Hannah Gadsby: ‘The Obamas watched Nanette as a family. I apologise for ruining their evening’

The Australian comedian on why they became a sock puppet, a message in a potato, and meeting Anna Kendrick

You recently released a free standup special, Woof!, where you are a sock puppet. I guess the question would be – why?

I just got sick of being seen. Well, OK, there’s lots of different reasons. A little bit sick of seeing myself reflected. Also, there’s a lot of standup now and it all looks the same. People don’t watch standup comedy any more, it’s usually the second or third screen. It’s going on in the background. So that’s why I did an album – if you’re not gonna watch it, why bother filming the whole thing?

And the sock puppet … I wanted something homemade, because we’re entering the era of AI slop and I feel queasy when I watch that. What the internet has taught me is we’ll watch anything and it doesn’t have to be high quality. So I thought, how about if I make something that anyone can make – sort of like Play School, I got into the useful box, so to speak – and cobbled together a fairly average sock puppet. That’s my hand. That’s my sock.

I mean, it is odd.