IN THE TUBES: GAYLE IS YOUTUBE GOLD

There are very few things that make me thankful for my time on Reddit, but Gayle is definitely one of them.

The series, which just wrapped up its first season, is based around suburban mom Gayle Waters-Waters (she insisted on hyphenating her name even though her husband’s was identical).  Gayle terrorizes her family and her neighbors, obsesses over Chobani yogurt and the orthodontist who is her love interest, and is constantly guarding her stash of couscous from her rival neighbor, Bonnie.

Gayle is the brainchild of Chris Fleming, a 25-year-old Stow native who got his start performing in clubs in Harvard Square.

Fleming makes his mark with an unconventional sort of stand up, more of a character acting than a narration with punch lines, and the result is electric hilarity.

Gayle started as one of those characters and is modeled after Fleming’s own experiences growing up in Stow, where he says he saw “a lot of women power walking around at, like, three a.m.”  He has a large amount of content online, much of it sketch comedy, and Gayle is the latest and greatest in that repertoire.

The series satirizes white suburbia so artfully, from the product placements (Kashi, Chobani, Whole Foods, Swiffer…), to the the committee of Mothers Against Road Head, right down to the naming of Gayle’s children after public radio favorites Ira Glass and Terry Gross.

Gayle is the embodiment of suburban privilege without the liberal whitewash of  manners.

The show is written by Fleming and directed by Melissa Strype, who also plays Gayle’s daughter.  They’re currently fundraising for their second season, and they definitely deserve every penny they get.