Thor: Love and Thunder is considered to be one of the worst movies of all time. It’s not just a bad Marvel movie but a bad movie, period. The weird thing about it is that it does have a lot of thought-provoking topics and profound themes woven into its “wacky” narrative. There’s commentary on religion, humanity, mortality, and of course, the power of love. And then there are screaming goats. Yes, the screaming goats don’t get a lot of screen time, yet their presence is felt throughout the film because every bad joke that punctures the poignancy of a certain plot thread feels like those goats are yelling into your ears. This reliance on bathos is so extreme that by the time you get to the credits, you are exhausted, and not in a good way. Now, coming to the topic of today’s discussion, American Boy, my knowledge about Marcello Hernandez is limited to his SNL skits, where he plays a character called Domingo. I’ll admit that, in those brief clips, he’s funny. However, watching an hour-long stand-up comedy special from him was like being hit repetitively by the screams of Taika Waititi’s goats. It’s funny the first time, but by the time the 100th shriek lands, it’s low-key infuriating.
American Boy is essentially divided into 5 parts. In the first segment, he talks about growing up with women and how that has changed his worldview. Then he delves into the topic of racism and the culture shock he got after going to Ohio for college. After that he discusses his hatred for skinny kids and remembers a prank whose payoff was almost a decade in the making. He follows that up with some anecdotes about child abuse. He reviews Full House. He brings things to a close by underscoring the importance of immigrants to the USA’s economy. And the overarching sentiment here is that he’s grateful that he’s gotten to live this awesome lifestyle because of his mother. Now, before I make any comments on this, I’d like everyone to remember that whatever I’m about to say isn’t a critique of Marcello as a person. I don’t know the dude. My comments will be about the persona that he has presented before us through this scripted stand-up comedy special. I can’t confirm or deny the veracity of his experience. All of his stories might be true, or the whole thing might be jokes that he has written for the sake of eliciting laughter. We will never know.
All of the topics that Marcello brings up are pretty relevant. Even though we are in 2026, men have a very myopic viewpoint. Racism and anti-immigrant activities are on the rise. I mean, the USA is literally at war with Latin Americans. Since society had made some great strides in terms of teaching people about individuality and mental health, thereby forcing older generations to introspect about what they consider their “value system,” conservatism is making a big comeback, with people advocating for child abuse so that kids can become “respectable” human beings. I don’t know enough about Full House to critique his views on that show or Bob Saget—except that Marcello kinda looks like him—so I’m going to give that a free pass. Regarding everything else, his analysis is really blasé. Women, comics or otherwise, have already explained what it means to live in a society that’s dictated by the patriarchy and fueled by capitalism. Just last year, a woman made a whole movie about how self-destructive it is to live up to the impossible beauty standards that’ve been set for women in The Substance. And the fact that, despite all that, women choose to share their space with men is an honor, which is pretty much implied. So, for Marcello to arrive at that conclusion as loudly as possible after 20 minutes of yapping isn’t exactly applause-worthy.
Coming to the immigrant experience, I’m going to be honest, it feels too safe. Right after watching American Boy, I tuned into Nothing Makes Sense by Varun Grover. Now, in case you don’t know what happens to stand-up comics in India after they say anything remotely anti-establishment, you should read the news. So, there was a phase in Indian stand-up comedy where everyone was sort of figuring out how they should push the envelope without attracting the ire of the authorities. But once they realized that no matter what they do, they’ll face some kind of legal action, they threw caution to the wind and made their jokes all the more precise and cutthroat. I think American comedy—even British comedy, because I watched Mortality last week—is going through a similar phase. I understand what Marcello wants to say and how far he wants to go with his opinions about the current wave of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment. However, he can’t because, yeah, things are quite dangerous in that country. And that fear waters down any form of art, regardless of the medium. I can only hope that the socio-political situation gets better over there so that Marcello can talk without any restraint. At the same time, I am afraid that this is always going to be the extent to which he’ll be willing or able to push the envelope.
Linking abuse to “good parenting” is objectively bad. There’s no way around it. And I’m not saying that just because I care for the mental wellbeing of children. It’s because I haven’t come across a single person who has associated getting thrashed with “ending up a well-rounded human being” and is self-aware enough to know that that has had the exact opposite effect. I’m sure they are fully convinced that getting whacked, whipped, and mentally tortured has made them humble and charming, but I think it’s about time that they realize that that’s not the case at all. I don’t know if that’s the intent behind those jokes, and Marcello wants to tell people that nobody should go through that, but I pray that nobody has the takeaway that child abuse is an integral aspect of parenting. Which brings me to Marcello’s screaming, or what he probably likes to think of as “physical comedy.” Yeah, it’s absolutely obnoxious. I don’t know if he watched too much Jim Carrey or Kevin Hart and thought that he could do something similar, but the final product sounded exactly like those screaming goats from Thor: Love and Thunder. If that’s your cup of tea, the movie and Marcello’s brand of humor, please, go ahead and watch it. If not, go and watch Varun Grover’s Nothing Makes Sense or Kunal Kamra’s Naya Bharat.
