Social media creator Nikita Redkar’s aesthetics and delivery style are part of a satirical “bimbofication” niche exemplified by a hyperbolic, hyper-feminized performance of being hot and dumb.
Think Elle Woods from “Legally Blonde” or Ziwe Fumudoh, whose personas turn negative feminine stereotypes on their heads while looking fabulous.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Redkar has drawn a devoted following on TikTok through humorous skits and explainers on a wide range of serious topics such as geopolitics, taxes, bioethics, and the economics of war.
In a conversation with The Emancipator, Redkar — a finance major turned comedian — explains how she makes current events accessible through a bimbo framing, and why she’d compromise on being funny but never compromise on being factual.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Frankie Huang: How did you land on the Bimbo University persona?
Nikita Redkar: It felt the most authentic, the most “me.”
When I was doing stand-up. I was constantly making jokes about feminism and political topics, and I [wasn’t invited back to] so many clubs because people were like nobody wants to hear this. That’s too political.
And the thing is, I would do really well in women’s shows, or like college shows with younger people, and queer audiences. But [at ] established clubs run by White men and have, like audiences from maybe rural parts of Texas, I never did well.
That’s why I felt very at home on TikTok because the people that I used to have to go out and find, found me, and their support made me dive into this character even more.
In a recent Instagram post, you talked about getting to cover this year’s SXSW in your hometown of Austin, Texas. Tell me about the way comedy and journalism intersect for you.
I take it very seriously, I do have a journalism background, so I’m very used to researching in a journalistic way, and ever since I started my platform and people started following me for the news I’ve just been hyper-aware of the misinformation on social media. So I’ve always fact-checked numerous times. I go very heavy on research. I’ve always told myself, ‘like it’s fine if I’m not funny for a video. But if I’m not factual, that’s a greater crime.’ And I know that there’s like not a lot of guidelines in place for talking about the news on social media as a content creator. So I take that very seriously that people do rely on me for information.
Does the comedy and journalism aspects of your content ever come in conflict with each other?
There is a reason why I always say that I can compromise on being funny, but I can’t compromise on being factual, and a lot of funny comedy comes from having a tighter set of information, you know.
I never think it’s too difficult to find comedy in a specific news story or a specific profile on someone. The trick is to make sure that it’s punching up and not down. You never wanna make fun of like a serious news story, and I have learned that the hard way a few times.
One of the top comments in one of your popular videos about World War III said, “war has been yassified.” And you replied that you’re here to spread awareness and that it’s not meant to be a joke, just your way of informing people as the news can be really intimidating.
How do you take a dry subject like G7 vs. BRIC and explain it using a “Mean Girls” framework? What is your yassification process?
There is so much about the world that has humor, especially like geopolitical relationships — countries’ relationships with each other is so often such high school drama like, “Oh, we have this mutual trade interest. So now I’m gonna let people of your country in without any immigration process.”
The humor of it is that it’s so stupid. But the not-humor of it is that it has real-world consequences on people’s lives. Like geopolitics is literally how wars start. And that’s not funny.
And in the World War III video that you saw, I was focusing more on the country’s relationship with each other rather than people getting affected by the war, because, like, there’s nothing funny about that, and there’s nothing that I could spin to be funny about that. And that’s kind of where punching up comes back. I know punching up is a stand-up comedy term, you make fun of people that are in a higher status than you.
So I’m always making fun of the government. I’m always making fun of, like the elite, the billionaires, the people who have so much power in this world, but abuse it constantly, because we’re all kind of witnessing that together, and that’s like catharsis, to make fun of them.
So basically, what I look for in news stories is, how can I make fun of the people in charge?
I’m just picturing guys sizing up each other outside of a club like “Oh, why’d you look at my girl?” and like beating each other up. Like that literally happens on the geopolitical stage too, but in a different font.
What does making fun of people in charge do for your viewers?
People feel really heavy about the state of the world right now, and I’m not trying to make it light and enjoyable, but just make it feel like they have the power because when you laugh at something together, it’s solidarity with each other.
I know you’re being bombarded constantly with a lot of very serious subjects right now. But that’s not what you’re gonna get from my page, you’re gonna get an explanation. But you’re also gonna get a break.
How did you come to see the petty drama aspect of these dry topics?
I mean, it just came about looking at my own life and the relationships that I had with friends and in dating. And it’s all connected. The kind of ego battles that we see on a day-to-day basis, like, you see that between leaders of countries, too.
I’m just picturing guys sizing up each other outside of a club like “Oh, why’d you look at my girl?” and like beating each other up. Like that literally happens on the geopolitical stage too, but in a different font.
