Review: Hacks Explores the Comedy of Cancel Culture

An aging comedian wrestles with woke campus culture in the new season of the Max series.

The Max series Hacks hilariously examines gender and aging in show business, alongside the pitfalls of cancel culture.

In the show's first episode, the young comedy writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) finds herself toxically unemployable after the internet commentariat deems one of her well-intentioned tweets homophobic. Desperate, she takes a job writing for Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a legendary (read: old) Vegas comedienne who is obscenely wealthy but creatively bored. The characters clash—uberwoke Ava bristles against Deborah's personally insulting comedy style while Deborah laments that nobody can take a joke anymore—but they eventually become friends.

In the recently concluded third season, Deborah's insensitive past stand-up sets go viral and threaten to derail her prospects of hosting a network talk show. Ava is sympathetic to her friend but unwilling to defend racist or ableist jokes. Deborah is angry that male comedians did the exact same type of material with no repercussions, but she eventually accedes to Ava's viewpoint and sits listening as college students castigate her for the harm her jokes allegedly caused. The jokes are older than the students claiming harm.