'Exceptional' Documentary Traces the History of LGBTQ ComedyExBulletin

Comedies are always a reflection of culture, good and bad, Page Hurwitz says. His new Netflix documentary on the history and current state of LGBTQ comedy is proof of that. Through archival footage, performances and interviews, Exceptional: a comedy revolution covers nearly a century of LGBTQ comedy, including the milestones and setbacks of queer comedians pursuing careers that make people laugh.

A multi-generational who's who of comedy fills this documentary. Lily Tomlin, Rosie O'Donnell, Eddie Izzard, Sandra Bernhard, Billy Eichner, Fortune Feimster, Tig Notaro and Solomon Georgio are among the many artists who tell their personal stories about the development of their comedic styles and their fight against homophobia.

Hurwitz began his career doing stand-up in the late 1990s in the Castro district of San Francisco. Today, she writes, produces and directs comedy specials and television series. When she started putting the documentary together, she knew she had to get something right: were gay people, so I wanted to make it dynamic. There's nothing worse than you being ordinary.

To ensure his documentary was dazzling, Hurwitz hosted a massive event at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles featuring a marquee selection of LGBTQ comedians. She made the event her own special for Netflix and images interspersed throughout the documentary.

Among the revealing moments of Outstanding are interviews with comedians who might have been more famous if they hadn't come out.

Robin Tyler, one of the first comedians to appear on national television, says she was never in the closet. “Cupboards are vertical coffins,” she says in the film. “All you do is choke to death.”

Tyler's comedy career suffered when she included jokes about Anita Bryant in her act. Bryant, a former beauty pageant winner, singer and Christian, was one of the most active voices in the anti-gay crusade. One such joke stated that Bryant was to Christianity what paint-by-numbers was to art.

That's why no one knows his name, Hurwitz said of Tyler. And she should be a household name because she's so funny and so talented.

Hurwitz and a small team examined hundreds of archival performances and current footage to show how, from decade to decade, queer comedians progressed or suffered, depending on the political climate and culture of the time. There's Moms Mabley playing an openly gay character in a 1930s film and the so-called Fear of lavender during the Cold War.

As comedian Scott Thompson says in the documentary, I just thought life could change on a dime and society could change on a dime.

Thompson points to the embrace of gay culture in the 1970s, such as disco and the Village People, before a complete turnaround in the 1980s with the AIDS epidemic.

It goes back 30 or 40 years, instantly, almost overnight, he says. At that time, gay men were considered vile.

Comedy at that time was incredibly homophobic, Hurwitz says, and we had a lot of well-known comedians who chose to turn that tragedy into fodder for their hackneyed comedy routines. So whether it's Andrew Dice Clay or Sam Kinison or frankly, for that matter, Eddie Murphy.

But comedians know how to fight back, and during the AIDS crisis, Sandra Bernhard's politically charged cabaret-style performances were a strength. As she explains in the documentary, it became like the next wave to have to be there and jump in full force.

Comedian and actor Joel Kim Booster, interviewed in the documentary, says he was stunned when he saw the final cut of Outstanding. He says it made him grateful for all the queer comedians who paved the way for his generation. “We weren't the ones who broke down the door. We just walked through the door,” he said.

Outstanding shows how there are still challenges for gay artists, including transphobic material from high-profile comedians. But Page Hurwitz says LGBTQ comedians will continue to take the stage, make people laugh and change the culture.

You share who you are with the audience and it's so powerful, she says, because the laughter is disarming. You make the personal universal, so that we can realize that in reality, we are more similar than different.

The audio and digital versions of this story were edited by Ciera Crawford. The audio story was produced by Isabella Gomez-Sarmiento. The digital was produced by Beth Novey.