Atsuko Okatsuka says her fans insist on calling her “Mother,” but she begs to differ.
“[They] are always out there being like, ‘Atsuko is mother. She is mother. She is mothering,” the comedian says in the trailer for her upcoming Hulu special. “Oh no, no, no. I … am father.”
Hence the title of the special, which premieres June 13 on the Disney-owned streamer: Atsuko Okatsuka: Father.
Father is Okatsuka’s first special at Hulu — part of the platform’s “Hularious” lineup of stand-up sets — and second overall, following 2022’s The Intruder on HBO and Max. She calls herself “Father” because she is, in Hulu’s logline for the special, “thriving professionally yet clueless about basics.”
To the latter point, the trailer also features Okatsuka relating how she asked her husband how to turn on their washing machine, “and that’s how he realized he had been doing the laundry all these years. … You know when you’ve seen someone do something, so you think ‘Oh, that was me too?’”
She also laments the fact that women are expected to be pillars of stability: “What about the bitch that crumbles easily? I want to grow my hair out, but I can’t — because this is my brand!”
Okatsuka executive produces Father with Ally Engelberg and director Ryan Harper Gray. The special is part of a Hulu stand-up roster that also features sets from Bill Burr, Ilana Glazer, Jim Gaffigan, Roy Wood Jr. and Jessica Kirson, among others.
