A beautiful person is so often a confrontation. Even in silence, symmetrical features announce their presence and elicit a reaction: desire, admiration, curiosity, resentment, belittlement, rage or envy. The response is rarely neutral.
In this way, beautiful people are different from comedians who have to work for a crowd’s attention. Comics choreograph their lines, pauses and gestures to get a laugh. Then they practice, and fail, and practice more. Why would an attractive person toil for a reaction if they don’t have to?
This is why my colleague Jason Zinoman, The Times’s comedy critic, recently chose to disclose a bias of his: He is skeptical of attractive men in comedy. And he isn’t alone. The conventional wisdom is that male comics need to be relatable, not hot, lest their beauty distract from the bit. But that may be changing.
Stand-up stages are crawling with beautiful men. Chris Rock is showing off his abs. Jimmy Fallon smiles boyishly on late night. Trevor Noah and his dimples date actresses. An industry once known for nerdy, affable guys — Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Newhart, Jim Gaffigan — is becoming another venue for charmers. One annoyed late night writer complained to his peers: “You’ve let the popular kids appropriate the very art form that helped you deal.”
No one represents this shift better than Matt Rife, a cartoonishly hot man who became famous by posting his comedy on TikTok. The platform’s algorithms, which funnel attention toward people who could be in perfume ads, led to more viral videos. On Wednesday, he made his comedic debut on Netflix, with a special entitled “Natural Selection.”
Rife leans into his sex appeal. He styles his hair like a member of BTS, posts workout clips online and uses a shirtless photo on his website.
But his beauty doesn’t only explain his popularity; it’s become part of his act. In the trailer for “Natural Selection,” he smiles for photos with screaming women and is mock arrested by police officers who, like Zinoman, are skeptical of his mixing of cheekbones with comedy. “Why did the algorithm choose you?” one asks. “I heard he got lip filler,” another replies.
In another video, Rife laments his good fortune: “I can’t even hang myself because my jawline will cut the rope,” he said, adding a curse word.
Like a tyrant, Rife’s beauty rules his comedy. But he’s not a victim — the day after his special was released, it became the No. 1 TV show on Netflix in the U.S. Royalties have a way of taking the sting out of envy.
Read more of Jason’s critique and our story on how Rife blew up.
More on beauty
Young men online are watching videos about how to be hot.
“Being average-looking is, by definition, completely normal. Why hadn’t anyone prepared me for it?” Read this essay on beauty in The Point.
NEWS
Al-Shifa Hospital
U.N. workers who visited Al-Shifa, the major Gaza hospital that the Israeli military stormed four days ago, called it a “death zone.”
The team said several patients had died because of a lack of medical services, and reported signs of gunfire inside the hospital.
Israel’s seizure of Al-Shifa is central to its plan to eradicate Hamas. So far it is not clear the strategy is working, write Eric Schmitt, Ronen Bergman and Adam Goldman.
More on the War
Parts of southern Gaza were hit by airstrikes, according to the U.N. and a Palestinian news agency, even as the Israeli military warns residents to evacuate from the north to the south.
President Biden used an opinion piece in The Washington Post to call for an end to extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. He said the U.S. was prepared to issue visa bans against attackers.
Politics
Ron DeSantis is courting Iowa’s religious right by targeting Donald Trump’s criticism of abortion restrictions.
Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor joined a push to strip Mayor Eric Adams’s administration of control of the Rikers Island jail.
International
Colombian officials plan to sterilize rampaging hippos descended from a herd owned by the drug lord Pablo Escobar.
A 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck the southern Philippines, killing at least seven people.
A French senator is being investigated on suspicion of spiking a fellow lawmaker’s drink with the intent to sexually assault her.
An invisible war: Russia and Ukraine are also fighting to control the radio waves they use to guide drones and locate targets.
The Austrian government is turning Hitler’s birthplace into a police station. Some locals think it’s a missed educational opportunity.
Tech
Sam Altman, the chief executive pushed out at OpenAI two days ago, is reportedly in discussions about returning to the post.
Warner Bros. and Sony paused ad spending on X, formerly Twitter, after Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory on the platform. Several other big advertisers had already pulled back.
Musk’s spaceflight company, SpaceX, launched a test flight of its Starship rocket. It failed, but showed progress from a previous test.
Other Big Stories
Half of assisted-living operators earn at least 20 percent more than it costs to run their sites. Facilities layer on extra fees, driving profits.
The College Board earns millions from its Advancement Placement program. The tests may not actually help students.
A 23 year-old died after a Taylor Swift concert in Brazil, where there were complaints of extreme heat and a lack of water.
