By David Futrelle
Funny or Die pretty much nails it with this video, which is even better if you’ve been watching the real Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu.
Admittedly, I say that after only having watched the first episode of the show. See, the thing is, it’s extremely well done, much better than the movie version. But that also means it’s so chilling it’s hard for me to watch. (And I’m someone who regularly watches horror movies and Lars Von Trier.) Anyone else having the same reaction to the show? Or a very different one?
H/T — Thanks to the person who alerted me to the Funny or Die video though I can’t find the tweet (I think) in which they did it.
Ha. Nice satire. I really liked the “quote” from RoK.
Off topic: I ordered my chinese food via orderup, and now a Jonathan is on his way to deliver it.
Plz Jonathan, you’re my only hope of eating something decent today.
Nice! Funny satire with the Manosphere references!
The Hulu show The Handmaid’s Tale has taken some liberties with the source material. There are some aspects I really like, other choices I like less. I like some of the exploration of other characters besides Offred, for example. I’m not a fan of their choice of Moira not sneaking off on her own, but overall, I like the atmosphere they’ve created.
BWA HA HA HA HA!!!
Yeah, I can’t watch the show. I read the book, and it was so disturbing that it almost made me sick. There was one particular passage, where Offred reminisces about the run-up to the establishment of the Republic of Gilead, and she talks about being forced to leave her job because kinder, kuche, and kirche, and her husband tells her “it’ll be alright, we’ll get through this, I’ll take care of you.” Offred remembers thinking “you don’t really mind this, do you? This is something you’re OK with, me being reduced to your chattel.” I felt stabbed to the core of my soul. Because really, I would be more or less fine in the Republic of Gilead, as a straight white cismale with a Christian background. If anything bad happened to me there, it would be because I chose to do something that made it happen, like protesting. Would I be strong enough to do the right thing, even if it meant being imprisoned, tortured, or killed? Would you? Atwood says that the answer is “fuck no!”, and I think that she’s right.
@David For your “odd safety video” fix, I recommend “Staplerfahrer Klaus”, it’s originally in German, but the plot’s not complicated. Don’t want to give any of it away though.
Hulu is the only major streaming service so I haven’t seen Handmaid’s Tale yet. But I did read the book and that was definitely enough to get the joke.
The sad thing is, if that trailer toned the comedy down just slightly, I could see MRAs actually thinking it would be a great show for real!
“Man Fred” killed me ?
I haven’t been able to watch an episode of Handmaid’s Tale all the way through. I always need to stop at some point and continue later.
I lost it at the ROK quote.
@Axe,
Me, too! And now I’ve got “Blinded By The Light” knocking around in my noggin.
Man Fred, née Fred, destroyed me.
Like @runsinbackground, that part of the book really touched me too. It’s been my life’s mission to find men who would be willing to take the full pain for their morals and as Atwood noted there don’t seem to be many of them.
I am upset about Moira, because I would like to think that I’m more akin to her than to the ones who go along with it. Realistically, I’m not sure that I’m that strong.
*sigh* You Americans and your “Hulu” hoops and your “Home Box Offices”. All I got in the hinterlands of Canada is crummy ol’ Netflix and whatever crap original programming they have and old syndicated 90s sci-fi series they have kicking around.
(The Handmaid’s Tale is actually on Bravo here in Canada, but I haven’t watched cable in a decade or so, so I’ll probably have to watch it when it comes out on Betamax–dah, I mean DVD at some point).
I’m still somewhat skeptical of this series, as I am of a lot of book adaptations. They have a nasty habit of “sexifying” things unnecessarily, and when I saw who they cast as Serena Joy, it kinda had my “unnecessary sex appeal” alarm going off. I’ve never seen anything with Yvonne Strahovski in it, so I can’t speak to her abilities as an actress, but for all the 90s film version’s faults, Faye Dunaway just nailed that character’s (ironic) triumphant joylessness as if she really were Tammy Faye Bakker having got everything she desired and realizing it rendered her a second-class citizen. I think Rexella Van Impe or Phyllis Schalfly more than young Anita Bryant.
The other thing that makes me skeptical is I’ve read reviews that indicate that it’s been stripped of that black humour that remains textbook Atwood. This has been a particular bugaboo of mine in this whole “grimdark TV” period where the shadow of Game of Thrones seems to loom over everything. Offred’s description of “the ceremony” sounds so ridiculously awkward for all parties involved that the sheer absurdity of it does radiate from the page.
