A preview of their August comedy issues has launched, featuring Amy Schumer as “The Funniest Woman in the Galaxy”, and a series of photos of adult-themed overtly sexual situations, where she is dressed in Princess Leia costumes and seems to be knocking it out in various ways with other Star Wars characters.
Utter, abject fail.
I get the attempt—Star Wars is white hot right now. They conquered San Diego Comic-Con last week without really revealing anything new about the movie due in December.
Amy Schumer has a new TV show coming out. Her humor has always missed the mark with me, as it seems to center around her widening her big blue eyes, looking as innocent as possible, and saying the most vulgar thing she can think of. It’s okay, if you’re in to that kind of thing. Given my choice, I’ll spend my money on Gabriel Iglesias, but I’m sure someone out there has to find her entertaining.
GQ editors think, “Comedy issue. Amy is about to launch. You put anything Star Wars on a magazine and the Geeks will flock to it. Can’t lose.”
The only thing GQ achieved is illustrating why they stopped being culturally relevant about fifteen years ago. They don’t get that Geek in 2015 isn’t . . . this.
I’m not advocating that characters like Princess Leia are above harpooning in parody. All of Star Wars has been so enmeshed in worldwide culture for over thirty years that such things are par for the course. And yes, the rest of the world has figured out that Geek Culture these days means dollars—huge, obscene numbers of dollars. Everyone will try to get their slice.
Star Wars is multigenerational, Star Wars is family, Star Wars is something that I shared with my father before he passed, and that I share with my children now. At the heart of it is good guys and bad guys, and the romanticized vision of good always triumphing in the end. Star Wars carries on the tradition of the human spirit’s struggle to overcome dark and embrace light.
And yes, this comes from a woman that co-founded a 40’s-stye pinup costuming group that is a USO for Imperial troops, as a sister group to the mighty 501st Legion. Star Wars is romanticized imagery and all things that I can happily share with my 16-year-old Girl Child and 12-year-old Boy Child. I can only hope with every fiber of my being that this somehow evades their notice.
This Amy Schumer debacle is humiliating, to her and to GQ. For someone that has to be fighting every day to prove that women can be as funny as men, a centerfold featuring her molesting R2-D2’s “equipment” in a morning-after tableau isn’t it.
Ms. Schumer, go review the work of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and see if you can do better in the future. You aren’t doing our gender any favors with this dreck.
GQ, go hire someone under the age of 30 that’s read a graphic novel at some point. If this is the best you can do on cultural relevance, you need new staff, immediately.
Mom. Lawyer. RSO Girl. Stormtrooper. I do some things better than others. Famous lifelong for being a geek. My internal monologue features Denis Leary, Hunter S. Thompson, The Bloggess, and Malcolm Tucker. Take from that what you will.