FROM OPINION
Students are experiencing a learning loss crisis. All levels of government need to devote substantial resources to make up for lost ground, the Times editorial board writes.
Here are columns by Maureen Dowd on David Axelrod vs. Biden and Ross Douthat on Nikki Haley.
The Sunday question: Is the Supreme Court’s ethics code a step in the right direction?
Recent reports about the justices’ conduct caused many Americans to lose trust, and the new code they have adopted will allow the court to regain that trust if they “show they are following the new rules they have set,” The Washington Post’s editorial board writes. But no one besides the justices themselves can hold them accountable, and “‘trust us’ is never an adequate answer, especially when dealing with matters of ethics,” Erwin Chemerinsky writes for The Los Angeles Times.
MORNING READS
“The Crown”: Read the story behind a photo of Diana and Dodi Fayed — and the true history behind Season 6.
Dorothy loves New York: Meet the 98-year-old who has found fame on Instagram.
Happy New Year? With six weeks of 2023 left, some on social media are popping the champagne and jump-starting their resolutions.
Visiting Havana: Read about a Cuban tattoo shop in The Miami Native.
Vows: A bite of bruschetta laid the foundation for their relationship.
Lives Lived: Viktor Belenko was a lieutenant in the Soviet Union’s elite Air Defense Forces who defected to the West in a fighter jet. He died at 76.
TALK | FROM THE TIMES MAGAZINE
Earlier this year I spoke with Emma Chamberlain, a pioneer of YouTube virality, about the psychological costs of online fame.
Do you think there’s a natural shelf life to being a YouTube star? Both in terms of the star’s ability to keep doing it and the audience staying interested?
Yes. This schedule that YouTubers put themselves on is rigorous. There’s pressure to be producing at a level that is unrealistic. Inevitably people burn out or they become too obsessed with being consistent, and they never take time off to evolve their creative side, so it becomes stale.
Your life is different from what it was when you started on YouTube: You’re in Lancôme campaigns. You’re at the Met Gala. Do you worry that the rarefied circumstances of your life now might chip away at your relatability?
I have thought about this a lot. And guess what? People who have one follower on Instagram? There is no difference between me and those people. I think a lot of celebrities don’t feel that way. There are some who have this experience, and they feel immortal, unstoppable. I know that’s not true.
Unlike movie stars or reality-TV stars or even online influencers, the YouTube celebrity is still such a new phenomenon that we don’t have much in the way of templates for what a career that started in that space tends to look like. But do you have any sense of what your arc might look like?
I have vague ideas of things that I might want to pursue when I’m older. Also, if I want to quit, maybe I quit! Maybe when I’m 30, I’ll be like, I’m done. I’m going to open up a tiny coffee shop and work there and get married and have babies. No one knows!
Read more of the interview here.
More from the magazine
A scuffle with a homeless man in San Francisco has raised fears about the city’s future. But what really happened?
Russell Brand built an army of fans with his podcast. Now, amid sex-assault claims against him, they’ve become his whole world.
BOOKS
From the archive: A look at the literary lives of New York City’s children through the years.
Our editors’ picks: “Absolution,” about two American women who try to help people in Vietnam, and eight other books.
Times best sellers: Barbra Streisand’s memoir, “My Name Is Barbra,” makes a first appearance on the hardcover nonfiction best-seller list.
THANKSGIVING PREP LIST
If you have a frozen turkey, allow one day of thawing in the refrigerator for every four pounds of bird, and choose from our best turkey recipes. Today is a good day to plan your table setup and pick out serveware, napkins, unscented candles and drinking glasses.
THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …
Get ahead with this mashed potato casserole, which can be made two days before Thanksgiving.
Stop bedbugs from coming home with you from vacation.
Add warmth to your home with these Christmas lights.
THE WEEK AHEAD
What to Watch For
Argentina is holding a runoff presidential election today.
Biden will turn 81 and pardon two turkeys tomorrow.
The Netherlands has elections on Wednesday.
Thursday is Thanksgiving.
What to Cook This Week
Fresh ricotta is one of those magic ingredients that elevate a dish, Emily Weinstein writes in the Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter. She recommends mixing it into a pasta bake, dolloping it on a charcuterie board or using it as a cloudlike base for squash on toast — a great Thanksgiving appetizer.
NOW TIME TO PLAY
Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was packable.
Can you put eight historical events — including the creation of the Silk Roads, the painting of “The Hesitant Fiancée” and the amendment of the Clean Air Act — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz.
And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Connections.
Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times.
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