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Michelle Buteau: Full Heart, Tight Jeans

Eisenhower Theater

Actress/comedian Michelle Buteau brings her unique perspective and big personality to stage and screen. Known for hosting Netflix’s  The Circle  and starring in the Netflix series Survival of the Thickest , now Buteau brings her stand-up tour to D.C.!

Oct. 20 - 21, 2023

Fri. Oct. 20, 2023 8p.m.

Sat. Oct. 21, 2023 8p.m.

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Photo by Bronson Farr/Netflix

Born in New Jersey to Caribbean parents, actress/comedian Michelle Buteau brings her unique perspective and big personality to stage and screen. She can currently be seen as the host of the popular Netflix series The Circle . She is also one of the stars of the TV remake of First Wives Club ; the third season premiered on BET+ in the fall of 2022. Other film and TV credits include scene-stealing scenes in Always Be My Maybe , Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens , Russian Doll , Someone Great , and  Marry Me with Jennifer Lopez. Michelle’s one-hour comedy special Welcome to Buteaupia  is streaming on Netflix and in 2021 won the Critics Choice Award for Best Comedy Special. Simon & Schuster published her autobiographical book of essays Survival of the Thickest in 2020.

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Comedy at the Kennedy Center

The mark twain prize for american humor.

Premieres May 11 on NETFLIX

The Kennedy Center presents the 25th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor to Kevin Hart. Meet the new recipient and watch performances, interviews, and other highlights from past events.

Apr. 19 - 20, 2024

Asian AF  ( Asian As F*** ) is the premier Asian American variety show in Los Angeles and New York.  Asian AF spotlights the best Asian American actors, stand-up comedians, improvisers, sketch performers, storytellers, and more. 

The Kennedy Center performances of  Asian AF  will be headlined by  Joel Kim Booster , and will also feature  Karen Chee . Additional casting to be announced. 

Lewis Black: Goodbye Yeller Brick Road, The Final Tour

Fri. May 3, 2024

Known as the King of Rant, the Grammy Award®–winning stand-up Lewis Black uses his trademark style of comedic yelling and finger-pointing to expose the absurdities of life. His comedic brilliance makes people laugh at life’s hypocrisies and the insanity he sees in the world.

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May 10 - 11, 2024

George Lopez’s illustrious and multi-faceted career encompasses television, film, stand-up comedy, and late-night television. Lopez has broken ground for Latino comics by embracing his ethnicity, confronting racial stereotypes, and fighting for his community on and off the stage.

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Comedy Works Entertainment presents Michelle Buteau: The Full Heart, Tight Jeans Tour

Michelle is the creator/writer/star of the Netflix series SURVIVAL OF THE THICKEST, inspired by her autobiographical book of essays of the same name, published by Gallery Books. She is also the host of two popular reality competition shows: THE CIRCLE and BARBECUE SHOWDOWN on Netflix. Other film and TV credits include MARRY ME, FIRST WIVES CLUB, ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE, AWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS, RUSSIAN DOLL, and SOMEONE GREAT. She is also the Modern Manners columnist for Real Simple and hosts the popular podcast Adulting. Michelle’s one-hour comedy special WELCOME TO BUTEAUPIA is streaming on Netflix and won the Critics Choice Award for Best Comedy Special.

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Michelle Buteau is currently touring across 1 country and has 4 upcoming concerts.

Their next tour date is at Outside Joke in Los Angeles (LA), after that they'll be at Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood.

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Michelle Buteau: Full Heart, Tight Jeans Tour

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Michelle is the creator/writer/star of the upcoming Netflix series SURVIVAL OF THE THICKEST, inspired by her autobiographical book of essays of the same name, published by Gallery Books. She is also the host of two popular reality competition shows: THE CIRCLE and BARBECUE SHOWDOWN on Netflix. Other film and TV credits include MARRY ME, FIRST WIVES CLUB, ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE, AWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS, RUSSIAN DOLL, and SOMEONE GREAT. She is also the Modern Manners columnist for Real Simple and hosts the popular podcast Adulting. Michelle’s one-hour comedy special WELCOME TO BUTEAUPIA is streaming on Netflix and won the Critics Choice Award for Best Comedy Special. Special guests: DJ Donwill and Cindy-Anne Boisson

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Tour dates 2024

• May 23 rd 7:00 pm Vermont Comedy Club Give it to me!
• May 24 th 7:30 pm Vermont Comedy Club Give it to me!
• May 24 th 9:30 pm Vermont Comedy Club Give it to me!
• May 25 th 7:30 pm Vermont Comedy Club Guuuuurl!
• May 25 th 9:30 pm Vermont Comedy Club F-Yeah!
• May 31 st 8:00 pm Miami Improv Doral, FL F-Yeah!
• May 31 st 10:30 pm Miami Improv Doral, FL Sign me up!
• Jun 1 st 7:00 pm Miami Improv Doral, FL Get tickets!
• Jun 1 st 9:30 pm Miami Improv Doral, FL Take my money!
• Jun 2 nd 7:00 pm Miami Improv Doral, FL Guuuuurl!
• Jun 6 th 8:00 pm Radio City Music Hall New York, New York Sign me up!

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• Adulting Podcast

Michelle Buteau Is Thriving

The multi-hyphenate opens up about her new Netflix series, Survival of the Thickest , which is based on her book of essays of the same name.

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“I felt like I was always surviving something,” the 45-year-old tells ELLE.com about the inspiration behind her acclaimed book, “whether it was my 20s or 30s. Surviving was definitely in my vocabulary for a very long time…I was just out there, mixed [race], being thick and plus-size, and it was like, ‘It is what it is.’”

Though this is her first solo television drama project where she’s both behind and in front of the camera, Buteau is no stranger to the big and small screens. She’s been a scene-stealer in several shows and movies, including, Marry Me , BET’s The First Wives Club , Someone Great , Russian Doll , Always Be My Maybe , and Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens , and headlined her Netflix special, Welcome to Buteaupia in 2020, which won the 2021 Critics Choice Award for Best Comedy Special. She’s hosted two podcasts, Late Night Whenever and Adulting . In October, she’d perform at The Kennedy Center as part of her upcoming tour, dubbed Full Heart, Tight Jeans , which kicks off in Amsterdam on August 2 . (The tour title came from a typical answer Buteau gives when asked how she’s doing. “I always say my heart is full. My jeans are tight.”)

