Sarah Silverman Turns Near-Death Experience Into Something Hilarious

If Tig Notaro invented the art of making light of potentially fatal illness, Sarah Silverman is picking up right where Notaro left off. The comedian’s new Netflix special ‘A Speck of Dust’ dropped yesterday and Silverman finds comedic inspiration from the near-death experience she went through last year, when a “freak-case” of epiglottis sent her to the ICU.
Silverman’s comedy almost always has a dark streak and her latest work is no exception. Her comedy bounces from the gleeful sharing of fun facts about squirrels (“did you know they can only find 80 percent of the acorns they hide? Those little, paranoid, coke heads!”) to musings on growing up with Barbie (“when she’s taking a sh** at 3am she’s in heels – ‘cause she’s a lady!”) to, of course, her hard-hitting abortion jokes (“Abortion does kill. It basically kills your entire day.”).
But where Silverman really shines is when she gets to the sore throat she had while on the road last year that quickly turned into a fight for her life. Silverman keeps the one-liners to a minimum during this “denouement” (as she proudly refers to the ending of her show) but it’s here that we see the comedian’s humanity and the very real way almost dying has changed her.
It’s not just her own death that Silverman has had to reckon with this year. The special was dedicated to Harris Wittels, a writer for The Sarah Silverman Show and a good friend of the comedian, who passed away of a drug overdose last year.
Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter at @arr_scott
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
-
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.