The comedy film Like a Boss was an anticipated movie for 2020. It unfortunately did not live up to expectations, receiving poor reviews and flopping at the box office. However, the movie still had plenty of hilarious moments and boasted comedic talent such as Tiffany Haddish, Rose Byrne, and Salma Hayek, among others.
Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne play the lead roles of Mia and Mel, respectively. Mia and Mel run a self-titled beauty store and are struggling financially. They receive an offer to have their debt bought out by Claire Luna (Salma Hayek), a big name in the beauty products industry. Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne, as mentioned before, are talented comedic actresses who deserve recognition for their work in the film. So, here are 6 reasons Tiffany Haddish is the funniest in the film, and 4 reasons Rose Byrne is. Warning: spoilers ahead!
Tiffany Haddish: When She Eats Too Much Ghost Pepper
Toward the middle of the movie, Mia and Mel have been arguing. One night, they get together with friends for a ladies' night in which they cook together. The recipe calls for a sliver of ghost pepper alongside a warning not to use too much. Mia makes a snide remark about Mel and Claire, causing Mel to discreetly put more ghost pepper in Mia's dish.
Mia, unaware of the extra ghost pepper, eats her dish and struggles with the spiciness. The other women offer remedies such as water, but none of them prove successful. She is given goat's milk which she spits all over her friend Jill (Natasha Rothwell). Tiffany Haddish's physicality in the scene is hilarious and spot-on as to how it feels to eat something too spicy.
Rose Byrne: When She Coaxes Mia To Sing Karaoke
In the beginning, Mia and Mel are notified by Claire's assistant Josh (Karan Soni) about her interest in the company Mia & Mel. Mia is initially reluctant, but Mel, more aware of their financials than Mia, is interested from the start. In order to convince Mia to attend the meeting, Mel takes her drinking and to karaoke.
In the scene, Rose Byrne shows off her skills in physical comedy by moving in over-the-top and exaggerated ways while staying true to the quiet, reserved nature of Mel by also making her movements awkward.
Tiffany Haddish: Her Rant About Claire
After one of their meetings with Claire, Mia did not like what she had heard. She then proceeds to rant about Claire to Mel, mainly by calling her demeaning names and she ends the rant by saying that Claire has a "blue waffle." Mia proceeds to admit that she does not know what that is, but Claire for sure has one.
The writers, Adam Cole-Kelly and Sam Pitman, deserve recognition for the hilarious rant. However, Tiffany Haddish's delivery of the rant and the emotion she puts into it just makes it even better and much funnier.
Rose Byrne: When She Wouldn't Fire Barrett
After Claire meets Mia and Mel's two employees, Sydney (Jennifer Coolidge) and Barrett (Billy Porter), Claire tells the women to fire Barrett. Mia, as always, is reluctant to follow through with Claire's request, but Mel insists that they do it, even though she also doesn't want to. Mia then says that Mel has to do the firing. When the time comes, Mel struggles to tell Barrett he is fired, resulting in Mia following through with the firing.
This scene is a moment in which Billy Porter shines in the film. However, Rose Byrne's awkward reluctance is also hilarious as she struggles to say "you're fired," and instead showers Barrett with compliments about his appearance.
Tiffany Haddish: When She Jumps Into A Pool With Mel
At the beginning of the film, Mia and Mel attend their friend's baby shower. At one point they sneak away to smoke weed unknowingly in the same room where their other friend Jill's baby is sleeping. They try to escape before they are caught but hear their friends coming up to check on the baby. They then sneak out the window and hide on the roof and are caught anyway. To avoid confrontation, both women jump into the pool.
Rose Byrne was also hilarious in the scene, but Tiffany Haddish definitely stole the scene. She again got to show off her physical comedy, which is always great. Her character also took out her weave and threw it at someone before jumping. What is hilarious about that is how sudden and unexpected it was.
Rose Byrne: When She Tries Talking To Women About Makeup
When coming up for ideas to present to Claire, Mia and Mel attend a party intended for younger people, their intended market. Mia makes a booty call with the host, leaving Mel to talk to young women by herself. She approaches a group of women and timidly greets them while also calling them cute and complimenting their makeup but then learns that they aren't wearing any.
Rose Byrne's awkwardness and timidness, as said before, are essential to the portrayal of Mel. What is even more hilarious is that she is rendered speechless when she learns that the women aren't wearing makeup.
Tiffany Haddish: When She Shatters Claire's Glass Wall
During Mia's final meeting with Claire, she reached her limit of putting up with Claire and Mel's desired changes to their company. In her frustration, she grabs Claire's golf club, which she carries throughout almost the entire film, and shatters the glass wall to the conference room in which they were meeting with it.
This moment is hilarious again because of how sudden it was. Furthermore, Tiffany Haddish maintained her composure through her breaking the glass, which makes the moment funnier when it is contrasted with Salma Hayek and Rose Byrne's shocked reactions.
Rose Byrne: When She Stands Up To Claire
At the end of the film, Mia and Mel crash Claire's launch party to announce their new product and new company and confront Claire. Mel takes the lead in the confrontation and repeats much of Mia's earlier rant including that Claire has a blue waffle, which she announces several times to the launch party attendees, and which Claire vehemently denies.
In this moment, Mel's character development comes to fruition and she appears more confident in herself. There is still a level of awkwardness, but it does not detract from the confidence. Rose Byrne's balance of the two contradicting emotions and her delivery really make the moment hilarious.
Tiffany Haddish: When She Threatens To Jump Several Floors To The Lobby
During an earlier confrontation with Claire in which Mia takes the lead, the two women are chased through Claire's company by security. They ran up several floors before security caught up with them. In a moment of desperation, Mia bluffs about jumping to the lobby if she and Mel cannot meet with Claire right that second. She slipped and almost fell down to the lobby and held onto a banner, trying to keep her foothold. Mel and security then work to pull her up.
Tiffany Haddish is very expressive, and this scene proved no different. She was very convincing in her terror, especially when she started slipping. The whole sequence was hilarious and gave the audience a lot of laughs.
Tiffany Haddish: The Weird Way She Compliments Her Friend
During the scene in which Mel snuck excess ghost pepper into Mia's food, Mia complimented one of their other friends by saying that she and others in the room would initiate a sexual act upon them (though they do not have the body parts needed to make such an act possible.) The statement led to a discussion of the others agreeing that they would, out of jest, but the friend kept insisting that she did not have the parts necessary for such an act.
The hilarity of the scene comes from the oddness of Mia's statement, and the agreement that followed, accompanied by the panic from the friend receiving the odd compliments. Tiffany Haddish again had the perfect delivery of such an odd line.