Amy Schumer’s hit Comedy Central series, Inside Amy Schumer, has transformed the comic from a successful stand-up into a cultural and political force over the past three years. Sketches like “12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer” play off of the tension between America’s commercialized sexual culture and the misogyny at its root — they’ve also landed Schumer in the middle of what could be considered an all-out culture war over what exactly is allowed.
Not for nothing that the war over “political correctness” is really only a “war” for one side: At a screening of Schumer’s movie Trainwreck in July of last year, a gunman opened fire on the crowd, killing two, injuring nine, and then committing suicide.
The shooter, John Russel Houser, fit what has become the increasingly clear profile of extreme rightwing terrorism. Still able to buy firearms despite a judge raising red flags about his mental health in 2008, Houser was militantly anti-feminist and praised Hitler in online message boards, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
After the shooting, Amy Schumer became an outspoken proponent of gun control, speaking about the issue publicly with her cousin, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, and incorporating gun politics into her humor.
Last night, Amy Schumer confronted the issue head on.
