Last night’s episode of “Inside Amy Schumer” confronted the same boneheaded, patriarchal question “Is Amy Schumer hot enough for TV?” over and over again, to hilarious results.
In a black-and-white parody of the classic film “12 Angry Men,” a jury of increasingly sweaty, irritable men debates whether a non-10 (which, please) like Schumer should be allowed to grace their television sets. You can watch the brilliant clip here:
Fans of Schumer’s comedy are familiar with her skill for skewering “the male gaze” — AKA the prominent use of the heterosexual man’s perspective in media. She spoke to Vanity Fair about the impetus for the episode – a group of male friends arguing over a woman’s looks:
“I was at a party and these guys were talking about Michelle Williams, and they were like, ‘Yeah I don’t think she is hot actually.’ First of all, these guys, like, don’t have jobs and are physically nothing to write home about. Michelle Williams is obviously fucking gorgeous and an incredible actress. These guys would be so lucky to even get to have a conversation with her but they were like really deliberating over whether or not they would fuck her. And I was like, ‘You know what, that scenario is never going to present itself, you guys.’ But that word ‘deliberation’ is what made me think, ‘What is the ultimate deliberation? An actual jury deliberating. And I love the movie ‘12 Angry Men.’”
Schumer says she watched the original “12 Angry Men” film “obsessively” in preparing and writing the parody. For a show that usually has multiple sketches, stand-up, and interview segments, they really took a risk in doing a black-and-white episode with a film from 1957 as the world in which to set their parody. Between the success of this episode and her #GirlYouDontNeedMakeup video, we’re so happy “Inside Amy” was already renewed for season four.
READ MORE: Amy Schumer Sends Hilarious Response to “Chubby” Comment
