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Zack Snyder has been pulling out all the stops to promote his new Netflix film, Army of the Dead. He hid a URL in a GIF of a casino, which lead savvy followers to the RSVP page for the trailer's premier on Netflix's Twitch. People have certainly reacted to the trailer – it's been making headlines ever since the trailer was released to the public on Tuesday.
What has gotten fans most excited hasn't been Snyder's return to the zombie genre though, or seeing the undead swarm over Las Vegas, or even that zombie tiger. It was alt comedian Tig Notaro.
Tig has always had devoted fans because of her unique, deadpan comedy. Now she is trending and people can't seem to get enough of her look or her swagger – and nobody seems more surprised than Tig herself at the reaction she's getting. Her journey to stardom has been anything but smooth, but it's clear that Tig is here to stay.
Odd Jobs and Free Gigs
In the mid-90s, Tig (Mathilde) Notaro was doing odd jobs and slowly making her way out West. She was only in her mid-twenties, but she considered herself, "a dropout failure." Tig arrived in LA without having ever having done stand-up comedy before, but within her first month she was already going to open mics – and it didn't take long until she was doing actual clubs five nights a week (not that she was getting paid yet.)
She also went out for parts in pilots, including what would be many people's first exposure to Tig was on The Sarah Silverman Program, where she scored a role as a cop.
The Set that Changed Everything
In 2012, Tig had one of the most devastating years possible, physically and personally. Her mother died and she split up with her long-term girlfriend. She dealt with pneumonia, a life threatening intestinal infection, and breast cancer, which led to a double mastectomy. With so much going on in her personal life, Tig struggled to return to the stage.
"I was in the middle of so much emotional and physical pain with losing my mother and being so sick and it took me a while to be able to get back onstage for those reasons," Tig explained in an interview with NPR, "But I also was a little shy to perform again, because there was so much attention around my stand-up and the idea that I was this truth-teller, that I was dark and edgy."
It was addressing her cancer diagnosis head-on, in her set, that would change everything. Tig opened her now-iconic set with, "Is everybody having a good time? I have cancer.”
Tig didn't do it for a career boost though, she did it because it made her laugh, and because it helped her to move on:
Then my brain just... went to "What if I did stand-up with my shirt off?" And it just tickled me on this really deep, deep level. ... I went back and forth in my head, but it really made me laugh... I was trying to get comfortable with my body, and I had some shame and sadness and discomfort about the way I looked after my surgery and I think that my brain going to, "Oh, take your shirt off," was something that I thought might help me move through it. – Tig Notaro
The raw, personal set attracted the attention of established comedians and brought her comedy to a much wider audience.
The Rise of Tig
Since then, Tig has had two hour long specials – Boyish Girl Interrupted for HBO and Happy To Be Here for Netflix. In 2017, she co-created the semi-autobiographical series One Mississippi with Diablo Cody, the Academy-Award winning screenwriter of Juno. She played Reno in Star Trek: Discovery. Up until COVID-19 shutdowns made it impossible, she was touring. She currently has a popular podcast called Don't Ask Tig, where she and her guests offer advice.
While Tig has clearly joined the ranks of the Hollywood stars, that doesn't mean she knows anything about other celebrities. Funny or Die created a series called Under a Rock with Tig Notaro, where Tig interviews famous people – but she never recognizes them. Her task? To determine why they are celebrities, and if she has heard of them before.
While little is known about the project, Tig may soon have another TV show. Tig and Jennifer Aniston joined forces to work on a new political comedy called "First Ladies," which, after an intense bidding war, sold to Netflix back in 2018. Based on the pitch, the script will be written by Tig and Stephanie Allynne (also of One Mississippi) and will be about the first female president of the United States (played by Jennifer Aniston) and her wife (played by Tig) living in the White House.
Tig trends for Army of the Dead
In the new Army of the Dead trailer Tig can be spotted as a sarcastic action hero. Whether it's the sunglasses, or the chopper, or just Tig herself, people are loving it.
"I didn't even know what 'AF' was, to be honest," Tig joked on The Tonight Show, "My friends were texting me images of Twitter, like 'You're trending for being badass and sexy AF, and I was like, 'What is that?'"
Comedian Chris D'Elia was originally cast in the role, but following many accusations of sexual misconduct, the decision was reached to remove him from the film. The only issue? It had already been shot. Snyder decided the only option was to do reshoots, and replace D'Elia virtually – which meant that Tig had to film her scenes, even those in scenes with other characters, alone. She shot entirely against a green screen.
"It felt a little daunting," Tig said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, "but Zack basically just told me it's a sarcastic, comedic role and said he wanted me to do exactly what I do — which is good because I always tell directors, when they walk up to me to give me direction, 'Before you say anything, just keep in mind that I have no range."
Whatever jokes she might make about her acting abilities, it's clear that everyone is loving everything we've seen from Tig.
Sources: IGN, Vanity Fair, NPR, Variety, Funny or Die, Don't Ask Tig, EW