In the feel-good series, we meet Beaumont as she reels from being newly uncoupled, losing trust and hope in just about everything. But her resolve shifts quickly into high gear when she begins making critical life changes with her two faithful besties, Khalil and Marley (played by Tone Bell and Tasha Smith), by her side. She journeys through many complexities to rediscover love, sexuality, and herself as she intentionally pursues her dreams.

The show skillfully blends humor and heartfelt moments as Beaumont and her circle navigate the ups and downs of life, finding laughter, resilience, and growth in the face of challenges. We see them survive time and again, finding beauty in the every day and in each other. Beaumont carries the same witty notes of Buteau’s belly-laughing comedic stylings and impeccable timing strewed with zingers, social critique, and life mantras, such as, “You know I’m too cute for public toilet.” And: “Sometimes we have to make the wrong decisions in order to find the right one.”

Survival of the Thickest is not all laughs, though. Beaumont, while dynamic and riveting, faces some relatable hurdles. Set in teeming New York City, we watch her helm the good, complicated, and ugly sides of the fashion industry, trying to dispel normative beauty standards. She also endures the circus of living in a cramped Brooklyn apartment with an eccentric roommate and her cat.

The show’s name is a double entendre. One definition refers to the idiom of having a thick skin—the ability to withstand criticism and life’s setbacks. The other is a colloquial Black American vernacular definition popularized by hip-hop culture that refers to a woman’s physical attractiveness, primarily curvy women. S he’s ‘‘thicc”: voluptuous, shapely, and sexy. But the title, especially the “survival” part, cuts even deeper for Buteau, because she’s a survivor of a different kind. Years ago, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. A mass was found on her pituitary gland that altered her everyday life. No periods. Extreme fatigue. Headaches. All signs of pregnancy without the pregnancy. It was benign, and she’s been on the mend since, with frequent doctor check-ups.

Then came surviving the journey to motherhood. After Buteau and her photographer husband, Gijs van der Most, tried many times to conceive on their own, they decided on in vitro fertilization, IVF. The first time, she got pregnant, then miscarried weeks later. They tried again and got pregnant. She miscarried again. Rinse and repeat. After four miscarriages and several rounds of IVF, they finally had their twins in January 2019 through gestational surrogacy. At the time, paid gestational surrogacy was illegal in New York, where she and her husband lived, so the couple moved to Pennsylvania. Buteau went on to successfully advocate and lobby for New York to adopt a law allowing for paid gestational surrogacy. It went into effect in February 2021.

She’s been a survivor who knows the marrow and fullness of the word. Below, Buteau discusses her career trajectory and expands on her show’s origins and themes.

Watching Mavis live her fullest life in her thickness and glory, I found the show to also be an indictment of patriarchal beauty ideals. Could you expand on that underpinning message and the double entendre of the show’s title?

That has always been a struggle. My whole life, I’ve had to shrink and apologize if my boob grazed someone. Or, worry, “Oh, I’ve got the middle seat [on an airplane]. How am I gonna get out without hitting people with my booty.” Or, having anxiety when people tell me “I’ll get you an XL” when I know it’s not gonna fit, but I have to wear that shirt for that thing. Or 13-year-old me shopping in the Macy’s junior section with my mom and asking the sales associate, “Where are all the size thirteens? Can you just bring them to me?” Because even though I know they won't fit me, it’s the closest thing that could fit me. Or being out to dinner and people telling you you shouldn’t eat this or that because you’ll get fatter. Whatever it is, people in society feel like they are allowed to tell women about our bodies—that’s insane. Unless you’re a doctor and in my network, I don’t need to hear your opinion about my body.

So, “survival of the thickest” means loving your body, loving all your inches. It means to be happy with the body that you’ve been given. But it’s also all about thick skin. That means we’re gonna go through some stuff because of our bodies, and it’s not gonna be great. We’re gonna feel rejected. We’re not going to get the things we want or the person that we want, and bad things may happen to us, but it’s okay. We need to pull our size-ten shoes up, LOL [she actually says L-O-L]. And, we gotta put on our plus-size panties—I’m just kidding, that’s gross—and keep it moving.

Survival of the Thickest: Essays

The show is adapted from your memoir, which follows the same themes. What trends did you notice in society that made you respond with a book?

To be honest, I wasn’t thinking that big or far ahead. I was doing stand-up. I was acting. I was hosting. I was trying to have a kid, and I couldn’t. And in between all of that, I had an idea for a book about body positivity, being sex-positive, and growing up in a very religious family in Central Jersey. The kind of stories that couldn’t fit into a straight-up stand-up. I didn’t know who it was for but thought whoever enjoys it, it’s for them. And I didn’t write it to get on the New York Times bestsellers list or even with the thought, “Oh, this is gonna be a TV show.” I just wrote the craziest, funniest, most important, heart-wrenching stories in my life to make someone feel less lonely and to make myself feel better. The fact that it got into the right hands of a Netflix executive was just the maraschino cherry in the old fashioned.

I love Mavis’ liberation at 38—sexually, mentally, emotionally, and professionally. Her romance with Luca comes to mind. It’s all written in a way that at once feels organic to who she is and who she’s becoming, juxtaposed against the tyranny of beauty. It’s radical and felt intentional. As in, all women should be able to explore all their sides, their sensuality, without feeling inhibited by culturally sanctioned perceptions of attractiveness. Talk to me about what went into her character development. Any parallels to some realizations you’ve had?

Mavis is Mavis, and I am Michelle. But I thought about how I could pour into this woman. How do I pour everything I’ve known and learned from my 20s, 30s, and 40s? With any chapter in my life, and even as a married person—and I’ve seen this in my friends too—when you’re approaching 40, something clicks inside you. A lot of people think the big birthdays are 21 or 30. But in hindsight, you have so much time. But closer to 40? Something happens. It’s just like, “Oh shit! I gotta, ‘poop or get off the pot.’” So whether it’s body acceptance, or someone you’re in a relationship with who you secretly know you shouldn’t be with. Or it’s a job you’re stuck in or living in a neighborhood you don’t like. Or the thing you’ve been meaning to tell your parents so you can feel healed. Whatever it is, you just do it.

That’s the place I wanted Mavis to start from and properly live in. Most main characters we see on shows are hot messes. I didn’t want her to be a hot mess. Yes, life gets messy for her, but she knows who she is. She does what she wants. She’s gonna try and fight for it. Is she going to be insecure and anxious at times? Absolutely. Everybody is, but she has the support of her friends to lift her up. That’s also an area of Mavis’ life I wanted to showcase. Khalil and Marley show what real friends are supposed to do: constantly tell you you’re amazing, that you can do whatever you want, they’re there for you if something goes wrong, and they’re proud of you.

