Column: Why #SaveThisFool is necessary

Some of the funniest people in my life are the people who have endured the most. I don’t call it a forced joy but a beautiful form of survival. The times I have laughed the loudest and longest have been at home, in the backyard with some Coronas and among the people who know me best. But do we only laugh at familiarity? Or do we laugh the most at true expression? I grew up watching stand-up comedy in Spanish in Mexico and to family-based sitcoms here in the U.S., but as an adult, as a proud Mexican immigrant who grew up among Chicanos, I’ve truly enjoyed the Chicano/Latinx-American renaissance of comedy and TV that is currently happening.

It’s rare to find true representation in television that feels a little too accurate and precise. Hulu’s original series, “This Fool” is a clear example of a show that isn’t obsessed with needing to be anything but funny and true to its own specific story. When I have laughed to “This Fool,” it doesn’t feel like the small chuckle we make to a show in the living room but a full laugh that is followed by a conversation with your friends and family about how much this show is “just like us.”

Hulu canceled the show last week and the cast and fans made the hashtag #SaveThisFool trend. We’ve seen shows get the plug then get picked up by other networks. With Hulu’s award-winning series “The Bear,” “Reservation Dogs,” and “Only Murders in The Building,” one can only wonder: why not keep supporting a Latino show that the community has truly started to love now?

Praised across critics, TIME called the show one of the most hilarious shows on TV with The New Yorker calling the two leads, “relatable assholes.” The story starts with a 30-year-old depressed Chicano case worker from South Central, Julio, whose cousin Luis is getting out of prison. Both leads are played by Chris Estrada and Frankie Quiñones. You’d expect the show to drill down the themes around rehabilitation and depression with heavy moments or Emmy-bait monologues. “This Fool,” however, doesn’t talk down to you. Like in real life, the ills and troubles of the hood are assumed and not told but shown.

The pilot opens with Julio trying to park and runs into Black and Brown neighbors messing with RCA cars on the front lawn, making it impossible for him to do so. There's an episode of a neighbor stealing cans and water bottle waste from people’s backyard and Black and Brown neighbors react in solidarity to find the culprit. In another episode, Luis wants revenge on an old feud but once they get to the park, they realize they have more in common around grief than just mere violent tendencies. 

The legacy of two Chicano comics

Co-creator and longtime stand-up comic Estrada has talked about the show being “Friday” but directed by the Coen brothers. This approach to his show is not surprising given that his work has always been cutting-edge. Back in 2021, I talked to him about his relationship with punk and backyard shows and how specific that experience is to living here in Southern California. I knew then that he had an eclectic approach not only to music but his overall work as an artist. Over the years, his stand-up has stood out to me for being irreverent to the standard Latino tropes and specific to his own doubts and journey as a Latino man. His stories and jokes come from a working-class perspective and don’t rely on needing to also shock in order to wow.  

If you are also chronically online, you have seen the Cholo Fit series by Frankie Quiñones. For the millennials who grew up with Eric Ochoa’s aka SuperEgo on Youtube’s “How To Be A Cholo” then you definitely saw Quiñones’ Cholofit series that blew up across the Chicano internet a few years ago. In this segment, for example, you can also see Chris Estrada make a guest appearance. But like Estrada, they have both been in the comedy game for more than a decade. Quiñones has talked openly about waiting tables and hustling in comedy at the same time.  

“This Fool,” is not just an overnight success but the result of the hustle and struggle of Chicanos making art to make their community laugh in real life. Inspired also by the work of Homeboy Industries and other organizations who support formerly incarcerated people, “This Fool” can tell the stories of re-entry that make up the current fabric of life here too.  

Good things stand time

The state of political apathy and mere desolation to the media is potent. People are relying less on the news and engagement. For communities of color and working-class communities, bad news is common. Comedy shows offer relief and our audiences have only grown smarter. “This Fool,” was never meant to be perfect but it also never pandered to Latino tropes. If anything, the show extended the arc of representation and offered a true Black-Brown working class universe that is necessary in order to tell true Los Angeles stories.   

Season 2 had a novelty with heist episodes, one dedicated to Julio’s mom and even a sitcom-based one that analyzed our two main characters. Many critics and reviewers feared cancellation. Some even called the show, “too good to be true.” 

If “This Fool” is truly over at Hulu, I truly hope it is only the beginning for Estrada, Quiñones and the whole team.