Relationship Material: 3 Comedians Air Out Their Private Lives

THE LOG: The good, bad, & ugly of popular comedians mining their personal relationships & public personas for jokes.

Today, confessional comedy is king. The more raw, the more likely the audience will form a parasocial relationship with the comedian’s persona. For the comedian, who draws material from ordinary material like familial, platonic, and romantic relationships, their loved ones disappear into the vortex of the comedian’s public persona.

How thin is the line between the persona and the person?

What if the comedian reveals—or someone else reveals of the comedian—that they don’t align with the public image?

What if we learn who they really are, and we’re disgusted?

This year, three recent specials from comedians at their apex who realign or reinforce their persona after a heightened image redirection.

Ellen Degeneres’s For Your Approval, her last hurrah before retirement, and Ali Wong’s Single Lady, her fourth Netflix special, have a traditional stand-up hour of material from both comedians. Both women address recent media blitzes—a divorce and a dissolved daytime show—which dissect prior pro…