Along the same lines: One of the things that came to mind as I watched was the need for society to wade away from the misogynistic view that size zeros and twos are superior figures, that desirability can only look one way. How can more women be like Mavis and begin tapping into their full glory and owning their sexy? How have you done that and evolved to a place of self-love?

We have to do the work. It's work. That’s something we see Mavis go through. We have to do it within ourselves and for ourselves. We're so quickly willing to spend so many hours of our lives dedicated to a company to work. But then, what do we do for ourselves? What do we do about self-care? And mental health? And taking a risk and challenging yourself to get out there to the point you get comfortable with rejection. Putting you first—whatever that means for you—that’s how.

For me, it has been many things. The physical, for one. There’s this rumor that fat and thick people don't work out, and obesity shouldn't be mainstream. It’s just stupid. Some people just have bigger bodies. That’s that, “Honey, hush!” I love working out—in cute workout outfits, of course. So, I’d go to Target and get the plus-sized situation and end up feeling cute at the gym. And after a workout, I always feel good.

Mental health is another one. Everybody should be in therapy. If you can’t do it every week, do it once every two weeks. Do it once a month. Just find a place you can go talk to someone. It helps.

So much of the show examines trying to make it after the trials and turbulence of life. When you look at your career to date, what have been some powerful lessons you’ve learned about navigating Hollywood and the comedy scene as a woman of color?

The main thing is there isn’t just one way to get where you want to go. It’s not a linear process. If you’re looking for that one job to change your life, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. You should just be playing the lotto instead because life is a struggle. This is a lifestyle. If you love it, you’re gonna be doing it for a long time. So wrap your mind around being patient with the process and not listening to people because everyone’s got an idea of how and what you’re supposed to do. Just because it worked for them that way doesn’t mean they have to put that on you.

Then there are the people who ask, “Can I pick your brain? How did you get that? How do I do this?” That’s not always the best approach. It could help, but the beauty of your own journey is figuring it out. Some people remain in self-sabotage mode for a long time because they don’t figure it out. They don’t figure themselves out. Most of my talented friends never put themselves out there and never get to see what they could be. [In the show,] Khalil says to Mavis, in episode 1, “Don’t tell yourself, ‘No,’ before someone else tells you no.” I love that. Because why not try to get out there? What’s the big deal? If “they” say no, you’ve already been telling yourself that, so you might as well do it anyway.

Sticking with your career for another beat: I know you once wanted to be a journalist and worked as a newsroom editor, covering 9/11. What first piqued your interest in the field, and at what point did you decide to deviate from that plan and get into comedy?

I wanted to be an entertainment reporter, but a professor told me [while studying television production at Florida International University] I was too fat to be on camera. And back then, I thought, “Oh, he’s right,” because I hadn’t seen anyone that looked like me on TV. So I ended up working in production and loved it; it was fun. It felt like you're doing a recipe from scratch with different people every day. But then, I realized I was working with on-air talent that didn't love their job, and I felt, “Why wouldn’t you love your job? Get some pep in your step. Look down the barrel and make people feel like you’re talking to them.”

It got to the point where I became exhausted trying to make people joyful. I’ve always been this goofy, sassy, warm, big titty bitch, and a lot of my co-workers were always like, “You should just do stand-up comedy.” It felt a bit misplaced for me then because I never grew up hoarding copies of George Carlin or anything like that. When I started, I didn’t know what I was doing. I’d go to comedy shows, and these comedians were sad. They were broke. They were high. They didn’t have sex. I was like, I’m happy. I like sex. I like money, money, money! So I first felt, “Maybe stand-up isn’t for me.” But after 9/11 happened, it was like, “Maybe we just might die one day. So maybe we should just try some shit!” And so I tried it, fell in love with it, and was like, “This is nice. I like this feeling.” [Editor’s note: In her book , Buteau says she did stand-up for the first time on September 14, 2001.]

In the show, your character aims to break barriers and redefine what it means to work in fashion. When you think about what it means to be in your field today, as someone that breaks from conventional ideals that many still fall prey to, what has been your secret sauce to breaking through?

I’ve bet on me. I’m glad people have opinions and critiques—good for them; they’re supposed to. But I listen to my gut. I know who I am. I know what it is. I know how it’s gonna work. I’ll try some shit, and if it doesn’t work out, I knew in the back of my mind I shouldn’t have done this in the first place. I’ve learned to maintain a sense of self. That’s the most important. If I had gotten this show in my 20s, I don’t know how I would have stood up for myself, my opinion, my beliefs, and my values and pushed for the themes of diversity and inclusivity. But in my 40s? I’m just like, “No, not in this world. Not today. This is what's gonna happen. Period.” Sometimes that confidence comes with time. But you still have to practice at it. It’s a little like fake it till you make it. And bet on yourself. You know what’s good for you.

In 2020, when you wrote for us , you spoke about IVF, surrogacy, and your painful journey to motherhood. Now you’re a mother of twins, adjusting to the balancing act that is parenting. How would you classify what motherhood is now?

It’s wild. My friend Jordan Carlos told me that when you become a parent, you have to parent yourself. I didn't know what he meant then, but now I do. It’s like, I have to be the shining example for them. So I gotta get it together. When raising little kids, and they’re your everything, you see things more clearly. Because you literally don't have time for bullshit. Like I always say, I have no idea what I’m doing, but I know that no one could do it better than me. Because how could you fully say you know what to do if you’ve never been in that position? So, we all need to give ourselves some grace.

Recently, I took my kids to Amsterdam [where my husband is from]. And I’m so used to telling them to be quiet. Don't be loud. Don't act up. Basically, telling them that other kids they see acting up and being kids can do that, but they weren’t allowed to. Now, I’m like, I need to let my kids be kids, and everybody else just has to deal with it. It’s a process.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Michelle Buteau: Full Heart, Tight Jeans Tour

Other upcoming shows, anthony jeselnik: bones and all, postponed – beth hart, marisela: con amor us tour, leo skepi: in leo we trust, buddy guy: damn right farewell, rescheduled from 10/4, caroline rhea & melissa joan hart: i identify as a witch, kevin james: owls don’t walk, stuff you should know, classic albums live performs pink floyd the wall, john cleese and the holy grail, untitled andrew callaghan film screening and q&a, jeremy piven, the rocket man show, brad williams, gin blossoms & toad the wet sprocket with special guest vertical horizon, dweezil zappa: the rox(postroph)y tour, vic dibitetto, ben schwartz & friends, the piano guys, last podcast on the left: jk ultra tour, engelbert humperdinck – a winter world of love, a night of holiday classics & greatest hits, an intimate evening with david foster & katharine mcphee (2024), rescheduled from 12/8/2023 to 12/13/2024, small town murder.

