Sarah Cooper
Sarah Anne Cooper[1] (born 1977) is an Jamaican-American author and comedian based in New York City. Her first book, 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings, was published on October 4, 2016.[4] Her second book, How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men's Feelings, was published on October 30, 2018.[5][6] She has written for the animated TV series Science![7] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cooper began uploading videos of herself lip syncing statements made by Donald Trump.
Sarah Cooper | |||||||
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Born | Sarah Anne Cooper 1977 (age 42–43)[1][2] Jamaica[3] | ||||||
Occupation | Author, comedian | ||||||
Residence | New York City | ||||||
Alma mater | University of Maryland, College Park Georgia Institute of Technology | ||||||
Home town | Rockville, Maryland, US | ||||||
Years active | 2014–present | ||||||
Spouse | Jeff Palm ( m. 2015) | ||||||
YouTube information | |||||||
Channels | |||||||
Years active | 2006–present (SC) 2014–present (TCR) | ||||||
Genre |
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Subscribers | 169 thousand (SC) 5.33 thousand (TCR) | ||||||
Total views | 16.74 million (SC) 380.71 thousand (TCR) | ||||||
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Updated July 14, 2020 | |||||||
Website | |||||||
sarahcpr |
Early life and education
Cooper was born in Jamaica in 1977. Her family moved to Rockville, Maryland, in 1980.[8] Her father worked as an electrical engineer for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in nearby Washington[1] and her mother in the human resources department of a consulting company.[8] Cooper was already interested in show business as a teenager and originally intended to study theater.[8] However, following the wishes of her parents, she first pursued a degree outside show business and earned degrees in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park and in Digital Design from the Georgia Institute of Technology.[2][8]
Career
Cooper began performing stand-up comedy in Atlanta, and later accepted an offer to work as a user experience designer for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.[2] While there, she continued to write and perform stand-up and met her now-husband, Jeff Palm, who was an engineer on Google Docs.[1] In 2014, she wrote a blog post called "10 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings" that went viral with five million views.[2] Later that year, she left Google to pursue writing and comedy full time.[5]
Cooper appeared in Home Movie: The Princess Bride, a fan film recreation of The Princess Bride, in the role of Inigo Montoya.[9]
Satirical videos
In spring 2020, Cooper began publishing a series of videos on Tik Tok in which she lip synced comments by Donald Trump on the topic of potential cures for the 2019 coronavirus.[10] Cooper's first viral satire features her lip syncing a minute of audio from the April 23 press briefing during which Trump suggested[11][12][13] that shining light into the body and injecting disinfectant would be an effective method for treating the coronavirus.[14] She subsequently produced several other viral videos based on the same premise.[15]
Cooper's videos were reviewed as examples of how comedians can perform political satire without any audience, which was particularly germane due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.[16] The videos are also noted as being examples of extremely economical political satire, since they are structured around an unedited voice clip of a politician speaking.[17] Cooper analyzes the videos as "I had taken away the suit and the podium and the people behind him smiling and nodding and calling him "sir," and all that was left were his empty words, which, in reality, were not the best. It felt like the antidote to the gaslighting."[18]
Works and publications
- 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing (2016). ISBN 9781449476052. OCLC 944463172.
- Draw What Success Looks Like. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing (2016). ISBN 9781449476069. OCLC 944470964.
- How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men's Feelings. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing (2018). ISBN 9781449476076. OCLC 1028881934.
References
- "Sarah Cooper and Jeffrey Palm". The New York Times. March 1, 2015. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
- Abramovitch, Seth (April 26, 2018). "How to Appear Smart in Meetings Without Really Trying". The Red Bulletin. p. 1.
- Cooper, Sarah (March 12, 2020). "I'm sorry mompic.twitter.com/UCjp4oyfnq". @sarahcpr. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
- Todd, Sarah (September 27, 2016). "Nod more, and other absurd yet useful meeting tips from a former Google manager". Quartz. p. 1.
- Johnson, Eric (January 10, 2018). "For comedian Sarah Cooper, a job at Google was Plan B". Recode. p. 1.
- Jacobs, Emma (October 24, 2018). "Sarah Cooper: 'The workplace is a rich seam for comedy'". The Financial Times. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
- "Science". IMDB. p. 1.
- Sheila Marikar: Sarah Cooper’s Non-Threatening Leadership Skills for Women!. The New Yorker, March 4, 2019
- Breznican, Anthony (July 7, 2020). "Trump Mimic Sarah Cooper's Next Role: Inigo in the Princess Bride Fan Film". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
- Itzkoff, Dave (May 5, 2020). "Jerry Seinfeld Is Making Peace With Nothing: He's 'Post-Show Business'". The New York Times. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
- William J. Broad; Dan Levin (April 24, 2020). "Trump Muses About Light as Remedy, but Also Disinfectant, Which Is Dangerous". The New York Times. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
- Relman, Eliza (April 23, 2020). "Trump directs experts to see whether they can bring 'light inside the body' to kill the coronavirus, even as his own expert shuts him down". Business Insider. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
- Ehley, Brianna (April 23, 2020). "Trump promotes theory suggesting sunlight can kill coronavirus". Politico. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
- Noor, Poppy (May 14, 2020). "The comedian going viral for lip-syncing Trump: 'People really hate him'". The Guardian. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
- Weber, Peter (May 15, 2020). "Watch comedian Sarah Cooper perform Trump's comments about the bad optics of COVID-19 testing". Yahoo News. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
- Li, Shirley (May 8, 2020). "Sarah Cooper Has Mastered the Trump Joke". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
- Daley, Lauren (May 7, 2020). "Watch this comedian for a needed laugh". The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
- "How Comedian Sarah Cooper's Viral Trump Parodies Came to Be". InStyle. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
External links
- Official website
- Sarah Cooper on IMDb
- Sarah Cooper on TikTok
- TheCooperReview.com, Sarah Cooper's blog page