I speak from experience when I write that if you happen to be from the Midwest and have moved to a major city, something happens when you return home after the age of thirty. Suddenly, a major topic of conversation with your friends who settled in suburbia is their newfound appreciation for “clean comedy.” It doesn’t matter if you once bought said friends Plan B on a Tuesday morning or accompanied them to a homeopathic healer that supposedly treats STIs (both true stories); their date nights are going to see Nate Bargatze now. Unfortunately, as confirmed by Lana Del Rey, this happens even to our friends in Hollywood.
This week, during an appearance on Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out podcast, Nikki Glaser shared an anecdote about how she learned that Del Rey wasn’t a fan of her jokes.
According to Glaser, a friend of hers was at a party and met whom they described as a “gorgeous” woman. They shared superficial details about their lives, including what Glaser’s friend does for a living (read: writes for Glaser). When the conversation tapered off and the “gorgeous” woman walked away, another party-goer approached Glaser’s friend and asked: “What were you talking to Lana Del Rey about?” In short: Glaser’s “dirty” comedy.
“’I like [Nikki], but I wish she wasn’t so dirty,'” Glaser told Birbiglia the friend relayed to her from Del Rey. That’s right. The woman who once likened the flavor of her pussy to Pepsi cola now fancies Glaser’s comedy too crass. Sigh. She’s been trad-wifing it in the bayou too long.
“I was so sad because I love Lana Del Rey,” Glaser said of the comment. “I thought she would’ve been into that stuff and now I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’”
She added: “It was helpful advice. At first I was like, ‘How dare she!’ And then I was like, ‘I’ve got some notes, too, for her.’ She’s one of the best, brilliant artists ever, and yet I’m entitled to not like things of hers. There are songs that I’m like, ‘Eh.’ So she’s allowed to be ‘Eh’ about me…I took the note, and I’m working on it.”
Glaser went on to stress that she took Del Rey’s criticism seriously. Why? Because she doesn’t want to lose potential audiences.
“Yeah, because not just to appeal to her, but to appeal to people who like her. People that I could be sharing ‘my message with’ but are turned off because ‘I hear she’s too dirty,'” Glaser said. “And I just don’t want to hear that. Some people are deeply uncomfortable by it. It’s not even like they’re prude. It’s like, ‘Ew, it’s gross.'”
My advice to Glaser? If you’re honestly trying to appeal to Del Rey’s fans, don’t go clean. Create a Tumblr account.
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Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