Michelle is the creator/writer/star of the upcoming Netflix series SURVIVAL OF THE THICKEST, inspired by her autobiographical book of essays of the same name, published by

Michelle is the creator/writer/star of the upcoming Netflix series SURVIVAL OF THE THICKEST, inspired by her autobiographical book of essays of the same name, published by Gallery Books. She is also the host of two popular reality competition shows: THE CIRCLE and BARBECUE SHOWDOWN on Netflix. Other film and TV credits include MARRY ME, FIRST WIVES CLUB, ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE, AWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS, RUSSIAN DOLL, and SOMEONE GREAT. She is also the Modern Manners columnist for Real Simple and hosts the popular podcast Adulting. Michelle’s one-hour comedy special WELCOME TO BUTEAUPIA is streaming on Netflix and won the Critics Choice Award for Best Comedy Special.

Michelle Buteau Wants to Flip the Script

“If you don’t have a seat at the table, make your own,” the comedian says of her new Netflix series, Survival of the Thickest . “Bitch, I got a table and a buffet, so let’s go.”

Michelle Buteau has the kind of effervescent energy that feels like a warm embrace. And for the better part of the last two decades, she has brought the same zeal and zest to stage and screen. Buteau has had scene-stealing roles in BET+’s reboot of First Wives Club , Marry Me , Always Be My Maybe , Russian Doll , Tales of the City , and Someone Great , has hosted the American version of The Circle , and headlined her own Netflix comedy special, Welcome to Buteaupia , which won a Critics Choice Award in 2021.

Her latest outing further proves that the comedian-turned-actor has been having a “mo-ment” in recent years. (Longtime fans will be familiar with her distinctive pronunciation of moment .) Created by Buteau and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel and based on the former’s best-selling collection of essays, Survival of the Thickest is a Netflix series starring Buteau as Mavis Beaumont, a newly single, plus-size Black woman who must rebuild her life as a struggling stylist in New York City.

“It was pretty amazing playing Mavis, because I was not single at 38, but I do have a lot of friends that are. So to take what I know from the last 20-some odd years of dating and adulting and put it in these eight episodes was pretty magical, because I don’t know that I would’ve had my shit together [if I was still single] at 38,” Buteau tells Bazaar.com. “So there definitely is [the sense that] Mavis is me and I am Mavis, but would 45-year-old twin mother Michelle do that shit now? No! But a 27-year-old Michelle definitely got gum stuck on a guy’s dick in the back of a taxi, so it’s like, ‘Well, let’s figure out how to put it in Mavis’s story line.’”

On a recent video call from New Orleans, where she was preparing to attend this year’s Essence Festival, Buteau spoke candidly about the real-life inspirations for the new comedy series and creating a love letter for “the fatty baddies and oddy bodies.”

You’ve spoken in the past about how playing the quirky best friend in shows and movies has always been a stepping stone to becoming the heroine of your own story. You’ve also expressed a desire to change how plus-size Black women are portrayed. What are some common tropes or misconceptions about Black and plus-size women that we have seen perpetuated onscreen that you wanted to challenge with this show?

There’s so many things that I wanted to tackle, [such as] Black women supporting each other. Oftentimes, especially in comedy, I know that I’ve experienced [this notion] that there’s only one spot for us at the table, and that’s not what it should be. And what’s that saying? “If you don’t have a seat at the table, make your own table.” Bitch, I got a table and a buffet, so let’s go.

In the plus-size arena, you can’t help who you are, right? It is what it is, so let’s talk about it. I’m not gonna try to lose weight to feed into some unrealistic, patriarchal standard of beauty so [that] I’m attractive to people I’m not even attracted to. I just have to be authentically me, so it’s like: Look, I like sex, my character’s gonna like sex, and we’re gonna show it because I never had that growing up. Big girls were always so thankful someone liked them and paid attention to them—and that’s not what this is. I’m sorry if that’s how you live your life, but you can come over and see how good it is when you actually like yourself. So when Lizzo says, “I did the work,” we’re forced to do the work.

If you are feeling like you don’t like yourself or you don’t fit in, I always say, “It’s not you that needs to catch up to the world; it’s the world that needs to catch up to you.” So the show really is a love letter for the fatty baddies and oddy bodies. Anthony Michael Lopez, who plays Bruce, Garcelle Beauvais’s assistant, is differently abled; he has a prosthetic leg. I remember he came up to me after his first day of working the funeral scene, and he was like, “Thank you so much. Every time I get hired for a project, I’m always some sort of vet that lost his leg in a war, and it’s meant to be sad and not celebrated.” And I’m like, “Dope, we’re gonna put you in booty shorts ’cause people need to know that you love your body, period .”

Trying to figure out what she wants out of her life, Mavis naturally finds herself in a love triangle with Jacque (Taylor Selé), the longtime partner who cheated on her, and Luca (Marouane Zotti), a charming Italian man who could represent a new beginning for her in her late 30s. What did you want to accomplish with Mavis’s romantic arc?

I don’t know if you’ve ever been cheated on, but it almost feels like a death. I can only really compare it to a death, because you really thought life was this one way and now life is completely different, and a part of you feels like it’s missing. Most of the women in my family have been cheated on, so I only really know what it looks like to pick yourself up and move on after a betrayal. A lot of people will say, “If I’ve been cheated on, I’m never going back.” But when you’ve put in so much time and you have history, it’s really hard to say [that], especially when you’re at a crossroads, when you’re about to be 40 and middle-aged.

For Mavis, ending up in this love triangle is like, “Are you going to go with someone that’s good on paper, or are you gonna essentially start all over again?” It really makes me sad when people don’t want to just jump off that cliff and take a chance. I always say, “Open your mind, your heart, and your legs to love, ’cause you never know what you’re gonna find.” [ Laughs. ] “Be safe, though! You’re too cute for bacteria, but still just do it.” I know there was always a moment where I was dating two people casually, and I was like, If I could take his body and [the other’s] mind and make one person, that would be the person. It’s never gonna be perfect. But hopefully, you end up finding somebody that checks all your boxes.

