Speaker
Robby Hoffman
Appearances over time
2 episodes
Episodes
2
Podcasts
Quotes & moments
Despite having money in the bank, Robby Hoffman says she is not emotionally in a place to spend $7.99 on raspberries, illustrating how deep class conditioning runs.
Robby's Hasidic community had no concept of 'too soon' in comedy — if it was funny, you threw it, and if you bombed, your sibling told you immediately.
Robby didn't realize she was gay until age 17, when a persistent Italian classmate followed her into a bathroom stall at an end-of-semester bar event.
Robby Hoffman's great-uncle refused to leave his room once gas in Montreal rose to $1 per litre, a formative illustration of poverty-driven paralysis.
After Robby came out, her still-Hasidic father sent exactly one email saying the behavior was 'not befitting of a daughter of Israel' and calling it promiscuous, despite Robby having only one girlfriend.
After being outed as gay at 17 via a bathroom incident at a student bar, Robby Hoffman lost virtually all of her friends the next day.
Robby Hoffman received an Emmy nomination for her role in Hacks despite having only six lines in the part.
Robby's wife Gabby Windey was the Bachelorette on the TV show, meaning she had 25 male contestants, before eventually coming out and marrying Robby.
Even after her family left the ultra-Orthodox community, Robby Hoffman remained kosher until she was 19, reflecting a gradual rather than sudden religious transition.
Robby and Gabby married in Las Vegas for $799, a package that included a limousine, an officiant named Reverend Nature, and a photographer named Nathan.
John Mulaney cold-texted Robby Hoffman out of nowhere to offer to produce her Netflix special, which became Wake Up.
Robby Hoffman studied accounting at McGill University, working under her given name Rivka at an accounting firm while performing standup as Robbie to keep the two lives separate.
Robby Hoffman traded up through used cars — starting with a $3,600 Toyota Corolla — and ended up in her dream 2001 Porsche 911 for a net out-of-pocket cost of $10,000.
Robby Hoffman contextualises her father's abuse partly through his extreme youth — he was 35 with 10 children — and lack of resources.
Growing up, Robby Hoffman's family had a single shared phone on a table in the entrance, meaning she heard her mother's financial struggles constantly with no ability to escape the conversation.
No matter how much money is in the account, Robby Hoffman cannot bring herself to spend $7.99 on a small container of raspberries. It's not logic — it's emotional conditioning baked in by poverty, and it never fully goes away.
Robby Hoffman has lived poor and she's lived famous — and she says rich weirdness is far stranger and more troubling than poor weirdness, because it comes with a missing humanity. The fridge analogy says it all: poor households have nothing but share everything; rich households have everything and share nothing.
Robby Hoffman is deeply socially anxious in small settings, but when the lights go dark and the spotlight hits, she feels like she's in a womb. She's convinced comedy chose her — and says you can usually tell when someone chose comedy without it choosing them back.
Robby Hoffman was 17 when a bathroom stall door swung open at a student bar, and by the next day she had lost almost every friend she had. She describes walking through the cafeteria to whispers as one of the worst moments of her life — saved only by two friends who reached out and said they didn't care.
Robby Hoffman was born poor, born into chaos, and born offended. She says the modern expectation of living a life free from offense is a luxury she never had and never expects. Being offended is survivable. Being poor, she says, is worse.
Robby Hoffman refuses to prioritise antisemitism above anti-Mexican sentiment in the current US political climate. She says she has bigger focuses right now — her neighbors who are living in fear of being rounded up — and she won't be grabbed into an us-versus-them dynamic.
Robby Hoffman's mother taught herself English, read the classics, and decided she didn't want her sons growing up only able to speak Yiddish and read the Torah. Beyond surviving her husband's abuse, she was asking a deeper question: what kind of people are we going to be? That question drove the whole family's escape.
Robby Hoffman joked about AIDS, pedophilia, and late-term abortions in her Netflix special — and the only communities to mount a serious backlash were pit bull owners and celiacs. She jokes they're both dominated by rich white women, and notes with some irony that she may have raised more celiac awareness than anyone.
After graduating from McGill, Robby Hoffman worked at an accounting firm under her given name Rivka while performing standup as Robbie to prevent her employer from knowing she was leaving at 7 PM to do comedy shows. It wasn't a Beyoncé Sasha Fierce alter-ego — it was just practical survival.
Robby Hoffman and Gabby Windey both came from difficult backgrounds, but Gabby's instability meant she used to stay silent about small grievances — like a cabinet left open — for fear Robby would leave. Robby's response: just tell me, I'll close the cabinet. The relationship isn't about healing each other, but healing is the cherry on top.
Robby Hoffman's role as Randy in Hacks — a Hasidic Jew from Crown Heights turned Hollywood assistant — netted her an Emmy nomination despite the character having just six lines. It's not lost on her that the role basically mirrors her own biography, and she has zero complaints.
Robby Hoffman describes childhood summers in Crown Heights with no AC, 10 kids sleeping on the floor of a single room, and a father who was physically abusive to her mother. At age 5 or 6, she would spot her father in the kitchen and simply turn around and leave.
Robby had spent years convinced she wasn't gay, had defended straight logic to herself, and called the concept of a girl kissing her a police matter. Then a classmate followed her into a bathroom stall — and everything changed.
In Robby Hoffman's family, there was no concept of 'too soon.' Comedy was immediate, brutal, and cultural — if it was funny, you threw it, and if you bombed, your brother hit you on the spot.
Robby Hoffman isn't fearless — she's terrified all the time. The difference is she does it anyway, because not doing it feels worse than the fear itself.
Analysis
What they talk about
- Society & Culture 58%
- Arts 21%
- Comedy 21%
Connections
Shows they appear on and people they share episodes with. Drag to explore.
