Nikki Glaser has sparked a pretty divided response from the internet after a transgender creator born without limbs shared screenshots revealing that she'd become part of Nikki's stand-up material — including jokes about her transition and genitals.
If you're not familiar, Nikki Glaser is a 42-year-old stand-up comedian who's been in the comedy space for decades, but became much more widely known after her jokes at Netflix's The Roast of Tom Brady went viral in 2024. The following year, she became the first woman to host the Golden Globes solo, returned to host in 2026, and is already set to host again in 2027.
Meanwhile, Briel Adams-Wheatley is a 27-year-old social media creator who was born without arms or legs. She publicly came out as transgender in 2023 and has since shared parts of her transition with her millions of followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. She posts beauty and lifestyle content, like makeup tutorials and videos about her day-to-day life.
Basically, the whole thing started when Briel shared screenshots of a DM from someone who said they'd recently seen Nikki perform in Ridgefield, Washington.
The fan asked Briel, "Were you aware you are a topic in Nikki Glaser's current set?" They then added, "I didn't like the jokes. Love your content, thought you should be aware." When Briel asked what Nikki had said, the person claimed Nikki had complimented her talent, beauty, and confidence before making jokes about her disability, transition, and genitals.
Briel then tagged Nikki directly and wrote, "@nikkiglaser Why are you making comments about what is or is not in my pants.?"
She'd also already bought tickets to see Nikki perform in November, but said she was now "really rethinking my plans."
A few hours later, Briel shared a lengthy private response from Nikki...
Nikki DMed her, "I'm so sorry this got back to you like this," and "I should have reached out to you. I never meant to hurt your feelings at all." She also disputed the audience member's version of what happened, calling it "not an accurate portrayal of the joke" and saying that she'd repeatedly told the crowd how much she liked Briel and encouraged them to follow her.
She also emphasized that she hates "anti trans jokes of all kinds and to think I may have added to that rhetoric is disgusting to me." She concluded the message by saying, "it's a dumb joke and I will lose it immediately."
Some people appreciated Nikki's response and felt she handled being called out pretty well.
But others weren't as impressed and felt parts of the apology came across as defensive...
And some people simply felt the need to defend comedy.
Comments