Can Atsuko Okatsuka Turn Family Trauma Into Comedy Gold?
The Sam Sanders Show
KCRW & Sam Sanders
4.9 • 709 Ratings
🗓️ 11 July 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Atsuko Okatsuka’s comedy is bright and joyful, yet rooted in trauma. In this episode, she joins Sam to talk about her wild childhood, including being kidnapped by her grandmother, growing up undocumented in LA, and navigating her mother’s schizophrenia. They also talk about Atsuko’s new Hulu special Father, and what it reveals about marriage, mental illness, and emotional survival. Along the way, she explains why she calls herself the “father” in her relationship, how she tried to hire a sex worker for her mom, and what happened when she attempted to give her 91-year-old grandma a bath.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, listeners, it is the season of giving. |
| 0:03.0 | Get that warm, fuzzy feeling. |
| 0:05.1 | Make a donation, pick out some cozy KCRW merch, or send meals to local food banks. |
| 0:11.1 | Donate now at kCRW.com slash give. |
| 0:22.9 | Family dynamics are not conventional. |
| 0:25.3 | I don't know why we ever pretend they should be. |
| 0:28.3 | I tell people, sometimes it's a nuclear family. |
| 0:30.3 | Other times it's a nuclear bomb. |
| 0:31.4 | Oh, yeah. |
| 0:32.9 | Of course it's going to be at hand. |
| 0:35.4 | My mom was hitting on my husband too for a long time. Oh, really? |
| 0:36.0 | She went through a very thirsty period where we were like, what is going on with her? I tried to find her a sex worker. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. You did. Good on you. Progressive daughter. They need to show this kind of Asian family on TV. I said, fresh off the boat, people are like, oh, is that kind of way of family? I'm like, no, my family is like parasite the movie. |
| 0:57.8 | Hey, y'all, it's the Sam Sanders show from KCRW, and that is the voice of Otko Okatska. |
| 1:04.5 | She's a comedian who has been turning family trauma into comedy gold for years now. |
| 1:10.6 | You may know Atsko for her iconic chili bowl haircut or for her very colorful, whimsical clothes, |
| 1:16.8 | or for her viral dancing on social media with her grandma. |
| 1:21.2 | All fun stuff, but Outsko's comedy, it usually tackles heavy stuff. |
| 1:26.6 | Moving to the U.S. from Japan as a child, dealing with |
| 1:30.1 | mental illness in her family, and estrangement, and even a kind of kidnapping. |
| 1:35.9 | Atsko talks about all of this in her new stand-up special, Father, which is streaming now |
| 1:40.6 | on Hulu. |
| 1:42.2 | All right, without further ado, Otko. |
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