24
Sep
Sarah Haskins Brings the Funny to Current TV
by Lily Saltzberg
0 Comments | Posted by thatgirl in 21st Century Bellist, That Girl
Lucille Ball, Lily Tomlin, Mary Tyler Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Tina Fey, Ellen Degeneres. All of these women are ridiculously funny. Thanks to Harvard-educated comedienne Sarah Haskins, audiences now have another name to add to that humorous list. 
Haskins is revolutionizing the way women watch television through her own unique show. In “Target Women,” a segment of Current TV’s InfoMania, Haskins takes a closer look at commercials and shows aimed towards women. Her sarcastically simple tone always manages to point out the ridiculous nature of these female-targeted campaigns. Minus an angry vengeance towards popular culture, Haskins scrutinizes the fabric of mainstream media.
In her most recent online clip, “Back 2 School,” Haskins adopts a tween persona as she plays with her “Miley Cyrus PSP” and wishes someone would “rock stare” her — if only she had enough “blingatude.” Without making an angst-ridden attack on sparkly shoes and peppy, texting pre-pubescents, Haskins evokes the absurdity of seemingly normal commercials that appear on screen everyday. Watching thirty-year-old Haskins become a giddy schoolgirl is simply a riot. But beyond her obvious humor, by taking the ordinary (commercials we see again and again) and showing how truly extraordinary it all is, Haskins achieves the revolutionary feat of making us think differently.
Haskins tends to transform the way her audiences perceive the media. Take my all-time favorite Haskins segment, “Your Garden.” The piece examines commercials in the United States and abroad for the Schick Quattro bikini razor. Haskins analyzes the topic of how awkwardly we search for the correct verbiage to describe female genitalia. The commercials use plant metaphors to allude to a “bush problem,” without ever directly addressing the all-too taboo subject of female grooming. A similarly-themed Australian commercial actually uses a beaver to symbolize femininity.
Haskins is funny. Not only due to her comedic timing, but because her bluntness is laughable. Her dry, even-tempered delivery appears as an attempt to merely explain the footage she critics, not to offer a direct opinion. This understated temperament often proves to be the loudest piece of her commentary because what she is saying seems painfully obvious. Haskins trains her audience to think by showing what is both undeniable and hidden in the clips. While her sardonic wit makes “Target Women” interesting and entertaining, its brilliance lies in the fact that if you’re watching, there is no alternative but to witness the ridiculous clichés at hand.
Despite her bold perspective, Haskins is far from preachy. She uses humor to get her point across so her show is not obnoxiously feminist. She sees the full picture, and shares it with her viewers. Haskins provides perspective, leaving the audience to formulate its own opinions, thereby developing thinkers — not vengeful bra burners.