Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda’ On Netflix, A Stand-Up Showcase For Genderqueer Comedians

Filmed in London, this showcase hosted by Hannah Gadsby has plucked genderqueer comedians from around the world (well, mostly the United States, Britain and Canada) to showcase the best in up-and-coming stand-up oomedy by and for the LGBTQ+ community. Featured here are ALOK, Chloe Petts, DeAnne Smith, Ashley Ward, Jes Tom, Mx. Dahlia Belle, and Krishna Istha.

HANNAH GADSBY’S GENDER AGENDA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Gadsby is upfront about the why of this showcase from the very start.

“The last time Netflix brought this many trans people together was for a protest, so…progress,” Gadsby opens by joking. “Which is kind of why we’re here. There is a foundation myth to this evening.”

In October 2021, following the release of Dave Chappelle’s The Closer, the LGBTQ+ community both inside and outside of Netflix rebelled against the streaming giant for platforming his transphobic ideas in the guise of comedy.

As Gadsby explained onstage in the here and now of 2024: “A few years back, Netflix released an incredibly transphobic comedy special from one of their pet edgelords, and there was a bit of a brouhaha that followed. A big, big, big, big brou-hoo-haha. And look, to be honest, I didn’t get involved to begin with, and I’m not proud of this, but I’m a bit of a cultural cuck, you know?” But because Gadsby also was big on Netflix, Gadsby got sucked into the debate.

“Look, what I did was I penned a very strongly worded letter, and I addressed it to Netflix. It’s called biting the hand that feeds you, I believe. Or punching up with your teeth, which you normally don’t get to do twice, but I have a good dentist, so there we go. Here we are,” Gadsby said. “I won’t lie. I came a bit strong out of the gate. I addressed it directly to my Netflix daddy. I call him my Netflix daddy because Netflix is like a family. Once you’re in the fold, it really is. It does feel like a family, a very big family. And like most families, they don’t really like their queer kids.”

“And I said, ‘Fuck you, Ted (Sarandos).’ It’s a bit harsh, isn’t it? But in my defense, I’m a Capricorn with a Piscean moon and a Cancer rising, which directly translates to autistic. So I don’t always get the tone right. In that letter, I made various points. One of them is I called Netflix an amoral algorithm cult, which I stand by. And then I mentioned in passing, it was just a throwaway mention, that I did shits with more backbone than Ted.”

At the time, Gadsby thought it was playful, and didn’t think anything about posting the letter to Instagram. “I didn’t even post it to Twitter,” Gadsby joked, repeating the name Twitter for the service now known as X since Elon Musk bought it.  “Yeah, I will deadname that chumbucket.”

But the social media begat actual media coverage, and some mild embarrassment for Gadsby. And yet: “The other thing that came out of this brouhaha was this evening.”

Memorable Jokes: This is first and foremost a comedy special, still, so how about the comedians who performed on the bill?

Jes Tom joked about how transitioning on testosterone not only left the comedian with “the mustache of a school bully,” also an unexpected side effect of no longer identifying as a lesbian but now as a gay man. All of which gave Tom a new definition for the slang acronym DTF. Can we print it here? Even Tom joked afterward about the live audience:“People taking a second to decide which part of that it’s OK to laugh at.”

Chloe Petts identifies as “a masculine lesbian,” which somehow grants her access to parts of male privilege, such as being called “boss man” by the employees at the chicken shop. But perhaps the most awkward fun Petts enjoys is wearing a suit to a straight wedding and noticing the affect it has on the men, women and children in attendance at the reception.

Asha Ward, a young writer for Saturday Night Live, jokingly admitted: “I’m not gonna lie, I got too high before this.” Ward joked about some of the other gigs she had in her own youth, such as pediatric dentistry and teaching improv at a Jewish summer camp.

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DeAnne Smith underwent top surgery but doesn’t plan on transitioning further. “Calm down lesbians,” Smith joked. “Weird little guy is my gender identity and you must respect it. I’ve been getting they/them’d against my will since 2005, all right?” But did you know you don’t need to reattach or replace your nipples after said top surgery? Smith has a lot of fun explaining that, and will even disclose an email for you to ask this weird little guy about the very real, very siiick (sic) rack.

Mx. Dahlia Belle poked fun at straight people thinking cisgender is a slur, joking that “people are just being whiny little bitches about an adjective.” As for Belle? Sure, archeologists someday might dig up her bones and note she was born a man and lived as a woman, but who cares by then and it’s kind of a moot point in Belle’s gameplan.

Gadsby introduced Krishna Istha as someone new and different to provide even more variety to the industry, and Istha, a transmasculine non-binary writer on Sex Education, joked how it’s testosterone’s fault they’re doing stand-up now, too. “Did you know that the confidence you get when you walk through the world as a man is directly proportional to the confidence you need to try stand-up comedy?” Istha joked. “Which is probably why so many mediocre white men think they can do it.”

ALOK, with one million Instagram followers, closed out the showcase with a set challenging heterosexuals or anyone who feels a bit intolerant. “I see you and your uncomfortability is valid.” And yet, ALOK wondered how someone uncomfortably watching their set would decide how to respond. If you laugh, are you supporting the transgender agenda? If you don’t, are you somehow affirming ALOK’s femininity within the constrained conventional wisdom that women aren’t supposed to be funny, anyhow?

Our Take: What is the agenda here, anyhow?

And is it all worth it? Gadsby lashed out at Sarandos for allowing Netflix to platform hate and only seemed to capitulate when given the chance to platform genderqueer comedians on that same “amoral algorithm cult.” One 75-minute showcase for seven comedians (plus Gadsby) for pennies on the dollar compared to the massive bankrolls Sarandos and Netflix keep giving Chappelle and Ricky Gervais to make those eight comedians feel less than? Is that a fair tradeoff? Is it better than nothing at all?

That’s the math Gadsby had to calculate, and reached the conclusion that yes, it was worth it.

“It won’t fix it. It’s not enough. Just one night. You know, come on, you don’t raze the Amazon and plant a tree. Like, this is the carbon offset show, you know what I mean?” Gadsby explained during the opening.

And a lone sapling needs tending to in the barren landscape.

As Gadsby said while introducing one of the comics: “Because when you’re genderqueer in the comedy world, stage time is not always safe time.”

But they’re safe here, at least in this space.

Our Call: I wonder if we’re at such a divisive point not just in the world but also in comedy where it matters little whether I tell you to STREAM IT, because you’ll look at your Netflix home page and instinctively react one way or another just at seeing the name Dave Chappelle or Hannah Gadsby in the title. I’m of the opinion that you need to hear them out before deciding for yourselves. But I’d much rather see Gadsby’s Netflix family metaphor be brought into the real world, where all of these comedians of different viewpoints and identities actually came together to hear one another. I know whether you’ll STREAM IT. But I wish the other comedians would, too, just to try to understand each other a little better.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.