Women comics talking crudely about their bodies is nothing new, but a pregnant comedian was pretty unheard of until Ali Wong’s Netflix special Baby Cobra. In her opening bit, Wong states, “Female comics don’t get pregnant,” because it’s thought to be a career-ender. HA! Not in Wong’s case. For her, it became a game-changer. In fact, since Baby Cobra, her celebrity status has blown up, and the demand for her comedy continues to increase.
“Last week a cop pulled me over for not having my headlights on and let me go when he realized I was ‘that filthy pregnant comedian,’” Wong tells me. “When my husband and I go on a date, we purposely sit in a corner at the restaurant, and have me face a wall to minimize being recognized and interrupted during dinner.”
In that now-famed hour-long special, the Vietnamese- and Chinese-American comic took the stage at 7 months pregnant and spoke on a number of topics: increasingly dry vaginas; dating within and outside of your race; appropriating your own culture via interior décor; intentionally trapping your Ivy League boyfriend into a marriage so you don’t have to work anymore; and the hairiest details of having to take that dreaded workplace shit.