So it’s just taking these themes that you see in everyday life, and connecting them to the bigger picture. Just because someone has a ton of power and a ton of money doesn’t mean they don’t resort to the same petty shit that we all do. They just get more leeway because they have all that power and money. So it also kind of brings them down to our level.
Because politics is seen as something that’s so complex, many people just opt out of it, because they’re like, “I don’t think I’m smart enough to talk about politics or understand politics.”
But it’s really not that deep! These people control our water supply, our weapons. And they shouldn’t, because they’re stupid, just like us!
I also want people to realize that like, no, you’re not too dumb to understand politics, and you’re not too uninformed. This is for everyone. We should all be paying attention to this, and the way I do that is by making it more accessible, and by not using big, complicated words. It’s fine if other people do that, it’s just not my thing.
You and other bimbo-esque creators regularly catch flak for your style of delivery. People say that you’re dumbing things down, that you’re being flippant, that it’s very capitalistic and consumeristic to don the bimbo aesthetic.
I don’t want to adapt to every single person. I want to be super passionate about issues that matter to my audience, and I want to make people pay attention to those, whether they care about it or not.
How do you subvert the expectations to perform sophistication when you talk about certain topics?
So the thing is, women and queer people have been historically shut out of virtually every higher office, executive space, and higher academia. You’re just not gonna see our people represented there. Because of gatekeeping shit like this, because you have to dress a certain way. You have to talk a certain way, that’s why you see all of these women in Silicon Valley, like Elizabeth Holmes, who have really internalized so much masculinity. That’s what the girl boss is. It’s like, how much of a man can a woman be.
I want people to be educated about the news, politics, and history, but I will never fit the mold of what someone who is supposed to be passionate about politics is supposed to look like. I think that’s why my content connects with so many other women and queer people, because I tell them, “Look, you can enjoy all of this stuff, and you can still be silly and like makeup, and like dressing up like you. It’s not mutually exclusive to be a fashionista and be a history nerd.”
And it’s not to say that some of that criticism isn’t valid. What a lot of people have told me about bimboism being consumeristic are like, “Why do you have to relate being a girl to being a consumer?” That’s a fair point. There were a lot of analogies that I was doing about going shopping and buying makeup and things like that. So I kind of stopped doing those shopping analogies, for sure, because I do understand that like, you know, why are we equating womanhood with being a consumer?
But for the people who say that I’m dumbing things down, or that I’m being arrogant or flippant, I’d try to think of my central purpose, which is educating women and queer people, and speaking to them in the language that we talk to each other in. Because women in so many places in the world do not get [an] education. They do not get opportunities that men do. Honestly, I don’t care that I don’t sound like a man. Whatever gets them a seat at the table, you know.
Some of your topic areas overlap quite a bit with late-night talk show hosts; a very White male lineup of comedians. Do you anticipate needing to tweak your formula as your platform continues to grow?
No, because I don’t wanna become digestible for everyone.
I always give the example of Bad Bunny, if you’re familiar. Obviously you’re familiar, but like the way he is celebrating Puerto Rican culture, and is so beloved by his community. That kind of forced everyone else to listen right. Like now we are paying attention to Puerto Rico, whether we want to or not, because one artist is so dedicated to his message and dedicated to educating the world about where he comes from. And I really align with that, because I don’t want to adapt to every single person. I want to be super passionate about issues that matter to my audience, and I want to make people pay attention to those, whether they care about it or not.
So in that way, no, I don’t wanna change anything about my delivery and my content because it has gotten me this far. I don’t wanna step on the very people who brought me here.
I’m thinking back to what you said about the need to punch up and laugh and let laughter bring us together.
If I were to be serious all the time, I would exhaust myself, and I would not do anything, I think, as human beings. We do need these breaks of joy and play and laughter, because then we’re not going to be motivated to make a change. And right now it is so imperative; we need all of us to be doing our part in resisting this administration. Right? So that’s the role that I feel that I play. It is like we all have this silly, goofy little time together, understand the broader message, and then, like use that to energize us.
We laugh so we don’t cry.
Yes, but we also laugh so we can cry and understand the gravity of the situation, and move together forward.
Frankie Huang is a writer, editor, illustrator and brand strategist. At The Emancipator, she develops pitches, works with contributors both seasoned and new, provides art direction and maintains the team Slack emoji collection. Her past work has covered contemporary Chinese society, the politics of food, and the intersection of race, gender, and culture. She has been published in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Electric Literature, Men’s Health Magazine, and many more. Prior to working in journalism, she used to run consumer focus groups in China, localize video games, and sling cocktails till the sun came up.