Mavis has a small support network of friends who act as a sounding board—and vice versa—when she needs to talk through career and life decisions. What were the most important considerations you had in mind when you were crafting Mavis’s relationships with Khalil (Tone Bell) and Marley (Tasha Smith) in the writers’ room?

I’ve had a best friend since seventh grade, and that is who the Khalil character is [based on]. It was very interesting, because when I’m talking to people about the show, everybody wants to know: “When are Mavis and Khalil gonna hook up?” And I’m like, “They don’t! They’re just friends!” I don’t know why that’s such a crazy concept for two people to love each other and not want to have sex. After the seventh or eighth time I had that conversation, I was just like, “This feels a little misogynistic, ’cause what I’m hearing is that women are only good for one thing and at some point y’all gotta have sex, and that’s not what this is.”

It was very important for me to write Khalil as close to my friend as possible because my friend is about six foot five, and he is a quiet, artistic Black man and doesn’t always have a space to go to. Sometimes, people find him intimidating the minute he walks in a room, and he couldn’t be more of a gentle giant. I think there is this generalization or this notion, especially from reality shows, that Black men are players and that they want fancy cars and a lot of jewelry—I don’t know what rappers look like anymore. [ Laughs. ] So [I wanted to create] a guy that takes care of his mom, that is learning how to talk about his feelings in his 30s but in a thoughtful way, and someone that has a best friend that’s a woman.

I wrote the Marley character after a really good friend of mine, and it was really interesting for me to tell her story of realizing that she’s queer in corporate America. Tasha Smith just posted a picture introducing her character in a very intimate moment with one of the women that she has a scene with, and there were over 600 comments that were so homophobic, and I’m like, Oh shit. [Homophobia] is still alive and well. Churchgoing people [are] saying, “We’re all children of God, but you are an abomination, and you’re a sellout. Normalize [relationships between] men and women.” I’m like, Oh, okay, so we have way more work to do. This is what allyship looks like. I hope we can definitely help save or spark some sort of conversation for [real-life] family members at a Thanksgiving dinner or at a wedding, because nothing hurts my heart more than someone not being able to be themselves.

You’ve spoken in the past about reconciling your faith as a devout Catholic with your sexuality, and that is a theme that comes up multiple times throughout the series. How would you describe that part of your journey?

It has not been easy, but I feel like everybody should have their own relationship with religion or God or spirituality. If we were made in His likeness, then we should like ourselves. I don’t really believe that you should not have sex before marriage. I’ve been married for 13 years, and I think you should definitely be in a relationship and know that you have seen everything out there to know that you are in the right place. So I don’t know that my family will necessarily like it, but I also don’t care because I’m not doing it for them. I have four-year-old twins. I want to be the best me, so they know that Mom’s proud of what she does and they should do something that they like.

The fifth episode finds Mavis, Khalil, and his girlfriend, India (Anissa Felix), talking about an instance of racial profiling that occurs when a white woman accuses Khalil of vandalizing the brick wall of a coffee shop he was paid to decorate. That story line captures the virulent sting of racism and how difficult it is to talk about, because those words hurt the same whether you’re a little kid on the playground or a grown adult on the street.

We all have a very different experience with racism, and in the TV version, it’s always going to be big, loud, and violent, but that’s not what this is. We all had the story of the first time we were called the N-word by a white kid at school. And all of our parents did not know how to talk to us about it because there wasn’t a big fight; it wasn’t something that they had to go to school to address.

So what I really wanted to showcase in the episode is that, man, we are out here trying to live and exist, and sometimes it really feels like we are microdosing trauma. We walk in a space, and we don’t even walk the way we would walk with our friends, we aren’t gonna laugh as loud as we normally do, ’cause we know that we’re gonna make other people feel uncomfortable. It’s all the things you could ever be self-conscious of because that’s what society has made us [think about].

When you’re dating someone and some racist shit happens to you, that’s something you guys gotta come together on, because if someone isn’t gonna be like-minded like you—and it doesn’t matter if they’re the same race as you—that relationship is not gonna work. It was really important for us to show that, but we’re like, “How do we make it funny?” We get high!

You briefly worked in journalism as a newsroom editor before you decided to try stand-up comedy. How did your upbringing influence your comedic style, and what made you decide to pursue a career in entertainment?

I’m the only child and I went to a lot of different schools, so if I have to self-diagnose myself, I’d be like, “Well, you were just trying to get through the day, Michelle.” I have a really big family of mostly difficult people, so you just navigate those long parties and/or dinners. And by the time I got to the workplace and I was working at local news, I was in a very small edit bay with no windows. I’m like, “I’m a Black person with freckles. I need vitamin D, honey—the sun and the dick.” A lot of writers were like, “You’re so funny, you should do stand-up.”

And when I went to stand-up shows to see these comedians perform for way too much money, they were all sad and broke and couldn’t get laid. I was just like, Bitch, I like sex, I like money, and I’m happy. I wasn’t even sure there was a place for me in comedy, but when I did it, I was like, Oh no, I like this. So I’m so glad I stuck with it, but at the end of the day, it really is about me working through my shit, so you can work through your shit, so we can have a good time together. That is the end goal.

Max Gao is a freelance entertainment and sports journalist based in Toronto. He has written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, NBC News, Sports Illustrated, The Daily Beast, Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, Men's Health, Teen Vogue and W Magazine. Follow him on Twitter: @MaxJGao.

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Michelle Buteau

Michelle Buteau Mindy Tucker/Provided by the artist hide caption

On New Year's Day 2020 Netflix released the first season of the socially-distanced reality series The Circle , hosted by this week's Ask Me Another guest, comedian Michelle Buteau. In The Circle , contestants live in isolation and can only communicate via the internet: a premise that became everyone's reality about two months later.

Buteau confessed she wasn't initially onboard with the concept: "A competition, and you can catfish people? Absolutely not, sir! Rude!"

She said she warmed up to the idea after watching the British version, which focuses on why people choose to misrepresent themselves online. "They are convinced that people won't like the real them," Buteau said, "And that is so sad and important to talk about."

