By Samantha Sidi ‘16, Arts and Entertainment Editor

Amy Schumer uses her level of influence to intelligently and hilariously discuss important issues, which is not an everyday occurrence among Hollywood celebrities. She satirically comments on cultural issues through tackling sexism with her raunchy, overtly sexual comedy. Amy’s show, Inside Amy Schumer, along with her stand-up comedy and her movie, Trainwreck, are the platforms on which she has discussed these issues.

A notable feminist sketch on Inside Amy Schumer is “Birth Control,” which demonstrates not only the extreme difficulty and judgment that comes from obtaining birth control, but also contrasts it with the widespread accessibility in attaining firearms. The sketch ends with a young boy asking for and easily getting a gun, while Schumer has to consult her doctor, boss, men on the street, and basically everyone she knows to decide whether it is a good idea for her to go on birth control– only to be told that this is, in fact, a monthly ritual. Another funny sketch on Inside Amy Schumer is “Milk Milk Lemonade,” a music video that parodies the fetishization and obsession with the female body.

Amy challenges another issue, the wage gap, through her sketch “Cool With It.” Amy plays a submissive female coworker who takes her male coworkers to a strip club – an over-the-top, crazy situation that ultimately demonstrates the omnipresence of misogyny. Yet her most controversial sketch was “Football Town Nights” because it slams rape culture in a parody of the popular show, Friday Night Lights. The Coach says the main rule of the team is “No Raping” with hilariously accurate responses of “But what if my mom’s a D.A. and won’t prosecute?” or “What if the girl said yes but then she changes her mind out of nowhere, like a crazy person?” Amy Schumer responded to the criticism at the Tribeca Film Festival by saying, “Rape is good fodder for comedy because it’s the worst thing in the whole world, so it’s untouchable.” She went on to say: “We’re not just like, rape’s hilarious. It’s always a risk, some people will always be upset just at hearing the word, and you can maybe look at that scene and think we’re making light of something serious. We’re really trying to educate, but that’s not always clear. We know what message we want to send, and we also think the premise is funny, and then we’ll go to town.”

These progressive sketches led to widespread recognition for Amy and her show. Amy recently won an Emmy award for the variety sketch series and Inside Amy Schumer won a Peabody Award. The George Foster Peabody Awards Program stated their reasoning on recognizing Inside Amy Schumer: “The common factors are smart, thoughtful humor, and an admirably feminist dedication to challenging and disrupting gendered expectations of women’s behavior. Schumer’s comic voice is remarkably fresh, adding a great deal to television comedy that is otherwise rare or missing. Her profane persona belies a multifaceted comic inquisition of contemporary gender. Her timing and delivery as a comic are matched by the show’s smart scripts and by the timeliness of her material.”

Besides the recognition for her brilliant show and stand-up comedy, Amy became widely popular through her film debut with Trainwreck, a film co-written with her sister Kim Caramele and directed by Judd Apatow. The film has been extremely successful through its $133.2 million worldwide gross, and co-stars Amy Schumer along with SNL-favorite Bill Hader. The romantic comedy challenges outdated clichés through portraying relatable characters and sharp humor.

Besides discussing feminist issues in her stand-up comedy, Inside Amy Schumer, and Trainwreck, Amy is a fierce advocate on gun control after the Lafayette shooting in Louisiana, which killed three people, during a screening of Trainwreck. She has partnered with her second cousin Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and created the hashatag, #aimingforchange, with which she uses her Instagram and Twitter platforms to encourage her followers to write to their representatives about closing background check loopholes and improving the overall background check system, along with shutting down the illegal gun pipeline. Amy Schumer is unique in that uses her celebrity to  enact change for important issues.

Watch the Inside Amy Schumer sketches discussed in this article here:

1. Birth Control: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/whzt7k/inside-amy-schumer-birth-control
2. Milk Milk Lemonade: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/mu481q/inside-amy-schumer-milk-milk-lemonade
3. Cool with it: http://www.cc.com/episodes/49m1ku/inside-amy-schumer-cool-with-it-season-3-ep-302
4. Football Town Nights: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/n3y4b2/inside-amy-schumer-football-town-nights