Acclaimed comedian Whitney Cummings has jokes for everyone in her new upcoming special Whitney Cummings: Jokes. According to Variety, Cummings is set to return to Netflix on July 26 with her fifth comedy outing, only this will be the first one to be self-funded. The special was filmed at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, N.J., and is described by the comedian as "more nostalgic and emotionally cozy: no politics, no lecturing, no self-indulgence."
Cummings told Variety that she wanted the challenge of creating a comedy special with broad appeal despite the widening divide between people and their beliefs and interests. Considering the tendency of comedians to go towards more incendiary topics that inevitably alienate some listeners and the ultimate subjectiveness of comedy, Cummings is walking a tough line to try to make everyone laugh. Regarding this challenge, she said:
I’m still interested in what unites all of us and what we all have in common. Comedians, we’re so masochistic. The idea of trying to find something we can all agree on right now is probably a psychotic mission. But just with how acrimonious everything feels, how apocalyptic the vibe feels online, you only get the news that you want to see, you only see the opinions that you’ve signed up to follow… On my podcast I’m very interested in the incendiary and splitting hairs on the more flammable topics. But when it comes to a special, you got to sell what you promised to sell: 'I still expect this to make me laugh.'
As for the decision to self-finance, Cummings wanted more control over what she could do with the special after it's all said and done. Under her current deal with Netflix, Whitney Cummings: Jokes would eventually become hers to decide what to do with after some time, allowing her to ensure it continues to get in front of people in the future, whether that be on YouTube, Roku, or otherwise. It also gives her freedom to decide in what form people view it in the future, whether as the entire special itself or short bits similar to how Bo Burnham released the individual songs and their respective videos from Inside.
Cummings comes into this special after appearing in two movies made by musicians - Machine Gun Kelly's Good Mourning and The Foo Fighters' Studio 666 - the latter of which she starred in opposite the band. Outside stand-up comedy, she's consistently been on television, creating her own show Whitney and co-creating 2 Broke Girls. She'll next be seen on the small screen in Accused and later in the rom-com film At Midnight. During all this, she continues to host her own podcast Good for You as well.
Whitney Cummings: Jokes comes from producers Triage Entertainment and Levity Productions. Cummings serves as an executive producer on the special alongside Judi Marmel, Stephen Gordon Walker, John Bravakis, Nick Kurzon, and Marcus Raboy.
Whitney Cummings: Jokes releases on Netflix on July 26.