top of her hour: “If you guys at home, if you’re watching this on YouTube at home, f**k you! Go to HBO GO like an adult so I can get 10 cents, OK, out of this view.”

[Whitney Cummings: I’m Your Girlfriend premieres on HBO NOW and HBO GO on Saturday, January 23 at 10P]

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.