Amy Schumer's "Parenting Hack" Video Takes Aim at Parenting Culture

Amy Schumer has approached motherhood with the same blunt honesty that made her a successful stand-up comedian and actor. While pregnant, she taped a stand-up special, posted a video of herself vomiting before a show, and chased a bunch of ducks while naked. And since giving birth nearly ten months ago, Schumer has already smacked down mom shamers and gone public with her decision to bottlefeed her son Gene.

In her latest video, “Parenting Hack,” Schumer skewers some of the most ridiculous aspects of parenting culture for comedic effect. The video makes fun of the idea that everyone is just one hack away from parental bliss (they’re not) while also subtly mocking the authority claimed by celebrity parents, as if being famous qualifies you to dispense parenting advice (it doesn’t).

“We want to give our advice about parenting because we’ve learned so much, and our first advice-tip is a good toy for a baby around 7, 8, 9 months old,” she says near the beginning of the video. “And it is exactly free, and what it is is a box.”

In a world in which parents pay thousands for Snoo baby cribs, a rich and famous celebrity saying that the box your last Amazon order came in is a great place for your infant to hang out is pretty great satire.

“So you get a big box and clean it out and you make sure there are no staples in it and then you put blankets around it and you put some toys in it and you put an egg crate on the bottom,” she explains. “They can hold onto the edge and stand and fall or whatever, and they really like being in their box.”

Now Schumer is not going to develop a Goop-style empire with videos like this, but she is going to bolster her reputation as a comedian and mom willing to mercilessly roast the absurdities of parenting culture.

“And that is our first parenting hack,” Schumer says, holding back a grin. She then asks her husband if wants to say anything else.

“Nope,” he replies, and the video abruptly ends.