This TikTok star makes break ups bearable
Don't get mad, go viral.
Don't get mad, go viral.
There is a TV scene that lives rent free in my head from the series Girls.
You know the one.
Hannah (played by Lena Dunham who created, wrote and directed the groundbreaking and infuriating show) has had a bad day. She's got an STI, finds out the ex-boyfriend who gave it to her is gay and the bloke she's now sleeping with is not really into her.
She goes home, opens Twitter and punches out the creed of what is was to experience life as a precocious, privileged woman in the early 2010s - "All adventurous women do".
The soundtrack of the era starts rising - Robyn's Dancing on My Own - a tune that was (and still is) interchangeable for either break ups or break downs. Hannah and her best friend Marnie dance around the bedroom to shake off the bad experiences, thus stitching this "material" onto the types of security blankets we all weave in our 20s.
I didn't think lightning would strike twice, but alas, it has, except the genius lives in Brunswick instead of Bushwick.
Sarah O'Neill, 24, is a podcaster, producer and comedian living in Melbourne, and what she lacks in Hollywood pedigree, like Dunham, she more than makes up for with her talent, wit and gutsiness to call her exes on their nonsense.
The artist more commonly known as Sez is now the artist of the moment on TikTok thanks to her break up songs that are catchier than a pop song but are as thought-provoking as Hannah Gadsby's Nanette.
In a world populated by "clean girl" aesthetics, Sez is a refreshing, welcome and long overdue voice in the music, podcast, TikTok and comedy bubbles.
Her break out vignettes focus on her going in on her ex-lovers and their poor behaviour. Unfiltered and a cappella.
"When I used to be a musician I'd just write songs and then people would just start laughing at me at gigs. Then I was like 'Ok, maybe I need to transition into comedy'," Sez told The Oz.
"I'm just trying to normalise stuff. Obviously I want people to laugh but also I want them to be like 'oh f...'. It's really songs I write for myself like four years ago when I was with different exes and these situations would happen and I'd apologise for stuff and now I look back and am thinking 'what the hell was I thinking?'. I'm writing these songs for my former self that wasn't very woke when it came to standards in relationships. I literally had no standards and dated absolute dickheads."
Now more than a 1.6m of us now know about "Ted" and his stained sheets.
Her "best mate Tom".
The blokes who harassed her outside a kebab shop.
And the big love, "Fred" who "f...ed Melissa" Sez's "favourite barista who makes the best oat flat white".
Despite the shares, double-taps, wry "LOLs" and nods in furious agreement that Sez's schtick obtains, her work is like the comedic Cat Person essay with semblances of Kurt Vonnegut's apt thoughts on romance: "Love relationships overall would be better if they include a foundation of common decency".
While Hannah in Girls joked about being "the voice of her generation", Sez with her shout outs to her exes, is serious about it.
"Australia's comedy scene is very male dominated and it's pretty much impossible to get opportunities until you're like 45. So sorry I don't feel like waiting a billion years to do a gig somewhere," she said.
As we're signing off she makes sure to clarify one last thing: "Also 'Fred' isn't his real name, I'd never f... someone called Fred. I just chose Fred because it rhymed with 'dickhead'. He always used to say I was really bogan so it inspired me to be really bogan in that song."
Once more from the top...
For more Sez with less singing, check out her podcast:
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