Michelle Buteau On Her Long Career And New Netflix Special

Buteau, by comparison, has built her career on unapologetically being herself. Her new book of personal essays is called Survival of the Thickest. She said the book was six years in the making and was originally called, "Maintaining Chunky: A Thick Girl's Guide to Not Getting Fat...Or Skinny." But Buteau struggled to tell that story. "I just felt like a very lazy Jillian Michaels where I'm just like 'Work out! If you want! But also, who cares?' And I couldn't get past 20 pages."

But she credits her work hosting the WNYC podcast Late Night Whenever and co-hosting Adulting with Jordan Carlos that gave her the nudge to shift the book's message inward, "I was just telling these kind of crazy stories that didn't fit into the standup world, Simon and Schu Schu were like "we love the podcast, can you just write a bunch of essays?" I said "I can do that..."

In the before times, Buteau was an avid traveler and her and her Dutch husband would make frequent trips to visit Holland. So for her Ask Me Another challenge Jonathan Coulton led her in a music parody game that pairs the music of Van Halen with things about The Netherlands.

Interview Highlights:

On balancing new motherhood and writing a book

I thought "I'm gonna bring the twins home and write while they're sleeping." WHAT?! And then I was like, "I'll take the twins to Majorca with a nanny and then I'll write in the cool, Mediterranean breeze while eating a paella in between." WHAT?! Cut to me on the subway with one finger trying to type... girl it was a mess.

On why her babies aren't baptized

My uncle is the archbishop of Jamaica, and I had to get [my kids] baptized because I'm the only child and my mom is like, "don't disappoint me," and I still fold like a beach chair when she brings that up. I picked really good friends to be godparents, and both godmothers are gay. When I told my mom and they met the family, they were like "they're great but they cant stand at the altar because the church doesn't recognize homosexuality." And I was like, "it's legal," and they were like, "but not in the church." And I'm like, "but they were straight when I met them 20 years ago, is there a loophole?" I was just like, "You guys, c'mon, these are my friends, this is my chosen family." And so it was such a big moment for me, in my 40s, working so hard to be a parent, to finally put my nine-and-a-half foot down and be like, "I can't get these kids baptized because my friends are enough and they're always enough, no matter who they are or what they are, and I can't be that example for my kids."

On being the host of The Circle

We just shot season two safely in England. The great thing about the show is that we can shoot it safely because we are in quarantine. But I also just thought it was so important because whether you like social media or not, you have to engage with it somehow. What does your profile picture say about you? Are you giving out too much information or not enough?

Heard on Michelle Buteau: 'The Circle' And Van Halen.

Comic Michelle Buteau Comes To Paramount Theatre, December 17

Michelle is the creator/writer/star of the Netflix series SURVIVAL OF THE THICKEST, inspired by her autobiographical book of essays of the same name.

Comedy Works Entertainment presents Michelle Buteau : THE FULL HEART, TIGHT JEANS TOUR at Paramount Theatre in Denver, CO on Sunday, December 17th at 7:00pm. 

Ticket prices are $29.50 - $49.50 plus applicable fees. Tickets go on sale Friday, August 25th at 10:00am and may be purchased at ParamountDenver.com.

Michelle is the creator/writer/star of the Netflix series SURVIVAL OF THE THICKEST, inspired by her autobiographical book of essays of the same name, published by Gallery Books. She is also the host of two popular reality competition shows: THE CIRCLE and BARBECUE SHOWDOWN on Netflix. Other film and TV credits include MARRY ME, FIRST WIVES CLUB, ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE, AWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS, RUSSIAN DOLL, and SOMEONE GREAT. 

She is also the Modern Manners columnist for Real Simple and hosts the popular podcast Adulting. Michelle's one-hour comedy special WELCOME TO BUTEAUPIA is streaming on Netflix and won the Critics Choice Award for Best Comedy Special.

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Sherri gives her hilarious take on the current headlines and will share never-before-revealed and personal details about her summer, including her commitment to her health and well-being and the steps she has taken to get there.

Comedian and Sherri’s good friend, Michelle Buteau , joins Sherri on the couch to talk about her upcoming comedy tour, “The Full Heart, Tight Jeans” and her podcast, “Adulting.”

Sherri announces Funny Over 50 , a nationwide search for funny women over 50 who are still waiting for their BIG BREAK in comedy!

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The Daytime Emmy Award-winning talk show host, comedian, actor, and best-selling author Sherri Shepherd brings her inimitable, authentic and comedic perspective to daytime with her own nationally-syndicated talk show, SHERRI.

Sherri’s warm, relatable and engaging personality will shine through as she offers her comedic take on the day’s entertainment news, pop culture, and trending topics with the daytime audience. As America’s favorite girl next door, her comedy-driven show will feature celebrity interviews, informative experts, moments of inspiration and amazing everyday people to create an hour of entertainment escapism.

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By Hilton Als

Kindness is comedy’s boring first cousin, the very thing that most standup comedians and their rampant ids want to get away from, in order to be their worst and thus their funniest selves. Kindness suggests that there’s a moral universe out there, in which we’re all connected to one another, whereas standup is a willed isolation: a solo performer on a stage taking on the world. Standup artists like to stick pins in the voodoo dolls of convention and sentiment: “My kids are so ugly,” “I hate my dog,” “My marriage sucks,” and so on. And yet sentiment—even a little sentimentality—provides the framework for the actress and comedian Michelle Buteau’s new, eighty-minute show, “Full Heart, Tight Jeans.” (The show is touring through December, with a stop at New York’s Beacon Theatre on October 4th.)

When I saw “Full Heart, Tight Jeans” at City Winery in Chicago in early September, Buteau, who is forty-six and the mother of four-year-old twins, made a point, two-thirds of the way into her act, of criticizing Dave Chappelle for his notorious comments about trans people, including Caitlyn Jenner. (In his 2021 Netflix special, “ The Closer, ” Chappelle said, “Caitlyn Jenner was voted Woman of the Year. Her first year as a woman. Ain’t that something? Beat every bitch in Detroit; she’s better than all of you. Never even had a period.”) Buteau’s usually bright face fell a bit as she called Chappelle out. “You can make jokes and not disparage people,” she said, and paused before going on. “So he’s making millions off that. I want to make millions of dollars making people feel safe and seen and happy.”

It’s a risky proposition, the making-people-happy part. Buteau’s joyfulness—her freckle-faced charm and her robust desire to be out there, feeling and giving love—is not really in vogue. More common is the dystopian comedy, filled with crankiness and hopelessness, of such artists as the talented John Early and Jerrod Carmichael , two slightly younger, queer performers who affect disaffection as they call out family and friends or put them down. (At the start of this year’s HBO special “John Early: Now More Than Ever,” Early introduces his “stupid fucking parents.”) In their routines, there’s little love for their bodies, or for anyone who might want to get close to them: we’re all jerks. Buteau, on the other hand, treats herself—and us—like a snack.

