People who struggle with second-hand embarrassment over socially awkward situations are going to absolutely love this article and the video clips within.
There is no standardly accepted sarcasm font or formatting for online publications, so I'm obligated to tell you that was sarcasm and you are, in fact, probably going to hate this. Pretty much everyone who saw it happen live did.
The "it" in question is a 15-minute-long impromptu stand-up comic set a woman unleashed on an unsuspecting, and somewhat captive, audience when the film projector went down at a movie theater.
The incident happened during a Wednesday night early screening of The Lost City at the AMC Burbank 16, a movie theater in Los Angeles county, California. The screening, which had a "surprising number of industry people" in attendance, was delayed getting started.
LA folk are used to this sort of thing, it often means this is a test-screening and there's some celebrity or big wig about to make an announcement.
That's what people initially thought Wednesday night, too.
I\u2019m seeing a movie at AMC and it\u2019s delayed in starting and multiple people just drawly say \u201calright who\u2019s coming to introduce the film that\u2019s making the movie start late?\u201d I love LA— April Dawn (@April Dawn) 1648001534
That is not, in fact, what was happening.
There was no celebrity announcement coming, the problem was a legitimate projector breakdown that ended up taking about 45 minutes to fix. There did just so happen to be a lot of industry people in the audience—it's L.A., after all.
Also in the audience was a woman who has been developing a stand-up comedy routine. That's not unusual—like we said, it's L.A., after all.
What was unusual is how hard she carpe'd this diem.
She stood up and did a stand-up comedy routine that lasted about 15 minutes for a very un-enthused and socially captive audience.
The routine, which played out in front of children, included racy comments, belting out a song, chanting, hopping around the aisle and some racist accents and heckling.
She certainly got people's attention, but not in a good way.
I\u2019m at the AMC cinema waiting for Lost City. The projector is broken, they\u2019ve been working to fix it for 30 minutes. A woman in the audience has decided to get up, go to the front and try out her stand up comedy on us. It\u2019s not good. I just\u2026— Kat Wood (@Kat Wood) 1648002960
all hell broke loose at the AMC Burbank 16 last nightpic.twitter.com/Q6sTXPSxI5— charley damski (@charley damski) 1648080347
It was a whole one woman show at AMC 16 last nightpic.twitter.com/Qz4fQqdsV0— April Dawn (@April Dawn) 1648058318
I feel like I\u2019m having an out of body experiencepic.twitter.com/YYNwyk8ez4— April Dawn (@April Dawn) 1648003236
It was an early A-list screening but with a surprising amount of industry people. She said her name (I don\u2019t want to give her the clout she so desperately craves) and said she performs at the laugh factory. Her child was also present during the whole \u201cshow\u201d— April Dawn (@April Dawn) 1648061164
Sooo I was there.. she and her kid was sitting behind me.. it was pretty nuts\u2026pic.twitter.com/fW5FjbFpdb— Cartor Wabolton (@Cartor Wabolton) 1648170934
The routine was pretty solidly hated.
Not just because it forced people into an uncomfortable situation, but because much of her material was inappropriate. The audience boo'ed her sexual material and called her out after the routine got racist.
She retorted by heckling and calling the audience member racist ... for objecting to her racist material.
The audience, and Twitter, had some thoughts.
When someone told this white woman to stop the only comeback she could manage was \u201cI\u2019ve never seen a racist Asian before\u201d to which an audience member retorted \u201cyou\u2019ve been doing a blaccent for 20 mins.\u201d The woman also full on belted a song. All in front of her 8 yr old daughterhttps://twitter.com/katruthwood/status/1506459718193061891\u00a0\u2026— Kevin Yang (@Kevin Yang) 1648008582
This triggered my fight or flight— Garrett McDowell (@Garrett McDowell) 1648011135
There's no way any of the actual material was as funny as the awkwardness of breaking the character, stopping for a moment to think, and then declaring her performance definitively over.— Lon Harris (@Lon Harris) 1648009572
This is what happens when you think you\u2019re the main character.https://twitter.com/sorry__charley/status/1506784305887866880\u00a0\u2026— Graeme (@Graeme) 1648197260
crying and throwing up thinking about surprise public stand up comedy becoming a trendhttps://twitter.com/katruthwood/status/1506459718193061891\u00a0\u2026— Amy (@Amy) 1648171956
Tiffany King has since come forward as the "comic and psychic-medium" who put on the colorful and questionable performance.
As for what prompted her to get up there and hold people hostage, Tiffany claimed her 8-year-old child dared her to do it, so she did.
Which Twitter doesn't seem to be buying.
I spoke with the comedian in this viral video about what prompted her to do stand up at an AMC movie theater. \n\nShe told me her 8-year-old daughter dared her to. \n\nMy latest for @NBCNews: \nhttps://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/projector-broke-l-movie-theater-comedian-decided-stand-rcna21414\u00a0\u2026https://twitter.com/sorry__charley/status/1506784305887866880\u00a0\u2026— Kalhan (@Kalhan) 1648150231
She throws her 8 year old daughter under the bus for this...tells me all I need to know about her (someone get her kid & her some therapy stat!)https://twitter.com/KalhanR/status/1507077419336933384\u00a0\u2026— S Olson, B.S, J.D. (@S Olson, B.S, J.D.) 1648151197
To quote a Facebook group name: your child didn\u2019t say thathttps://twitter.com/KalhanR/status/1507077419336933384\u00a0\u2026— The peanut of concern (@The peanut of concern) 1648179018
Cause kids LOVE when their parents stand up and make big scenes!— Sedaris (@Sedaris) 1648183125
No word on why she would opt for racist or sexual material in the presence of her child and other people's children.
This isn't the first time people have had concerns about King's content choices regarding her child and motherhood in general.
Take a look.
When I explain to people how insane a mic can be I usually tell ppl about how this one woman brought her child and proceeded to do comedy about *hating her child.* \n\nI lit her early and bc of that she screamed at and attacked me!!!!\n\nThat woman was....https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/projector-broke-l-movie-theater-comedian-decided-stand-rcna21414\u00a0\u2026— Kate // Banford (@Kate // Banford) 1648151647
her theater act was trash asf & this is worse\u2026and racist https://twitter.com/mocobra3/status/1506990125145808901\u00a0\u2026— \u262f\ufe0e\ud835\udc9e\ud835\udcbe\ud835\udcc3\u262e\ufe0e (@\u262f\ufe0e\ud835\udc9e\ud835\udcbe\ud835\udcc3\u262e\ufe0e) 1648161130
Why does she keep pronouncing Putin "PyewTIN"? And what does he have to do with her daughter's asthma? This entire TikTok account exists as a call to CPS.— Dragness Moorehead (@Dragness Moorehead) 1648193017
While people can appreciate the bravery it takes to get up on stage, Tiffany's delivery, content, context, ability to read the room, etc... left a lot to be desired as far as people are concerned.
She doesn't seem bothered by the feedback, though.
"To do comedy, it takes consistency and as a single mother, that's one thing I haven't had on my side. I know how hard comedy is, so I'm happy I did it, and I don't care what the negative stuff is."
Tiffany has not responded to questions about doing "I hate my kid" material in front of her child, the racism, or other content in her developing act.
She has, however, mentioned she noticed an increase in her social media followers.
@coyleray/Instagram