WednesdayDec302020
Amazon Studios(NEW YORK) — Amazon Prime's just-dropped Yearly Departed is a series of eulogies for 2020, hosted by Two Dope Queens' Phoebe Robinson and featuring a line-up of all female comedians including Tiffany Haddish, Rachel Brosnahan, Ziwe, Sarah Silverman, Patti Harrison, and Natasha Leggero.
Executive producer and writer Bess Kalb tells ABC Audio of the show's mock-funeral format, "We needed a way to laugh about the year without diminishing it, and I think a sort of overly paying tribute to ridiculous things was an appropriate enough way to do that."
She adds, "I think the comedy funeral lent itself pretty well to all these things that we are excited to see go — and a few that we can be melodramatic about the fact that we have to let go of for now."
Brosnahan, the Emmy-winning star of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, explains, "We just…loved the thought of having a group of some of the funniest women that we know and admire say goodbye to this complete dumpster fire of a year together."
For example, Haddish says a tearful goodbye to casual sex, thanks to quarantine, and COVID-19 testing, while Harrison waves goodbye to "rich girl influencers," whose social media posturing during the pandemic made them look more ridiculous than usual.
She notes, "Especially in a lockdown…there's nothing more violently disconnecting to be sitting on your couch covered in little cracker crumbs and then seeing someone…on, like, a floating yurt with 30 of their 'closest friends,' drinking champagne. And I think that's really hard to connect to."
Yearly Departed includes a show-stopping "In Memoriam" segment by Christina Aguilera, who belts out "I Will Remember You" as a list of things that 2020 ruined — like "Hugs," "Vacations" and "The Name Karen" — scrolls behind her.
By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
