Ever since she burst onto the New York standup scene in the late 2000s, we’ve watched Amy Schumer’s career take several successful and not-so-successful turns: from noted “sex comic” to Hollywood movie star to celebrity activist to New York Times bestselling author. These days, she’s allegedly causing tampon shortages as a spokesperson for Tampax.
However, anyone who’s memorized the lyrics to “Girl, You Don’t Need Makeup” or walks into a McDonalds and instantly thinks of “The Food Room” knows that her funniest work to date is the Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer, which is now back for a long-awaited fifth season.
The series, now on Paramount+, is returning with noticeably less demand than in previous years. After its debut in 2013, the sketch show became a critical darling in its third season, earning a Peabody and one of several Emmys. Ostensibly, the rise of fourth-wave feminism and calls for female representation in prominent comedy spaces boosted the show’s rise in visibility, as well as Schumer’s. For the most part, the 41-year-old and her teams of writers—including author and Big Mouth actress Jessi Klein—were able to deliver a specific, unapologetically feminist point of view and a knack for telling rape jokes in a thoughtful way.
Notably, unlike much of Schumer’s cringe-y early standup, Inside Amy Schumer has aged pretty well (although I’m sure some bored TikTokers could mine past seasons for some problematic moments). While Schumer—a straight, cis, wealthy white woman—could never represent all groups of women in her social and political commentary, she exceeded in highlighting the absurdity of misogyny as an accepted reality and the ways it manifests in nearly every aspect of a woman’s life. Some of her most potent sketches illustrated the consequences of being viewed as transgressive in a sexist society. Most famously, her utterly silly and poignant take on 12 Angry Men framed her average-sized body and liberated sex habits as death-worthy crimes.
Season 5 of Inside Amy Schumer is another amusing showcase of the comedian’s deftness when she sticks to what she knows rather than trying to comment on a larger spectrum of issues, like too many progressive comics aim to do. Similarly, it’s a relief that the Trainwreck star is able to demonstrate some growth (like resisting her early obsession with mindless jokes about race) without completely revising the elements of her comedy that actually work.
That being said, at least in the first two episodes, you’d be hard-pressed to find a sketch that would garner as many YouTube clicks or latch onto the zeitgeist like during the show’s heyday. Overall, the series’ post-Trump comedy feels more relaxed and less concerned with having something important to say. At times, that lack of urgency or desire to feel timely is refreshing; some solid counterprogramming to Ziwe or Saturday Night Live. Other times, the show comes off as unenthusiastic about its own existence.
For example, the first episode of Season 5 opens with a lackluster spoof of a psoriasis commercial dovetailed by a sketch lampooning women who get extensive surgeries that they frame as self-care. The latter takes longer than usual to land for a Schumer bit. And the dialogue among the women—who include Olivia Munn, frequent guest star Bridget Everett, and Cazzie David—doesn’t feel totally accurate or immediately recognizable in its depiction of wellness-obsessed Gwyneth Paltrow types.
Elsewhere, a parody starring Ellie Kemper and highlighting the Trump-ness of Hallmark movies feels like a classic Inside Amy Schumer bit, but it makes us wait too long to experience any sort of comic release. At the most, its big reveal at the end elicits a light chuckle. What’s more amusing—and distracting—is the use of Kemper, who was infamously labeled a “KKK princess”on Twitter last year after users unearthed her past participation in an event hosted by the Veiled Prophet Organization. For those privy to that scandal, the spoof reads like a self-referential PR cleanup. This endeavor (which may have just been a coincidence) would’ve been less awkward if it was, frankly, just funnier.
On a positive note, this season shines in more pithy moments, like a Jesse Williams-assisted sketch involving a “fart park” that is one of the dumbest things I’ve watched in recent memory. In episode two, there’s a recurring advertisement for a company called HomeSpanx that provides Spanx for nearly every occasion, even nudity. It’s a hilarious takedown of the ubiquity of shapewear, particularly brands like Kim Kardashian’s Skims that market restricting garments as all-purpose and even comfortable. Later on in the episode, we see this pressure to maintain (and often feign) a perfect silhouette extend to the coffin industry.
Viewers who enjoyed the slices of Schumer’s standup interspersed between sketches are out of luck this season. But the brief bits featuring talking heads, including some of the show’s writers, like Jon Glaser, are equally humorous and insightful. Overall, Schumer, who is arguably the most famous female comic today, seems more interested in presenting this season of Inside Amy Schumer as a group effort. She even generously lends the final minutes of the episodes for noted comedy writer Ron Weiner to perform silly songs about stealing napkins and fast-food joints offering pizza.
Based on the show’s extended hiatus and its new home at Paramount+, a fifth season of Inside Amy Schumer was never going to be the sort of attention-grabbing, must-see TV that helped catapult the comedian’s career. However, it’s proof that Schumer is still a star, despite the general dismissal she often receives online for her brand of raunchy, feminist humor.
Even in skits that aren’t laugh-out-loud funny, Schumer sustains an inherently humorous disposition, whether she’s portraying a sort of naive, put-upon woman or a straight-up bitch. The Emmy winner may be resting on her laurels at times during this latest season, but she’s still delivering a lot more than most other sketch shows can manage.