On the night I saw her, she was wearing a black faille skirt, faux alligator ankle boots, and a white T-shirt with the words “Wild Feminist” printed on the front, knotted at the waist. Taking the mike on the small stage, she began by saying how pleased she was to be with us. Then she had the stage manager turn up the house lights so that she could “see who I’m fucking with. Make some noise if you’re over forty.” A big cheer. Buteau smiled. “That’s the extra-income shit right there. Like, I use all the good expensive candles.” The audience was fairly mixed demographically, but Buteau was especially happy about all the Black women in the room. “I love the brown titties around me,” she said. “I feel safe.” Thus emboldened, she took a sip from her drink before focussing on a white guy sitting near the stage: “Your name is Tad ? That’s the whitest shit I ever heard.” The house lights went down, and Buteau told us, with a not at all smug laugh, “I’m trying to be funny—that’s how I get through the pain.”

But what pain? As Buteau sometimes rambled, seeing what would stick, I thought of her peer Tiffany Haddish —they’re about the same age—and how Haddish’s standup is a display of a sensibility, how she wears her loneliness like foundation under her rouge. Watching Haddish perform, you have the sense that you’re seeing a little girl who’s been broken by love time and again but knows there’s some good stuff on the other side of that heartbreak. By contrast, Buteau kicks life’s broken pieces to the curb, and encourages folks—especially women—not to settle. At one point during her set, she asked female audience members if they were in relationships, and then if they were in unsatisfactory relationships. When a woman told her that she was seeing a guy who was dating without “intention,” Buteau went silent, then—just the kind of sister-woman you want to talk to in moments like that—she told the woman to get out of there. Fuck that. “Open your heart and legs to love,” she counselled. “You never know what’s going to happen.” When Buteau met her husband, she said, it was supposed to be a one-night stand. But then “he put that shit in me and it was like an avatar—oh, yes, I see you.”

Buteau, who was born in New Jersey to Caribbean parents, is a luscious wisecracker. She makes proud reference, frequently, to her big body and big hair, and her voice, a little tri-state nasal, is slyly incredulous, captivating in its familiarity. (She’s her generation’s Judy Holliday and would make a terrific Billie Dawn in “Born Yesterday,” Holliday’s signature role.) Buteau has a great capacity for physical comedy, too. In her superb 2020 Netflix special, “Welcome to Buteaupia,” she talks to the audience about finding love. “You guys have a type, right?” she says. “But you don’t even realize that you are somebody else’s type. . . . I realized way too late in life that I am an achievable Beyoncé for government workers.” Here she pauses, and does a few Beyoncé moves, shaking her mane from side to side. “And if they’re, like, old Black government workers named Lawrence, Dennis, Curtis, Otis—anything ending in ‘is’—they love me. I can’t go to a Veterans Day parade—my booty ain’t safe. She is not safe. They looking at me like they want me to motorboat the P.T.S.D. off their face, and I’ll do it, ’cause I am a patriot. . . . Thoughts and prayers. Thank you for your service.”

But in “Full Heart, Tight Jeans” sexiness, or the job of sex, is replaced, by talk about Buteau’s kids, her “two emotional rotisserie chickens.” What makes her stories about mothering the best part of the show is that she balances the love with the reality of what goes into caring—and how that caring can sometimes not be its own reward. “Baby girl gives the energy of a fifty-two-year-old Black woman who works at the D.M.V.,” Buteau said of her daughter, Hazel. Once, when the family was travelling, someone in the airport “looked at her passport and said, ‘Is she looking through my soul?’ Probably.” Pause. “And then Hazel said, ‘Mama, why do your elbows look old?’ She’s right. They look haunted.” Buteau’s son, Otis, on the other hand, has “the energy of a tired man holding his wife’s purse at Macy’s,” she said. “His first sentence was ‘Everybody calm down.’ ” Buteau is glad that her kids are cute, she added, because there are some parents who have two jobs: “to take care of their kids and pretend they’re not ugly.” But, even as she jokes about ugly kids and overworked parents, you know how much she feels for all of them, parents and children held captive by their love for one another, as she is by hers—even when Otis says, the way he did one day in SoHo, while waiting to cross the street, “It’s O.K., Mama. The white man says we can cross now.” Buteau, looking around at the largely white crowd on the sidewalk, said, “We just saw ‘12 Years a Slave.’ We’re big Brad Pitt fans. Big .”

Buteau’s more caustic bits did a lot to balance out her sweetness, but nothing could diminish her essential kindness, which I hope audiences won’t confuse with Hannah Gadsby -like piety. What interests Buteau is how you build a community not out of sameness but out of difference (even if the different ones are your kids). In Chicago, she demanded that we “stand up for people who don’t have a voice.” In “Survival of the Thickest,” a new, scripted half-hour sitcom on Netflix (loosely inspired by her 2020 essay collection of the same title), she does just that. The TV show gives Buteau a fictional character—Mavis Beaumont, a body-positive stylist with a cracked roommate, good friends, and a queer community she calls her own—whom she can endow with her interiority and her born-to-do-this comedic skills, free from the constraints of standup, which can limit artists, even as they push against those limitations. As Mavis, Buteau can indulge in the transformative energy that narrative and metaphor give her, and she gifts us, in turn, ideas that are too complex for standup, feelings that can be conveyed only in a closeup, in a gesture, or through interactions with others. Onscreen, Buteau doesn’t have to ask who we are or why we’re there; we tune in for her extraordinary presence, and all the make-believe, joy, and tenderness that come with it. ♦

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By Molly Fischer

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By Rachel Syme

Michelle Buteau

IMDbPro Starmeter See rank

• Contact info
• 4 nominations

• Mavis Beaumont
• 2023 • 8 eps

• Molasses (voice)
• Post-production

• Bree Washington
• 29 episodes

• Tru Tru (voice)

• Little Lisa's Mom

• Principal Collins

• Captain Tarter

• The Sperm Queen (voice)

• Biscuit Grandma
• Michelle (voice)

• Tiana Jones (voice)

• inspired by the book by
• written by (creator)

• executive producer

Personal details

• 5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
• July 24 , 1977
• Hamilton Township, New Jersey, USA
• Gijs van der Most July 31, 2010 - present (2 children)
• Children Hazel Van der Most

Did you know

• Trivia In 2020 she wrote a collection of essays titled "Survival of the Thickest" which was published by Gallery Books.
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Michelle Buteau Is More Than Netflix's Rom-Com MVP

Michelle buteau’s welcome to buteaupia is here to normalize brown titties, more from tv, r29 original series.

