Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out — Ep. 184: KC Shornima: "Get Comfortable With This Darkness"

Date: September 15, 2025
Guest: KC Shornima, comedian and SNL Weekend Update writer

Episode Overview

In this episode, Mike Birbiglia sits down with KC Shornima—a standup comedian and writer for SNL's "Weekend Update." Known for her fearless approach to dark topics and her unique life trajectory—from Nepal, to Teach for America, to mountaineer, to comedy writer—KC and Mike have an open, insightful, and at times deeply funny conversation about how tragedy and pain can translate into punchlines, the role of discomfort in art, and why she starts her sets with her most uncomfortable material. The episode is rich with revelations (and laughs) about comedy craft, origin stories, and navigating tough subjects onstage.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Tragedy & Comedy: The Shared Cadence

• Both hosts discuss how the structure of tragedy parallels the structure of a joke: setup, tension, and an unexpected/uncomfortable twist.
  • KC: "If you look at the cadence and, like, format of a tragedy, it's the same as a joke, right? Like, there's like a setup tension and then there's this really unexpected event." (00:00)
  • "Oedipus Rex is a really funny story if you just change the theme song... He gets this oracle, and then the oracle's like, 'You're gonna kill your dad and fuck your mom.'... And that's so funny." (00:11, 33:35)

2. KC’s Origin Story: From Nepal to Comedy

• KC shares her journey: born in Nepal during civil unrest, moved to America, struggled to understand English, and eventually exposed herself to comedy through shows like Def Jam and Sinbad.

• Her route to comedy was unplanned—she aimed to be a teacher, then a lawyer, then a State Department worker.

  • “I was drunk one night at a bar...there was an open mic, and I was like, I'm just going to do comedy. This is what I'm doing now.” (06:34)

• Encouraged to try standup after a negative encounter with another aspiring comedian:

  • “He said… ‘The only reason people laugh at you is because they want to fuck you.’... I was like, I could do a better job than you right now.” (07:08)

• Her first story involved a Russian literature professor and an embarrassing moment—a testament to finding humor in tense situations.

3. Dark Material, Audience Reception, and Trigger Warnings

• Opening with Uncomfortable Jokes: KC often opens with her darkest jokes (e.g., about sexual assault), explaining it calms her nerves and sets the tone.

  • "[If] a set's going well, I'm gonna lose my nerve...I don't wanna ruin this now with bringing up rape." (02:42)

• Audience Tension: She acknowledges some audience members struggle, especially liberals: "They want me to get raped if I'm gonna talk about it...they're so liberal, they've come around to being like, you better have been fucking raped." (03:20)

• Trigger Warnings: At the Edinburgh Fringe, her show was prefaced by a trigger warning ("talks about war and rape"); KC found it reductive and unintentionally misleading.

  • “...before my show there, there was, like, a trigger warning...this show will talk about war...and rape. Which sounds like, I got raped in a war. And I’m like, well, that’s not what happened.” (11:37)
  • "Also, spoiler alert." (11:47)

• On Difficult Audiences: At times, revealing personal trauma onstage can result in resistance: "Sometimes they...hate you...A whole room saying no." (12:32)

4. Comedy Craft and Joke Structure

• Economy of Words: KC describes how fear and nerves trained her to be economical: "The economy of words comes from being like, when can I get to the punchline?" (28:28)

• Autobiographical Protection: Mike encourages KC to lean into personal material—"if you write jokes about your own life, people can't steal it." (32:09)

• Joke Clustering: Discussion on how some jokes only work contextually, not in isolation.

  • Mike: “It’s only in clusters that jokes even work. You have to just move them around...because sometimes what happens is I'll release a special and I'll cut out a bunch of jokes. But then those jokes that are discarded, they're good, but they're not good in isolation.” (58:39)

5. Working at SNL: An Inside Look

• KC explains the SNL Weekend Update process: writers submit jokes—anonymously!—and most of their time is spent discussing the news, shooting ideas, and self-editing until airtime.
  • “You never feel like your boss is mad at you...Because you don’t write your name on your joke.” (19:45)
• Writing the "roast" jokes for Jost and Che is about tapping into the audience’s worst assumptions: “...you have to really kind of think of, like, the worst of the worst thing, you know? And then you go from there. It’s crazy that that's on TV.” (22:04)
• KC answers questions from Jost and Che (with humor):
  • Jost: “You are from Nepal. Does that make you a Nepo baby?” (18:25)
  • Che: Jokes about climbing Everest and jumping from glaciers. (16:07)

6. Mountains, Stress, and The Unusual Life

• KC is an avid adventurer, recently summiting Kilimanjaro and camping out in the Alaskan wilderness:
  • "I like being just as far away from like a crowd...as you can get." (16:58)
  • “I think I like stress. Like, I think I like—it's honestly like a zen mode.” (18:06)

7. Art, Trauma, and Audience Limits

• KC explores how audiences accept trauma in other art forms but shrink from it in comedy:
  • “Trauma into art is really admirable if it’s a specific kind of art you like. But if you do a joke about it, it’s suddenly like, ‘well, you’re making light of it.’ ...But that is how I express things.” (36:51)
• She pushes back against attempted censorship: “...when people are like, don’t talk about this. Like, who are you to be like, whatever happens in your life, I don't want to hear about it because it brings up something.” (35:28)
• Mike: “I feel like that’s been like a guiding principle in my comedy and in my life...there always will be pain. Pain is inevitable.” (34:22)

