People Are Talking About "Nanette", A Powerful Netflix Show By Comedian Hannah Gadsby

    It will stick with you for a long time after you have seen it: "There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself."

    Scott Bryan
    by Scott Bryan

    BuzzFeed TV Editor

    Nanette, a Netflix stand-up show by Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby, is an absolute must-see. No question.

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    It's one of those shows that people will push you to watch, but as there's so much content out there you haven't watched yet, you could easily add it to the bottom of the list. I'm telling you now: put it to the top.

    The first 20 minutes of the show feel like any ordinary comedy special. Anecdotes. Self-deprecation. The usual lot you're familiar with. Stick with it. It is supposed to feel like an ordinary comedy special.

    It then starts to unravel, and becomes something far deeper, with Gadsby reevaluating onstage some of the comedic material she has built her career on...

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    ...and she concludes how these anecdotes have caused harm to herself and to other people who identify with her.

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    In a review, BuzzFeed Reader's Shannon Keating said: "Gadsby was making precisely this point: What’s so funny about lesbians being subjected to hatred and abuse? And why do queer comedians like her — all queer people, really — feel the need to repackage our memories of trauma for the sake of straight people’s comfort?"

    For example, in an early part of the show, she tells an anecdote about a man who threatened to beat her up as he thought she was flirting with his girlfriend, which was said as a lighthearted comedic tale.

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    Later in the show, she revisits the joke and explains that she had cut from the anecdote the assault she then experienced.

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    She concludes: "And you know why I didn't? Because I thought that was all I was worth. And that is what happens when you soak one child in shame and you give permission to another to hate."

    Moira Donegan wrote in the New Yorker: "Like Gadsby, many women have excluded or elided the difficult parts of their stories for the sake of a punch line, the sake of not upsetting the status quo, or the sake of the comfort of their listeners. For many others, the #MeToo moment was not the first time they had spoken out; it was only the first time that they were listened to."

    A lot of people have been sharing the impact of her set, which also includes discussions on misogyny and homophobia, and how powerful men escape accountability for their actions.

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    There's also a section where she crushes romanticising mental anguish into creativity: "It is not a ticket to genius. It is a ticket to fucking nowhere."

    In particular, many people are sharing a passionate speech that she made towards the end of the show, where she talks about how being powerless "does not destroy your humanity", but that "your resilience is your humanity".

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    Many people have been sharing this quote.

    Christy Turlington @CTurlington

    “There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself”- Hannah Gadsby #Nanette

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    deadphool @Zaitoonmalik

    I am in tears. #Nanette

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    letsshakehandsinthedarkness.tumblr.com
    Untameable Shrews @untamableshrews

    "There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself." - Hannah Gadsby, Nanette

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    You can watch Nanette on Netflix internationally.

    You'll think about your own circumstances, your own responsibility. Like I said, watch it immediately. And put down your phone whilst you do.