This is not a Father’s Day special, although Atsuko Okatsuka does delve into why she and her father were estranged for so many years. No, the comedian in her first special for Hulu, wants us to know to stop referring to her as “Mother,” because she’s “Father” in her relationships with her family and her fans.
The Gist: Oktasuka’s debut HBO special in 2022, The Intruder, earned her many critical kudos and new fans around the world.
Hulu naturally wanted to tap into her joyous spirit and poached her as part of the first year of its Hularious campaign, as Disney’s streaming platform looks to set its stand-up comedy philosophy apart from both HBO and the global dominance of Netflix. If you don’t recognize Okatsuka already for her bowl cut or her viral dance clips, then pearhaps you may have seen her in last year’s comedy documentary, Group Therapy; she’s also in the upcoming films Elio (for Pixar) and Outcome (for Apple+).
But this new hour may be more relevant to fans who heard her tell her immigrant story on the radio for This American Life with Ira Glass. Oktasuko references that here, in explaining her very close ties with her husband (even if they had to get remarried due to an oversight), how she learned the truth about her coming to America origin story, and what happened when she brought her husband with her to meet distant relatives in Taiwan.
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: For another upbeat comedian with an immigrant story that’s relevant to their comedy and our current climate, you could look to Cristela Alonzo.
Memorable Jokes: What is it about a tandem bike that makes not only for an easy sight gag, but also a personal philosophy? For Okatsuka: “My dream is to get us a tandem bike. that way everyone knows we’re together,” then adding: “No one getting left behind, ever again.”
The tandem bike also feels emblematic for her marriage, which may or may not be codependent, but definitely was in need of a do-over thanks to a paperwork oversight. She jokes about both of those things, before pivoting to how single people might somehow act more like adults because they have more responsibilities and have to keep up appearances in public.
If you haven’t heard Okatsuka’s immigrant saga, she’ll catch you up. She didn’t realize how complicated her journey was until learning the truth from her grandmother. “I knew it was bad when Ira Glass reached out to me,” she jokes now in hindsight. Don’t worry, though. She has reestablished her relationship with her father in Japan, even if she’s not going to give him the grandkids he dreams of. Nor does she think a new generation of Okatsukas will overcome the horrors of past generations, considering what she has overcome and what her schizophrenic mother still deals with today.
Going back to Japan and Taiwan to visit both sides of her family also makes for fun stories, whether it’s the Taiwanese villagers realizing they hadn’t seen a white person in ages and treating her husband humorously, or whether it’s Okatsuka herself realizing that bother her Japanese and Mandarin needs a lot of work, several expensive or embarrassing misunderstandings later.
Our Take: Okatsuka jokes that we all need to be easier on ourselves. In her case, it’s also recognizing that her bowl-cut has so many fans now that she has to keep it. “I want to grow my hair out. But I can’t, because this is my brand.”
She has such a light joyful stage presence, even through and yet also because of her hardships. So it might not surprise anyone to learn in this hour that she was a cheerleader at her Southern California high school. “I do love making people feel good,” she acknowledges, playfully noting her “yes and energy” has carried over off of the field. And what is a cheerleader, anyhow, she asks? “It’s blindly pumping people up to think they’re going to win, even if you have no say in the game. We’re literally not playing it. Cheerleading is just screaming manifestations and wishes.”
In her HBO hour, she cracked jokes about wanting to dress up her husband like her so they could film synchronized dance routines. In this hour for Hulu, she’s now wondering if she and her father actually have the same body type to the point where “we’re looking like sisters.” It’s oddly funny. But when her husband, Ryan, joins her onstage just as he had in the previous special, we understand just how much of partnership they enjoy.
Our Call: STREAM IT. By pronouncing herself as “father” in her relationship with her fans and her family, however, she’s also redefining her role and taking ownership in a way that cheerleaders cannot. She’s having much more say in the game of life, and comedy. And we’re all cheering her on.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
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