8. Memorable Jokes, New Bits, and Working Them Out

• KC's Therapist Joke:

  • “I'm Asian and my parents asked me why I go to therapy and I was like, do you remember when I was a kid and you guys raised me? No, you were there. I mean, not emotionally.” (27:53)

• Processing Trauma Onstage:

  • KC tries out new jokes about being recently assaulted in Italy, noting the different reactions between men and women in the audience.
    • “I went to Italy for a wedding, ...got sexually assaulted on a bus by the bus driver...it's Italy, so it's still cute, you know, because you can still put it on Instagram...” (61:18)
    • “I called my sister and said, I think I got molested on a bus. She said, ‘You got assaulted. You’re way too old to be molested.’” (61:55)
  • “Getting sexually assaulted for women is the same as starting a podcast for men. It’s an epidemic.” (62:08)

• How Joke Placement Matters: Both reflect on how the order and context of jokes changes their effect.

9. Vulnerability, Jealousy, and the Need for Stories

• KC on Jealousy: “I'm really jealous of people who are very adjusted...I can't believe you don't have, like, a void that you're trying to fill all the time.” (50:01)
• On Family and Approval: Both discuss their parents’ disinterest in their comedy and how it shaped them.
  • Mike: “My parents do not watch my comedy. I think they're abstractly proud of me...” (39:45)
  • KC: “...a little bit of that is like, my dad never said, 'I'm proud of you,'—so it's like, sure, that's good.” (39:14)
• On Needing Excitement: KC climbs mountains to keep her life "interesting" and prevent her world from shrinking to just stand-up.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Jokes and Tragedy

  • KC: "If you look at the cadence and, like, format of a tragedy, it's the same as a joke, right? Like, there's like a setup tension and then there's this really unexpected event." (00:00)
  • KC: "Oedipus Rex is... So funny. And you know, it's funny because that's every episode of That's So Raven." (00:36, 33:36)

• On Dark Material & Audience Pushback

  • KC: “They want me to get raped if I’m gonna talk about it. It’s like, they’re so liberal, they've come around to being like, you better have been fucking raped.” (03:20)
  • Mike: "We're gonna need some paperwork on this." (03:49)

• On Comedy as Art—When Does Trauma Become Palatable?

  • KC: "Trauma into art is like really admirable if it's a specific kind of art you like. But if you do a joke about it, it's suddenly like, well, you're making light of it and it's like, yeah, but that is how I express things, you know..." (36:53)

• On Writing for SNL / “Weekend Update”

  • KC: “You never feel like your boss is mad at you...Because you don’t write your name on your joke.” (19:45)
  • Mike: "You are from Nepal. Does that make you a Nepo baby?" (18:25)

• On Therapy & Family

  • KC: “I'm Asian and my parents asked me why I go to therapy and I was like, do you remember when I was a kid and you guys raised me? No, you were there. I mean, not emotionally.” (27:53)

• On Excitement-Seeking/Bigger Life

  • KC: "I really love the mountains. I really like being just as far away from like a crowd and a people. Like, I love New York, but I love leaving New York, you know?" (16:58)

• On Jealousy

  • KC: "I'm really jealous of people who are very adjusted...I can't believe you don't have, like, a void that you're trying to fill all the time." (50:01)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00 – 00:36: Parallels between tragedy and jokes; Oedipus/”That’s So Raven”
• 02:42 – 04:02: Why KC opens with dark/“rape jokes,” audience reactions, setting the tone
• 05:03 – 07:57: KC’s comedy influences, journey from Nepal to the U.S., accidental entry into comedy
• 08:29 – 10:47: Early stories; Russian lit class and the famous fart story; Fulbright experience
• 11:36 – 12:13: Edinburgh Fringe trigger warnings; frustration with how venues frame her material
• 13:40 – 15:51: Growing up in Nepal’s civil war; “low key war” stories and normalization of trauma
• 16:04 – 19:44: Inside SNL’s Weekend Update; anonymity in the writers’ room; questions from Jost and Che
• 28:17 – 30:45: Writing process and editing jokes for maximum punchline impact
• 32:28 – 34:44: Writing about personal life, tragedy as comedic fuel
• 35:28 – 36:53: Pushback on bringing up sexual trauma onstage, “trauma into art”
• 50:01 – 51:42: On being jealous of “adjusted” people, filling the void, and emotional satisfaction
• 61:18 – 62:38: Working out new (and deeply dark) material about recent assault in Italy; analyzing the nuances of audience reaction

Final Section: Giving Back

• KC’s Recommended Nonprofit:
  • Theater 202 — a D.C. theater for underserved kids to access musical theater.

Tone and Style

The tone of the episode is both candid and darkly humorous, capturing KC’s style. Mike matches KC's forthrightness with warmth and thoughtful questioning. The conversation is unflinching about trauma, yet always leans toward the healing (and punchy) potential of comedy.

For listeners:
This episode is a must for anyone interested in:

• The craft of stand-up, especially writing about real pain and difficult subjects
• The unique voice and story of KC Shornima
• Behind-the-scenes SNL writing culture and process
• The intersection of tragedy, trauma, survival, and comedy

Notable quote to sum it up:
"Get comfortable with this darkness. And then if you guys are good, we'll get through this." — KC Shornima (67:25)