‘Hacks’ stars and producers prep for show’s overdue Season 3 return by defending why women are funny
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At last, our long national nightmare is nearly over.
It only seems like the much-decorated Max comedy “Hacks” has been away forever. It’s actually been less than two years. Overcoming strikes by writers and actors and a health crisis involving star Jean Smart – who won the Emmy for Best Comedy Actress in each of the show’s first pair of seasons – the series returns for Season 3 on May 2. The streamer will roll out two episodes on May 2, 9, 16 and 23 before running the finale of the nine-episode season on May 30.
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“Hacks” was something of an Emmy juggernaut in 2021 and 2022 before going AWOL due to a 10-month production delay in 2023. It earned 15 nominations in its first season and 17 in its second. It converted six of those 32 nominations (which included a pair of Best Comedy series bids) to wins, including the two for Smart as well as for the show’s writing and directing.
SEE‘Hacks’ is back with Season 3 trailer, Max sets May premiere date for the Emmy-winning series
During a Tuesday morning panel discussion at the London Hotel in West Hollywood promoting the forthcoming season that featured stars Smart and Hannah Einbinder (a two-time Emmy nominee for the show herself) as well as “Hacks” creator-showrunners Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky, the question was asked about why some people still seem to believe that women aren’t really funny and certainly not as funny as men.
“The only time I ever hear that,” Einbinder replied, “is in anonymous comments online. No one’s said that to my face, and I dare them to.”
“I do think there’s still that feeling a little bit,” Smart noted. “I think women just can be funny about different things, and men are funny about different things – because we’re different. Why was it funny when Milton Berle put on a dress and it wasn’t funny when Judy Garland did her little baggy pants hobo routine? I don’t know. Can’t explain it. It just is, but it doesn’t mean that women aren’t as funny.”
SEE‘Hacks’ Season 3 production shut down during writers strike
Added Statsky: “People have never said that to our faces, and I think it’s in the DNA of the show. When we (originally) made the show, the conversation between Paul, Lucia and myself was very much about that, especially for me and Lucia as women in comedy. So many of these women have had to deal with that being said to their face and so aggressively head on. And even though we are not free of it at our age, we stand on the shoulders of the women who did have to deal with it for so, so long.
“And so,” Statsky continued, “(‘Hacks’) in and of itself is both a love letter to those women – ‘Thank you for being in the trenches and working to fight that maybe even harder than we had to’ – and also proof in the pudding that these women and incredibly funny. So shut up.”
“I think it is a sentiment that people still repeat for whatever reason,” acknowledges Downs. “But then you think about ‘I Love Lucy’ or ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ or Carol Burnett, who’s still working. I’m like, the funniest, most popular, best things are women-written and women-performed. I’m like, how come Jerry Lewis hasn’t aged as well? You know?”
And when it comes to the idea that women simply aren’t funny, Downs reasons, “There is empirical evidence in my opinion that makes it untrue. I think it’s a sexist thing. I think men are really threatened by women who are funny. There’s that saying: men’s greatest fear is being laughed at, and women’s is being killed by men. So I think there’s a huge power dynamic we’re dealing with that’s millennia old, and it’s really hard to get beyond – but it’s like, let’s get beyond it.”
SEEJean Smart is looking to pull off this elusive Emmy hat trick with ‘Hacks’
Summed up Smart: “But the bottom line again is, it goes back to the woke conversation we’re having. And until we accept the fact that we all have differences and not try to pretend that we don’t, we’re never going to get anywhere.”
The relatively funniness of women in comedy aside, those involved in “Hacks” are excited to be welcoming a star-studded guest cast list for the forthcoming season that includes “Succession” alum J. Smith-Cameron, Helen Hunt, Christina Hendricks, Christopher Lloyd, George Wallace, Tony Goldwyn and Dan Bucatinsky. And in general, you could feel the sense of collective relief in the room that the show is finally back – and that Smart had fully healed from heart surgery in February 2023.
“When you go through personal things with people who you work closely with, it does really bond you,” Smart said on Tuesday. “The fact that we work with people who are so incredibly talented, who are also every bit as kind and as nice as they are talented, it’s such a gift. I feel extremely fortunate in the group of people that we have.”
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