There’s something more assured and charming about the Christina Pazsitzky that we see in her first Netflix comedy special, Mother Inferior, than we first saw from her three years ago on the TBS comedy competition, Funniest Wins.
She has shortened her last name to P to make things easier for everyone, become a mother, and just gotten stronger as a stand-up. They say having a kid immediately gives a comedian a new hour or half-hour of material. What they do with that makes all the difference. My friendly colleague Jason Zinoman over at the New York Times argues in his column this week that Christina’s work falls into a new trend of breakthrough mom comedy. I’m not sure that’s as true as the fact that the technology and sharing of social media has allowed more of us to see the moms in comedy to tell their jokes now.
And don’t read too much into the title of Christina’s new hour. As I wrote in Decider:
She’s not out to slight the Catholic church or even her own parenting abilities with that title choice. If anything, she’s quick to remind you that most babies grow up to be inferior people. “Just genetically speaking, millions of Snookis, one Beyonce.”
She’s here to deliver the hard truths that come with motherhood that usually don’t make it to the comedy stage, much less get passed on to other new and expectant mothers. That’s most graphically illustrated when she describes having an episiotomy during childbirth. That word — episiotomy — produces a collective groan from the women in the audience, while Christina snorts, then describes her initial experiences post-surgery and post-pregnancy. Don’t expect Arby’s to sponsor her next tour.
She’s also willing to dish about the emotional and physical horrors she went through as a new mother, from a newfound and unexpected hatred of her husband to an explanation of the differences between “boobies” and “mom tits.”
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