While admittedly not the biggest fan of standup comedy, I was curious about documentary, Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution. This unique feature traces the origins of queer standup, following the line of progression that needed to happen for a historic night of comedy at the Greek Theatre in May of 2022. Featuring twenty-two LGBT+ performers, the mere fact that this quantity of out individuals came together is a marvel. A variety of talking-head interviews and informative blurbs about many of the comics who performed at the theatre are peppered throughout. Essentially, Outstanding serves to inform and educate the youth whilst scratching the surface of the important subjects involved.
Growing up on Ellen, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Dawson’s Creek, I can distinctly recall being obsessed with gay representation I saw onscreen growing up. In the early 90s, subtext was everything in terms of the way these manifested physically. In 2024, we have come leaps and bound ahead, and thankfully evolved far beyond mere subtext. Apple TV+ miniseries Visible: Out on Television wonderfully recounted visibility on television with striking detail and historical context; similarly, Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution accomplishes that same task for stand-up comedy in the queer world.
By highlighting the majority of its performers, Outstanding takes us all the way back to the civil rights movement, to the first stone thrown at Stonewall, to the queer-coded 70s and the horrors of the 80s AIDS epidemic. Frequently pioneers for social change, many of these people have been crucial in shifting the needle in the right direction. One has to appreciate that the majority opted to give their two cents about various topics; hearing Rosie’s personal opinions about Ellen coming out on her own show was fascinating indeed. This documentary overflows with nuggets of wisdom like this one, volleying from one time period to the next with aplomb. A miniseries or television format would have allowed even further breathing room for its subjects. Additionally, the final twenty minutes are not nearly as enthralling as what came before. I would also loved to have seen more samples from the Greek Theatre comedy set than the constant tangents down the hole of history.
Bravery was not always rewarded. Ellen had her sitcom character come out of the closet, yet almost instantly afterward, her show was cancelled. With every major leap taken was a subsequent huge step backward. In the 1920s, visibility became prevalent until the Lavender Scare (a focus of recent Showtime series, Fellow Travelers); the 70s likewise were monumental until AIDS made the public associate being gay with death. In a rather appalling bit of vintage footage, we hear the White House laugh off this “gay cancer” amongst thousands of deaths. In another, Eddie Murphy makes a joke of f-slur folks having AIDS “on their lips.” What a travesty that the community was once seen as this nasty, unspoken thing. Even when I was discovering my sexuality as a young teen, the stigma around queerness still ran wild.
From Eddie Izzard to Margaret Cho, Sandra Bernhard, Lily Tomlin, and everyone in between, the underlining of these queer celebrities and their stories shines a light on all different types of journeys. A medium that only drew gay and lesbian audiences at its first inception has now wormed its way into the mainstream. Counterculture has torn into the fabric of culture in a major way. A new wave of out gay comedians can live their truths and reveal themselves nakedly without fear of what destruction may happen to their careers. Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution celebrates decades of hard work, emphasizing the trailblazing queer comedians that paved the way for social change.
Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution screened at 2024’s Tribeca Film Festival.
