A New Documentary Examines Queer Comedians' Painful Rise — And Lasting Legacy (2024)

Over the course of her decades-long career, queer comedian Judy Gold has won acclaim on the stand-up circuit and carved out a niche for herself in film, television and theater. Along the way, she’s picked up two Emmys for her work as a writer and producer on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” written two books and launched a podcast.

In the new documentary “Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution,” Gold is granted a rare opportunity to reassess her own professional trajectory alongside that of her contemporaries, including Sandra Bernhard, Margaret Cho, Wanda Sykes and Rosie O’Donnell herself. She also gets to share her thoughts on comedy’s oft-overlooked role in advancing LGBTQ+ visibility.

“Great comedians make you laugh, but they can also make you think. They can make you change your mind,” Gold told HuffPost. “When kids come up to me and say, ‘I ran to my basem*nt to watch you, and I couldn’t believe this big, loud lesbian was screaming about her family. You made me realize that, oh, I can have a family, too’ ― that makes it all worth it.”

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She went on to note: “The power of comedy is that it makes you feel better, but it’s also a weapon. And all of the comedians you see in this documentary use that weapon wisely.”

One by one, the evening’s lineup of 19 queer stars ― which include the aforementioned women as well as Joel Kim Booster, Fortune Feimster and Tig Notaro ― share humorous and thoughtful anecdotes about their early years and respective rises to fame in intimate interviews. Sadly, if not surprisingly, each comedian recalls a fair number of cringe-inducing brushes with anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment along the way.

As seen in the film, Gold first publicly addressed her sexuality while performing onstage in 1996, shortly after the eldest of her two sons was born. That was a year before Ellen DeGeneres set a precedent by coming out as a lesbian on an episode of her ABC sitcom, “Ellen.”

Watch the trailer for “Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution” below.

“We are social commentators, and when you watch a comedian, you get to see the world through their eyes. So I never thought I was being dangerous or brave,” Gold recalled. “And frankly, I couldn’t live with myself if I hadn’t. What kind of message is that to send to your kids ― that you love them, but that you’ll talk about everyone else in your act but them?”

“I was defiant,” she continued, “and I don’t think I would’ve done anything different as far as when I came out, how I came out or putting my family first.”

One of the most compelling figures to appear in “Outstanding” is comedian Robin Tyler, who in 1978 became the first openly lesbian woman on American TV when she appeared in a Showtime special hosted by Phyllis Diller. Now 82, Tyler was widely shunned by the mainstream after her coming out.

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From there, “Outstanding” explores the devastating impact that the HIV and AIDS crisis had on an entire generation of LGBTQ+ comedians. It also addresses the recent controversies involving comedians, such as Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais, who have taken aim at the transgender community in their stand-up acts.

Though the film doesn’t offer a tidy solution for the still-rampant transphobia that exists in the comedy space, Gold is hopeful it will revive interest in Tyler as well as other queer comedians who were denied their flowers along the way.

“I want to help make life easier for LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized communities, but I also want to make people smarter,” she said. “I think [Hurwitz] does a great job of intimately telling these stories. You have to know what it was like before and how we got to this point, because otherwise history will repeat itself.”

Netflix