Althouse: "She was trying to find the humor in her own story, that of an American parent, but one who had been wrongly held in a prison in Italy for years..."

August 13, 2026

"She was trying to find the humor in her own story, that of an American parent, but one who had been wrongly held in a prison in Italy for years..."

"... for the 2007 murder of her roommate when both women were studying abroad there. But the sold-out audience, 150-strong, at first only occasionally tittered at her gags about life in prison, tabloid infamy and the idiosyncrasies of child-rearing.Then, she told a joke about her daughter’s favorite game. It’s called 'Momma goes to Italy,' Knox said. In the game, her daughter grabs the bars of a jungle gym at their local playground and screams, 'Let me out! Let me out!' Knox mimed a wild-eyed convict desperately grabbing the bars of a prison cell. The audience’s snickers turned into the night’s first belly laugh."

From "Amanda Knox Takes the Stage, Reclaiming Her Story Through Comedy/In a solo show at the Edinburgh Fringe, Knox is trying to turn her tabloid infamy into stand-up humor, despite an intense backlash" (NYT gift link).

24 comments:

Old and slow said...: I’ve read a lot about this case, and she looks guilty as sin.; 8/13/26, 2:09 PM
rehajm said...: ...all a bit unsavory. Feels like she's rubbing it in...; 8/13/26, 2:28 PM
James K said...: I think she was probably innocent (the case against the guy convicted was overwhelming), but doesn't seem to be very admirable, and should probably keep a lower profile. She may have been convicted in the original trial in part because she seemed to have depraved indifference to the murder of her roommate.; 8/13/26, 2:34 PM
Iman said...: I watched Knox on Maher’s podcast. She was fairly obnoxious.; 8/13/26, 2:41 PM
Enigma said...: This brings to mind the Lewinsky case -- a person's future is controlled by one event and they can't escape it. I think Ms. Knox was innocent per the Italian Supreme Court's aggressive slap down of the prosecution in 2015. Still, It's sad to get stuck on something so sad.

Emotions go wonky under extreme stress (i.e., murder in the house, and then apparent gaslighting for many years).; 8/13/26, 2:45 PM
Jaq said...: Mark Twain, who was a master at making his audience laugh, said that you had to get them to laugh once at the beginning, and then they would laugh at everything. He once walked on stage and didn’t say a word, but just stared at the audience until they broke out laughing, after that he had them in the palm of his hand. Of course it probably helped, for that trick, to have Twain’s reputation as what we would call a comedian today.; 8/13/26, 3:16 PM
Jim at said...: Being from around here, the local media covered this story to the point of saturation. And to be honest, I've never understood the draw.

Any time it came on? Click.; 8/13/26, 3:23 PM
IamDevo said...: When life hands you a lemon, and all that.; 8/13/26, 3:42 PM
Leland said...: I listened to her interview with Rogan. I always thought she was innocent, and by the time she was on Rogan, she had written a couple of books.; 8/13/26, 3:54 PM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: The important question that intelligent, educated, right-thinking people are asking themselves right now is whether Amanda Knox is better looking as a woman than Luigi Mangione is as a man.; 8/13/26, 4:42 PM
Howard said...: Yeah this is a ongoing story because she is hot. If she look like Kathy Griffin, nobody would care.; 8/13/26, 5:06 PM
Lazarus said...: I'd rather she just sued everyone.

Too many memories of media goons saying Richard Jewell should be grateful for his 15 minutes of fame when he was unjustly accused of being the Atlanta Olympics bomber. Don't turn your notoriety into a media or showbiz career.; 8/13/26, 5:10 PM
Assistant Village Idiot said...: According to a person I trust who did a deep dive: She probably did not murder her roommate, but she did not go through the intense Reid technique to get her to confess that she says she did, and she threw someone else under the bus by accusing him. So I have better things to do with my time.; 8/13/26, 5:11 PM
Narr said...: There's not much that"s more American than turning pain into gain.

