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The title of Whitney Cummings’ first HBO special, I’m Your Girlfriend, is very telling. The 33-year-old comedian, a former Chelsea Lately regular and also the co-creator of 2 Broke Girls, is older, wiser and more fiercely confident than ever. And like your significant other, she isn’t afraid to tell you the truth. Fearlessly tearing down the social standards on recent sex crazes, including anal (“Stay away from my butt. I have a house."), IUDs, birth control pills, sperm donors, feminism expectations and Nicki Minaj — just to name a few — Cummings’ third special is her most confident and uncompromising to date. She’s telling exactly as it is, not afraid to dance on topics people walk around on their tiptoes and fine-tuning her voice better than ever, just like any good comic should.
It’s an earnest, accomplished effort, with a good flow, astute social insight and some fine crowd work — easily earning the special’s best chuckles — but there’s still something not quite there about this 2016 comedy block. As smart, observant and assured as Cummings has become in these past couple years — especially through her recent successes — there’s a flair missing. That spark isn’t quite ignited yet. It’s far from sluggish; in fact, it’s the kind of special that should make an impact and open up new doors. But again, it just doesn’t quite get there. It’s hard to say, exactly, what holds back Cummings’ latest hour. But it’s not for lack of trying. As the comedian notes, she has goals in her life, and having this special through this paid program network was a big get in her life. It’s been, in fact, a lifelong dream of hers to have the station host her comedy special, and she isn’t going to let some millennials stealing her set on YouTube take that away the moment — even if they short her of the 10 cents she’s owed from HBO Go.
As she runs out on to the stage yelling “What is up, bitches,” Cummings is making her mark and not backing down for a second. She knows what she wants to say, she knows how to communicate it in her own voice and she isn’t afraid to give some audience members — unsuspecting or not — some fast jabs at the expense of their birth control methods (for the gals) or whether or not they know what it means to freeze your eggs (for the guys). It’s a breezy special, without many hiccups, but one lacking a true sense of shock. As Cummings ponders, at one point, if “as a society, we are grossier, or if the Internet is just bringing it to the service,” so too must we wonder whether or not Cummings is saying anything truly all-that-shocking now.
Sure, her commentary is on-point when it comes Oocyte cryopreservation (thank you Wikipedia) or the ill-gone effects of intrauterine devices, but unfortunately it never quite feels like enough. It doesn’t produce the hard-hitting laughs that you’d expect under HBO’s banner, and it doesn’t quite ring as humorously as it may ring true. It’s weird to see such progressive confidence produce such mediocre results, but such is the result here. It’s a noble, honest-to-God good try from Cummings, and proof that she’s ready to make a bigger mark. The second half of this special, in particular, proves there’s some fire in the comedian ready to come as full blaze in due time — but maybe not quite yet.
Cummings may rely too heavily on sex jokes, but she knows what she likes, she knows what her fans want from her and she isn’t afraid to let others like it too, if she can. And though she isn’t quite successful yet with I’m Your Girlfriend, she’s getting there. It’s coming. The material is good and the set-ups are well-set, but the ingredients didn’t quite make the right omelette this time. But Cummings’ is as forward thinking as ever here. She’s assertive and punchy, and she’s proud of what she earned thus far. She’s happy with herself at this moment, and she should be. But she's ready to move forward, and I think we are ready for her to keep pushing forward too. And that good special will come in due time. But for now, let’s go our separate ways and figure some things out.