Amy Schumer was too "depressed" about the 2016 election to make her sketch show
Amy Schumer didn't have "anything to say" for Inside Amy Schumer during Donald Trump's presidency
Remember how people used to insist that President Donald Trump would be “good” for comedy? Now that we’re finally out of the Trump era (are we out of the Trump era?), that conventional wisdom seems debatable at best. Sure, Alec Baldwin may have won an Emmy for playing him on Saturday Night Live, but is that really a net positive for society? If anything, television comedy (of the late night and sketch variety, at least) seemed to stagnate over the Trump presidency. And over at Comedy Central, Inside Amy Schumer ceased to function at all.
And not for lack of trying: the sketch show was renewed, and the network left the door wide open for Amy Schumer to return. “We told her, ‘Any time you want to come back, we’re here,’” former network president Kent Alterman previously told The Hollywood Reporter. Unfortunately, the election left the comedian “totally depressed and without anything helpful to say,” she explained to the outlet.
Reiterating as much during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Schumer says, “The last season was 2016. And that’s not a coincidence. I was incredibly depressed since then. I just really didn’t feel like I had anything to say, and I was really too bummed about the election—I don’t know if you guys read about it? It was just all of it.”
There’s still a lot to be desired, politically speaking (“It’s not good,” Schumer proclaims of the state of the world), but “I felt ready to do it again, and we had the best time” bringing the show back, she tells Kimmel. And the writer’s room, she teases, was not afraid to talk about “all the ish going on,” which she finds “sickening.” (Schumer specifically shouts out protests in Iran on the Kimmel stage.)
Also, don’t expect another big gap between seasons; though Paramount+ reportedly reached out to her about making five stand-alone specials of the beloved show, Schumer is “hopeful they’ll allow her to do more,” per THR. There will surely be plenty more “ish” for the show to skewer for seasons to come.