An Honest Review of Lady Ballers

If you think the Jeremy’s Razors commercial, which currently has 23 million views on YouTube, is funny, then you’ll love Lady Ballers. It is very much in keeping with Boreing’s brand of humor, subversive slapstick that verges on the absurd. I found myself laughing at every slap, every stunt, and occasionally, some lines.

It’s probably more sexual in tone than people will be expecting, with some BDSM humor thrown in, not to mention face-licking and the occasional joke about two men getting a woman pregnant on the same night. You can roll with it if you understand it’s all meant to be funny. But if you stop, even for a minute, and start to deconstruct it, you’ll find much to be offended about, probably on both the Left and the Right.

There are many opportunities to lob accusations at the film - transphobic, homophobic, racist, sexist, etc. I’m sure they won’t bother since it’s been relegated to the Daily Wire, but if it streams on Twitter as part of an ad buy, then there might be some objections. Elon Musk is already in hot water. This would only add to that. Stay strong, Elon. Stay strong.

The film’s main accusation will be that it’s “transphobic,” which, I suppose, if you think denying that men can become women is transphobic, then yes, it would fit the bill. But it isn’t overtly so. It doesn’t really mock gay men in ways they used to in the 1980s and earlier, like this scene in Breaking Away (a movie I love, btw):

There is no actual transgender person in the film, and they don’t spend a lot of time attacking them, but the idea is that they can’t possibly exist because men can’t become women. All of the men who dress up as women in the film are doing it for the money, so they will accuse the film of saying trans women are competing against biological women as some kind of a grift or a way to win when they can’t win otherwise.

And that’s a fair question to ask. We’re always being told what to think and never to question any of it. Well, here is a film that questions all of it.

The movie isn’t going after transgender people so much as the entire system - the Democratic Party, all cultural institutions, many universities, and even some sporting events. They are the ones that are hit the hardest, as they should be. They are not protecting women in any way.

Is it a good movie? It’s a movie in the early stages of a developing voice. It’s the kind of comedy we used to get back in the day when movie studios knew people wanted to see funny stuff, so they put them together fast and didn’t think too much about it. If it was funny, it was funny. Like, for instance, Caddyshack.

Of course, we don’t get careless comedies anymore. We get careful comedies, which aren’t funny. So why shouldn’t the Daily Wire take a crack at it?

Lady Ballers is funny in places, to be sure. It’s also not that funny in places. But I respect the process of trying everything to see what works. I respect their willingness to go there at all. It is refreshing to hear people joke about things that have become verboten.

Lady Ballers is dressed up as a comedy, but it has a poignant, moving ending, I thought. I even teared up. I found I suddenly really cared about the futures of these little girls. Why shouldn’t they be valued as who they are, rather than undervalued for what they’re not?

This is a bit of a spoiler, so if you don’t want to know what happens, skip this paragraph. When the little girls join the more professional basketball players, the movie transcends slapstick and becomes something meaningful. The basketball players are kind to them, lifting them up to dunk the ball. It’s a sweet moment and a strong ending for the film. And that scene, to me, really did send the right message - that we have to protect girls and women in sports.

Fans of the Daily Wire will recognize many faces, including Michael Knowles, Andrew Klavin, Candace Owens, and Matt Walsh, who steals the show as a hippie boyfriend. Walsh was born to do comedy, as was Boreing, and has a strong stage presence in the film.

Overall, I’d say it was better than I expected it to be. Is it among the greatest comedies ever made? No. It’s not Airplane. It’s not Caddyshack. But it’s not that far off of Animal House.

Mostly, it made me think that comedians in Hollywood now, and Hollywood writ large, should hang their heads in shame that they’ve become so afraid of what activists might accuse them of that they’ve destroyed their entire business. No Hard Feelings with Jennifer Lawrence isn’t bad. It’s funnier than I thought it would be. It’s just that it’s not as funny as it could be because they have to pull so many punches to avoid offending anyone.

Creativity can’t flourish in the bottleneck Hollywood has created for itself. That’s why it feels so stagnate, so unwatchable. Lady Ballers might not be perfect, but it cracks the bottleneck and allows back in some “genetic diversity” in the comedy genre.

Like everything they do at the Daily Wire, Lady Ballers only has to worry about offending people of faith, which Hollywood has done since implementing the Hays Code between 1934 and 1968.

Things changed once it was abandoned, needless to say, but Hollywood now has implemented its own version of the Hays Code, which is far more strident. Most aren’t even trying to defy it, as they did throughout the Hays Code era. They’re just numbly going along with it like the thought robots they are.

That is what makes Lady Ballers a part of the new counter-culture. It breaks every rule except one. It doesn’t mock their family, faith, and traditionalism core principles. And that’s considered radical in 2023. Imagine a movie pushing the idea of parents staying together rather than getting a divorce, or the idea that kids aren’t ready to be talking about girls having a penis.

The Daily Wire is such a strong outlet, the only way the government could mess with them is if they did get control of the ISPs and they somehow shut down the site for “hate speech.” I hope it doesn’t come to that. If Democrats win a second term in 2024, I fear it might. They are uncomfortable with dissenting views and do not want to release their grip on culture.

Lady Ballers might play on Twitter as part of a deal with the site, and if it does, I’ll alert you. I’d recommend it if you’re curious about what a rule-breaking comedy might look like, even if it isn’t perfect. And if you’re ready to laugh at physical comedy, which I was.

I find myself wanting to encourage the Daily Wire to keep building its streaming service as part of the growing counter-culture. It is a reminder of how powerful comedy can be when the bird is let out of its cage.