Fern Brady: Autistic Bikini Queen

The entire internet is just one big circle-j of people pretending. Pretending they like certain things because they think it'll make them look like a good person. Despite other rave reviews, I just did not enjoy any part of this standup routine. She leans into her accent in a very exaggerated way and it goes from grating to obnoxious. I know it's a fad among people with simple senses of humor to think "funny accent ha haha" but it's done so over-the-top it's the only thing I was paying attention to. If I had been in the audience, I would've left. Standup is a hard job to do so 3 stars for making the effort, if nothing else. But this wasn't in any way funny or enjoyable to listen to.

Halfway through listening to Fern's audiobook, I found out she has a special coming out on Netflix. This one. Her book is so relatable because I'm autistic as well, late-identified. My list of favorite comedians includes Chelsea Handler, Kathy Griffin, Hannah Gadsby, Wanda Sykes, Iliza Shlesinger. She's now at the top of the list. Fern's type of comedy is right up my alley. For me, it's awesome to see an autistic woman killing it at comedy. She's HILARIOUS. If you have a warped sense of humor then you're going to love this. If you're autistic, you're going to love this. If you want to hear jokes you definitely won't hear anywhere else, this is for you.

I first saw Fern on Taskmaster Series 14 and instantly fell in love with her sense of humour. I'm also autistic and I never knew how much representation meant to me, but seeing someone with a similar experience on stage is amazing. I've seen a lot of Fern's fantastic online content and this is by far my favourite. She's blunt and I love her for it. She doesn't shy away from less talked about topics to try and please everyone, which I appreciate. Her show wasn't just filled with run of the mill jokes that you barely grin at after 5 minutes because you already saw the full range of the show by then. I had a great laugh and a great time watching her.

I didn't know Fern Brady when I tuned into this Netflix special. My usual caveat with comics appearing on these shows is how vulgar most of them are with the language they revert to in order to get a laugh. Brady used expletives a few times, but it wasn't overdone. What brought my attention to this program was the 'Autistic Bikini Queen' tag attached to the special. After only a few minutes, I wasn't able to affirm that she was really autistic, even though she mentioned it a number of times. Her delivery was impeccably smooth, moving from one idea to the next without hesitation and with complete control of her routine. Being Scottish though, and using some distinctly British colloquialisms, I think American audiences might be left in the dark on some of her bits. As for her Bristol audience, the camera didn't pan across the people in attendance, so it wasn't really possible to get a fix on how she was being received. From what one could see, the front row of principally women seemed attentive but inert in reaction to her jokes. There were a few laugh out loud moments for this viewer, but I couldn't tell how her subject matter was getting over in person. After a first look, I think I might tune into another one of her specials if there is one, though for many I think she would be an acquired taste.