Hari Kondabolu Enters New Dad Comedy Canon with Vacation Baby
Photo by Rob Holysz
New parent comedy could be its own subgenre—one that can certainly be enjoyed regardless of whether or not you actually have a child—and Hari Kondabolu (known for The Problem with Apu) recently added to that hallowed canon with Vacation Baby.
The last few years have seen some of Kondabolu’s peers contribute formidable entries to the new parent comedy category. For Mike Birbiglia there was The New One, in which he delved into his own trepidation about becoming a parent; Kurt Braunohler joked about trying to be a good dad in Perfectly Stupid despite not having a great role model himself; and Jena Friedman found many a barbed laugh in Ladykiller, grappling with the strange position of expecting a kid amid Roe v. Wade being overturned. And though the subject matter is the same, the perspective obviously varies from person to person; having a new kid allows these comics to explore self-growth, or our desire to outrun our parents’ missteps, or the feeling (and reality) of impending political doom.
Kondabolu’s comedic approach to becoming a dad falls closest to Friedman’s, as he tries to capture what it’s like to have a kid in a COVID-ridden world, when hope is often hard to find, even post-lockdown. (And, like Friedman, his special was filmed shortly after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.) The comedian doesn’t endorse despair or unbridled optimism during his set, but finds humor in every situation, no matter how bleak. His main through line, that of attempting to find the perfect metaphor for having a kid during a pandemic, is just focused enough to keep Vacation Baby on track, while also giving him enough leeway to get plenty weird and go off on tangents.