See trailer for ‘Babes’ movie starring N.J.’s Michelle Buteau, Ilana Glazer

• Updated: Apr. 04, 2024, 6:36 p.m. |
• Published: Apr. 04, 2024, 6:11 p.m.

Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau in "Babes." Neon

• Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

There is an obscene amount of New Jersey talent to be had in the upcoming movie “ Babes .”

On Thursday, Neon released a trailer for the comedy, starring Jersey actor and comedian Michelle Buteau and “Broad City” co-creator Ilana Glazer .

Buteau, who was born in Boonton and grew up in various Jersey towns including Marlton and Hamilton , is the star of “ Survival of the Thickest ,” the Netflix series she co-created that got a season two pickup in February.

In “Babes,” helmed by Pamela Adlon (”Better Things”) in her feature directorial debut, Buteau plays Dawn, the childhood best friend of Eden, played by Glazer.

The married Dawn, who is pregnant in the film, gives birth. Then the single Eden gets pregnant after a one-night stand and decides to have the baby.

Glazer co-wrote the film, which premiered last month at the South by Southwest Festival, with Josh Rabinowitz (”Rel,” “Broad City”).

In addition to Buteau, the trailer prominently displays the talents of the Lucas Brothers , Kenny Lucas and Keith Lucas .

The Lucases, the writers and comedians who co-wrote the Oscar-winning movie “ Judas and the Black Messiah " (2021), grew up in Newark .

“Babes” is in theaters May 17.

Stories by Amy Kuperinsky

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Preview of ‘The Babes’: A Glance at the Comedy Deemed the ‘Bridesmaids’ of Conception

NEON’s “Babes” is set to deliver, as per its official synopsis:

In “Babes”, we follow the lives of two inseparable pals from childhood, Eden (Ilana Glazer) and Dawn (Michelle Buteau), from NYC who are navigating vastly different adult lives. As Eden opts for motherhood solo following a fleeting romantic encounter, it poses the ultimate test to their lifelong bond—tackling the journey with humor and realness in the world of fertility and friendship. Crafted by the minds of Ilana Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz and under the direction of Pamela Adion, “Babes” promises a comedic, yet touching exploration of the ties that bind and the chaos of adulting and parenting aspirations.”

Though “Babes” hasn’t premiered for all, the buzz from its SXSW Film Festival debut, complemented by a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, speaks volumes. Jacob Hall from /Film, among other critics, lauds Pamela Adlon’s directing, in collaboration with Ilana Glazer, as uproariously raw.

Hall’s review gives a taste of the film’s essence:

An unabashedly feminist and gloriously crude tour de force. It’s comparable to the iconic arm-wrestling moment in ‘Predator’—only with more perspiration and physical comedy.

With a stellar troupe including the comedic force, Michelle Buteau, plus talents like John Carroll Lynch, Oliver Platt, and Sandra Bernhard, missing “Babes” is not an option.

Mark your calendars— “Babes” premieres on May 17, 2024.

FAQ – “The Babes”

“Babes” is a comedic portrayal of two childhood friends dealing with different phases of adulthood, focusing on themes of friendship, fertility, and the trials of becoming a parent.

The main actors include Ilana Glazer, Michelle Buteau, John Carroll Lynch, Oliver Platt, and Sandra Bernhard.

Pamela Adlon is the director of “Babes”.

“Babes” is set to hit the theaters on May 17, 2024.

Yes, following its screening at SXSW Film Festival, “Babes” received extremely positive reviews, including a 100-percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Set to be a cinematic blend of frank humor and resonate friendship dynamics, “The Babes” comes forward as the buzz-worthy ‘Bridesmaids’ analogue for the babymaking era. Acing the festival circuits and earning its spotless critique, the film invites audiences to a compelling watch that joyfully tackles the themes of adult complexities and the hard choices that come with the decision to embrace parenthood. As the release date approaches, “The Babes” might just be the comedy hit to look out for, serving both laughter and truth in equal measure.

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Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau panic, laugh, and literally pull their hair out in new Babes trailer

The crazy comedic duo take on parenthood in the upcoming pregnancy comedy.

Can the power of friendship conquer the insanity of maternity? Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau are about to find out.

In the upcoming pregnancy comedy Babes , the duo play longtime best friends who must navigate parenthood — whether they’re ready or not.

Dawn (Buteau) is already a married mother of two, with a doting husband ( Hasan Minhaj ) and all the full-time struggles that come with child-rearing. But her close pal Eden (Glazer) is in a very different stage of her life — one that involves late-night drinking and hooking up with handsome strangers. 

Things change when Eden’s latest one-night stand, played by a charming Stephan James , leads to an unexpected pregnancy. Naturally, she turns to her married bestie to guide her through the process — a tall order that quickly complicates their relationship. 

Neon /Courtesy Everett

As dramatic as the premise sounds, two comedians are at the helm, and the trailer promises plenty of ridiculous moments. The buddies laugh and joke their way through their baby-making milestones — including in a scene in which Dawn asks Eden to peek under her skirt to check for an incoming infant, and another in which she's on the verge of having her very own lobby baby .

“I have your back no matter what,” Dawn tells Eden when they discover she's pregnant, but when asked if she truly believes her friend can raise a baby, she is comically hesitant.

But if pregnancy has its highs and lows, at least Eden does a decent job coping with her raging hormones. Does it really matter if she's flirting with a detergent bottle mascot if it's in the privacy of her own home?

Glazer’s character is a wink to her Broad City roots, with her playing another young adult struggling to grow up. In fact, Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz (a fellow Broad City vet) wrote the movie, which was directed by Pamela Adlon, who wrote, directed, and created the acclaimed, unfiltered FX dramedy Better Things , about a single mother raising three kids.

In the same vein, it looks like Babes will hold nothing back as Eden and Dawn’s journey through motherhood unfolds — whether it is chronicling the beauty of friendship, or depicting them literally tearing their hair out in front of a bathroom mirror.

The movie, which premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in March, drops into theaters on May 17. 

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