World News – US – Sarah Cooper’s ‘Everything’s Fine’ Is A 2020 Time Capsule, But Not Much More: TV Review

Sarah Cooper may seem like a viral sensation, but that’s hardly the case for those familiar with her comedy career Since 2014, Cooper has focused on the hilarious subversions of corporate culture and empty tech talk in books such as « 100 Tips for Looking Smart in Meetings » and « How to Succeed Without Hurting Men’s Feelings, » both based on your time working at a tech company It’s his Trump lip-syncing videos, which people absolutely love or don’t understand, that caught the attention of Netflix and celebrities. With Maya Rudolph producing and starring and Natasha Lyonne directing, « Everything’s Fine » is a star-studded event

Most viewers will probably watch out of curiosity What could a comedy special from a viral lip-syncing comedian look like? Well, that feels like a nonstop parade of celebrity cameos and leftover skits from “Saturday Night Live” that often seem too long.As a special showcasing Cooper’s talent and actual voice, she has it even less. of Cooper’s success is often overshadowed by celebrities around him like Jon Hamm and Helen Mirren and, in one case, Jordan Black, who just plays a really funny parking lot attendant

Cooper stars as the host of a surreal morning news show that slowly loses her mind as the world crumbles You wouldn’t know she’s losing her mind over Cooper’s performance She stays pretty of a note even as the studio around her turns into literal hell and she talks to a dead Winona Ryder « Everything’s Alright » relies on a narrator to fill in the spaces that aren’t displayed with mixed results At one point the narrator tells us Sarah must have used the bathroom for hours right before interviewing Megan thee Stallion There is no reward or punchline to this setup, she is just going to do an interview insanely normal with Megan thee Stallion, who plays a normal version of herself Then they twerk

In a role that perhaps required the frenzied energy of someone like Amy Sedaris, Cooper ends up being the straight man in his own comedy special Fred Armisen stars as his producer who is seen in Equipments increasingly ridiculous personal protective equipment Rudolph steals the show when she breaks her weather routine and panics for the environment Cooper’s straight man works on sketches like his interview with Ben Stiller, who plays the role of a robot CEO of a technology company Maybe it’s due to Cooper’s background in enterprise tech, but it’s one of the few times the comedy is actually tied to a message: calling out the evil tech companies that abuse the technology. ‘artificial intelligence It works before the bit changes course and becomes a #MeToo

parody

« Everything’s Fine » is meant to be more of a 2020 time capsule than a vehicle for Cooper’s point of view, humor or thoughts. If you want references to Karens, the MyPillow guy, QAnon and COVID-19 vaccines, there are a lot of them If you want politically intelligent jokes that satirize Trump’s politics, the lack of morality or the state of the world, there isn’t much of that « Everything’s Fine Is content to be a streaming version of the 2013 KC Green comic, « This is Fine. » At most, the jokes directed at Trump don’t have much to say except that he could be a baby an alien makes talk

There’s a lot of Trump’s lip-syncing, though some of the humor is lost in watching Cooper’s lip-syncing on large sets with nice costumes, rather than using random things in his. Cooper Lip’s apartment syncs up all the infamous Trump-Billy Bush Access Hollywood Bus conversation with Helen Mirren For fans of her viral videos, it’s something like a « biggest hit » they’ve been waiting for her to take over But , outside of that context, the humor is all about thinking it’s funny watching Mirren lip-sync with bad words America wasn’t particularly shocked to hear Trump say these things to him -even seeing those words coming out of Cooper and Mirren’s mouth reframes the gender dynamic, but that hardly seems relevant for 2020 or anything else in the special

Cooper, who performed at the Democratic National Convention, was selected as the political comedian of the moment. But, « All is well » offers no moral condemnation of Trump or his policies, they are just light jokes about the way he pronounces the words and his fragile ego If anything, Trump supporters might very well take advantage of this harmless media interpretation of 2020 that just concludes that we are all in hell In fact, « Everything’s Fine « takes a tougher view of the media than Trump when the producers and crew on Cooper’s morning show are revealed to be working for the devil (played by Marisa Tomei) and while Eddie Pepitone is absolutely wonderful as a demon who cannot read and thinks that eating bats is a bit expensive, the gain does not seem deserved While everyone is in a surreal hell, Sarah Cooper is doing very well

Sarah Cooper, Netflix, Donald Trump