Ziwe Fumudoh knows that the first season of her Showtime series was, to borrow one of her favorite words, “controversial.” In fact, the comedian—better known by her mononym, Ziwe—took a moment at the top of her Season 2 premiere on Sunday to relish the cries from conservative pearl-clutchers like Megyn Kelly, who last year called her show “racist” against white women. Then it was on to the subject of the day: critical race theory.
It’s hard to imagine anyone could have believed the right’s whining would convince Ziwe to tone down her show’s hot-pink intensity; trolling is, after all, a foundational pillar of her brand. (Among her favorite questions to unsettle white guests: “How many Black friends do you have?”) How perfect, then, that her first guest this season was none other than the bombastic (and also controversial) radio host Charlamagne Tha God.
The episode’s focus might have been critical race theory, but the question that rang the loudest—the one she posed to Charlamagne—was far more personal: “Why do you hate Black women?”
As anyone with an internet connection and an Instagram account likely remembers, Ziwe sprouted out of a viral pop culture “Moment.” The comedian had spent years perfecting her trick questions and pointed stares-to-camera on her web series, Baited with Ziwe, before she went viral interviewing polarizing figures like Alison Roman, Alyssa Milano, and Caroline Calloway on Instagram during 2020’s pandemic-forced lockdown.
While her web series largely brought in fellow comedians as guests, Ziwe’s Instagram videos offered embattled C-listers the chance to subject themselves to a little schadenfreude in exchange for a shot at public redemption. As I observed during Ziwe’s debut last year, the interviews she does for her Showtime series each land in a different spot on the friendliness spectrum. Some guests, like Nicole Byer, get a more light-hearted ride; others, like Charlamagne this week, find their feet a little closer to the fire.
As an unapologetically messy talker who once had to give an interview titled “Does Charlamagne tha God Hate Black Women,” Charlamagne is the perfect Ziwe guest. He stirred the pot years ago when he befriended right-wing firebrand Tomi Lahren and has faced criticism for taking cheap shots at some of the Black women who have appeared on his radio show The Breakfast Club. As Ziwe pointed out, he’s even beefed with his own co-host Angela Yee. And when Charlamagne tried to wriggle out of Ziwe’s questions, the comedian pulled out every trick in her (probably faux fur-covered) book.
All of the old traps from Ziwe Season 1 are still in place and impressively effective during its sophomore outing. When Charlamagne tries to say he’s only had “three or four” such moments with Black women, the show pulls out receipts in the form of a video montage in which he insults five women including Mo’Nique and Brandy. (The best part, it runs right after Charlamagne asks her not to make a montage—a gag the show will return to in later episodes now that potential guests are on guard for Ziwe’s mischief.) And when the radio host tries to skirt Ziwe’s questions again by saying that he’s a “totally different” person now, we cut to a clip of him moments earlier decrying people who refuse to own up to their pasts. (She did not manage to question him about his rape allegations.)
Maneuvers like the montage appear often as Ziwe sits down with other figures who, as Charlamagne put it at one point, “dick-ride dysfunction.” The best interview among the four Season 2 episodes provided to critics comes next week, when she sits down with Jamaican patois aficionado and White Boy Summer inventor Chet Hanks. (Among the topics of discussion: cultural appropriation, the nature of existence, and how to get swole.)
Anyone who felt at home in Ziwe’s Barbie Dream House of Interrogation last year will likely love the new episodes just as much. The music videos, parodies, and absurdist games are all back, as are Ziwe’s uncomfortable focus groups with people who, for instance, have made it their mission to keep critical race theory out of schools.
But as one might’ve expected given its Instagram interview DNA, the pins-and-needles celebrity interrogations—er, interviews—remain Ziwe’s strongest highlight. The show is at its best when it parodies the faux-seriousness of so many celebrity late-night talk show chats and exposes the hollowness of talking points that would probably go unchecked on most other shows.
That said, it’ll be hard for any season to top last year’s “Stop Being Poor,” a late-capitalist anthem that recently became relevant again thanks to a little help from Kim Kardashian. Speaking of absolutely iconic potential guests... has anyone at Showtime got Kris’ number?
