Kamala Harris Is Gawker's Funniest Woman of the Year
She's laughing, we're laughing, everyone's laughing
There were so many funny women this year, it’s almost hard to keep track. Sarah Sherman is great on Saturday Night Live, Janelle James makes us laugh every week on Abbott Elementary, and I’m sure everyone’s mom got off a cutting bon mot at Thanksgiving. But sadly there can only be one Gawker’s Funniest Woman of 2022. It was a tight race, and everyone tried their best, but in the end, the answer was obvious. Whether she knows it or not (she doesn’t), Vice President Kamala Harris was the funniest woman of the year.
By this point it’s trite to compare Kamala to the fictional Selina Meyer from Veep, and it has never been entirely accurate. Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s character is cutthroat in all the wrong ways, has a razor sharp tongue, and does eventually get elected president. Kamala, on the other hand, always acts like she’s just waking up from getting her wisdom teeth out. She will also never be president due to things both outside of her control (being a female Democrat) and within (having bad politics and a bizarre personality). The biggest similarity between Selina and Kamala is that the laughs come from watching them try to act like real people.
In recent weeks, there has been — at least on my timeline — a noticeable uptick in people sharing and laughing at videos of the Vice President. When I see them, they’re often accompanied by quote tweets that say something like, “I want whatever xan she’s on” or “Me trying to have a normal convo with my mom after taking five blunts to the face.” Let’s look at one, shall we?
“Something about those three circles and the analysis about where there’s the intersection, right?” What the hell is she talking about? I don’t want to know. Part of what makes Kamala the Funniest Woman of the Year is that we are often presented with these moments without any context at all. They are, essentially, Family Guy cutaway gags.
The only people who love yellow school buses are vegan commune members and Mormons with tiny home vlogs. Kamala is, at all times, acting like Vincent D’Onofrio in Men In Black — she sort of knows words, and she sort of knows how to string them together, but anyone paying attention can tell that she is not of this world.
An oldie but a goodie, and more bus content. Here, she reveals that she does not know the melody to “Wheels on the Bus.” But that rule-breaking spirit is part of what makes her our No. 1 comedienne. She’s operating in the spirit of Lenny Bruce. (Side note: This was not the first time she was spotted singing “Wheels on the Bus” and laughing. It’s kind of her “Fight Song.”)
I sincerely apologize for including a tweet that provided fodder for Fox News pundits in here, but c’mon. You got people walking by with buckets of perfectly arranged fish on their heads while Kamala stands awkwardly to the side and just says, “Hello… hello… thank you.”
No, Madame Vice President. Thank you.