It’d be like if they adapted Harrison Bergeron as a straight-forward 1984-like dystopia without any of Vonnegut’s absurdist humour. Oh wait, they did that already.
Anyway, I will see it eventually, and I may be wildly off the mark in my assessments, but that’s my current impression from what I’ve heard about it. I’d love to hear other takes.
I go to that part of the book and wondered “What would I be doing in this situation?” but by the end of the book I knew: I’d have drowned.
Though I do wonder how long you could fake a conversion if you kept saying things like “In cheeses name. Edam”
But how would I react if I were living in some distopia? I don’t know, it’s hard to imagine that I’d live through the cataclysm.
I’d be dead from working in the toxic dumps. I have no uterus, I’m an unwoman, and my appearance and genes marking me as female and therefore as a Thing would further damn me to there.
I cannot bring myself to watch this series, or read the book. I can’t. I’m in enough fear from this sham of a government in my country and live with enough anxiety and depression the mental consequences for me could be devastating.
Has anyone got the fortitude to read the YouTube comments? I don’t…
If you’re watching Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu, consider watching Harlots too. It’s another womansploitation show, but about 18th-century London prostitutes rather than near-future dystopia concubines. It’s an ensemble show centered around the conflict between two rival madams and I love the characters and the gowns and the historical details and the modern-style soundtrack and the opening credits (slightly NSFW) MY GOD:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QHd99h-SOuY
You know, when I was a wee sprog of a podgerlet, matriarchal parallel universes were a big tropey thing on TV, whether played for laughs (“The Worm That Turned”) or with a straight face. I am still waiting for this scene:
A.U. Native Woman: “You’ll pass for now. Just… don’t talk.”
Dimensional traveler: “Wha… these pockets aren’t even pockets! They’re just flaps… sewn on… for no reason.”
Native, utterly puzzled: “Yes? Real pockets would ruin the line and make your hips look lumpy. Can’t overthrow the matriarchy if they’re throwing candy bars at you and mooing, right?”
MrsObedMarsh, that sounds wonderful, thank you!
“Now, even the women who aren’t lesbians… look like lesbians” made me laugh. Ridiculous but on the nose.
@Gussie Jives –
Makes sense! I read the book when I was 17, so I didn’t have the political context to grasp its big ideas, but I still remember the ceremony scene with Offred’s dry narration (and noted astutely that the sex wasn’t very sexy).
I think the construction of Offred’s (handmaid) name counts too – Of + Fred – as being both funny and dark. I was a ways into the book when I realized the joke; at first I thought the name was just generically SF-ish like something by Garth Nix.
David I just wanted to say I totally agree with you. I can’t stop watching it bit by bit but it is honestly giving me nightmares. Literal actual wake up screaming nightmares. I’m very emotional. But that’s just because it’s so good at least in my opinion
Chances are I’d be among the fertile chattel, unfortunately. But hopefully I’d be able to nope out to Canada before it got to that point.
I keep imagining the name “Manfred” being said by that orc in the LOTR that said, “Man flesh.”
Apparently there’s a 10 minute version of that bit on youtube. Also this version:
@runsinbackground
The fact that you’re on here, and concerned about your reaction, shows that you would do something.
I’m a bi, genderqueer, white masculine presenting person.
I could pass, could hide in a handmaid world easily, but I wouldn’t. And I don’t think you would either. There comes a point, when, if you’re a decent pertain, you stand up, regardless of how scared you are, because your anger at what’s being done to others, your empathy, is stronger than your fear.
And yeah, for the record, in that world I’d be long dead. I am an unapologetic feminist, raising my daughter to be one, and am armed. In short, they’d take me out.
But not before you had taken some of them out I’d wager.
I’d be designated Martha in that world, but am far too aggressive and anti authority, so I too would be dead. But I might be able to play the game long enough to take out someone influential.
I’m fertile but also tokophobic as hell. I would not manage forced pregnancy and childbirth very well. I couldn’t say for sure how it would affect me since I’ve never had an unwanted pregnancy but I also can’t say my mental health would be the same afterwards. Might well even reach a breaking point after repeated forced pregnancies.
@Gussie Jives
I wasn’t sure about this casting choice either, but having watched it I can say she really is not very “sexy” in this role (I haven’t watched the last 2 episodes so something really sexy could happen that I’m not aware of.) She’s beautiful but she allowed the frumpy wife coats to take over her body and make her totally shapeless just like a Gilead wife should. Overall I was impressed with her acting. I give her credit for being versatile enough to take on what I think is a very different role for her.