As for guilt or innocence, I'm utterly agnostic. I have to assume that even the Italian legal system can get something right from time to time.; 8/13/26, 7:28 PM
Tom T. said...: She falsely accused someone else, and I've read from people who have studied the case that there was plenty of evidence that she was present at the killing. Not a laughing matter.; 8/13/26, 7:41 PM
William said...: I also saw her on the Maher podcast. She seemed a bit brittle, but who wouldn't be after such an experience. Kafka's characters never achieved worldwide fame. Their sufferings were anonymous and they were never judged by how gracefully they responded to their ordeal.. Perhaps all that attention helped her cause, but, at the time, it must have been an added burden......I don't know if she has the poise of a professional comedian, but she's bright and, if she finds some way to cash in on the experience, more power to her.; 8/13/26, 8:02 PM
john mosby said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/14/26, 12:37 AM
john mosby said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/14/26, 12:38 AM
mccullough said...: No one lazier than an Italian cop. She must have killed her roommate because I want to get home to eat & drink. Case closed.; 8/14/26, 12:46 AM
DINKY DAU 45 said...: john mosby said...
Any of the sailors in the board want to weigh in on the sudden story about low morale and suicide attempts on the USS LINCOLN? As a soldier, at first take I don’t have a huge amount of sympathy, but I am open to other perspectives. CC, JSM
my perspective
In 1965 I enlisted in the United States Navy served out of Little Creek Virginia and lived in New York. We deployed in the 5th Fleet minimum 6 months all over the Mediterranean and came back for 1 month ( 4 weeks of possible 48 hour,72 hour or duty weekend unless you sold your duty to guys who couldn't get home from parts of country too far away to make time I had chit in to deploy to South Vietnam waterways MeKong Delta, Saigon River etc to operate PBR DUTIES (BOATSWAIN MATE 2ND CLASS )and sometimes gone for a year out of my 4 years active duty.I had 2 children born that hardly knew me when I was fortunate to get a 72 hour weekend to hitchhike up 95 to New York to see my family when our ship was in the USS CASAGRANDE LSD13. My thoughts are if you made the commitment to serve then you did what the orders were and there were many I didn't like but that's what SERVICE MEANT especially during the VIETNAM debacle. I understand the conditions and some are not cut out for the issues that come up while serving your country, we saw many disappeared (before dont ask,dont tell ,disciplinary criminality etc) I pray daily for those I served with or knew that never returned and to those in theater now in harms way and their ability to remember your commitment unless mentally or even physically beat up. DONT START FOOLISH WARS and put those in charge who will especially without Congressional approval(that seems to be a think of the past though sadly)John Mosby thank you for your service.Its a BRAVE NEW WORLD and not sure how that's gonna work out, hardly any choose to serve anymore as a percentage of the population. :); 8/14/26, 1:47 AM
Saint Croix said...: The damn free NYT links are broken for me. (Maybe I called them a rag one too many times).

Anyway, Iman, thanks for mentioning her appearance on Bill Maher's show.

I started watching it, and so far he's been the obnoxious one.; 8/14/26, 4:54 AM
Tina Trent said...: Thanks, Lazarus.

Do not exploit your children for *art.*; 8/14/26, 5:37 AM
Enigma said...: I'm struck by how opinions of this case (above) seem to follow from its coverage phases: early shock and tabloids, conviction and tabloids, her miguided lies/accusations and tabloids, and then the brutal Italian Supreme Court court slapdown of the prosecution.

If you followed the case to the actual end, Ms. Knox comes across as wronged, trapped, confused, and struggling.; 8/14/26, 6:36 AM
Marcus Bressler said...: OT but Edinburgh's Fringe: My SIL co-wrote "Cadel: Lungs on Legs" a critically acclaimed one-man play starring Australian actor Connor Delves. The production chronicles the inspiring true story of Cadel Evans becoming the first Australian to win the Tour de France in 2011. Performed entirely live on a bicycle for an hour, Delves pedals non-stop during the show. It won rave reviews at the 2025 Fringe, went on to show in London, was greatly received in Australia during a run, then back to London and is now repeating at the 2026 Fringe. Check out some of the reviews online.; 8/14/26, 6:57 AM