2015 is the year of Amy Schumer

Last week on Conan O'Brien's TBS talk show, comedian Amy Schumer declared that 2015 was the year of the ass, a declaration that will make sense if you watch the premiere of the third season of her brilliant comedy-sketch show.

But it might be more accurate to say that this is the year of Amy Schumer.

Those who didn't watch the first two seasons of Inside Amy Schumer - and don't worry if you didn't, Schumer's work is all over YouTube - missed out on an irreverent comedian who, like the best of those who work blue, is so much more than a dirty mouth (and a dirty mind). Like any great comedian, though, she has a fearless willingness to display both those assets.

Schumer is a searingly and unapologetically feminist voice on a network that covets its young male demographic, a place where the sub-frat-boy humor of the likes of Tosh.0 will always reign supreme. She's in the forefront of a wave of celebrities - from Beyoncé to Taylor Swift - who have embraced feminism at a time when many still think the word is on par with the other expletives with which Schumer peppers her speech.

While Sarah Silverman shocked with her baby-doll voice and similar sensibility, Schumer speaks with a whatever, like, over-it drawl. Like Silverman, she takes an oft-mocked stereotype of white women and uses it to deliver brutally funny material, skewering everything from a couple's inability to choose what movie to watch to a spot-on parody of Aaron Sorkin shows, featuring Sports Night alum Josh Charles and set in a fast-food restaurant called "The Foodroom."

But throughout her work, through every joke about male genitalia, every dissection of rape culture, Schumer displays inherent joy in performing.

There's no better example of that than the sketch that is the basis of her butt-centric Conan proclamation. Schumer raps (with the help of South Philly-born pseudo-celeb Amber Rose, Girls' Jemima Kirke, actress Amber Tamblyn, and rapper Method Man) about our culture's fascination with the derriere.

The song's refrain, "This is what you think is hot," goes from statement to question as Schumer euphemistically repeats the body part's anatomical purpose, calling it her "fudge machine."

It's a scatological way of discussing how women are culturally sold for parts, when those parts have functions different from pleasing the male gaze. It's also, y'know, really funny, with Schumer fully committing to her role as rap queen and her song oddly catchy.

Some sketches don't work as well. While the first episode is perfect top to bottom, the second features a strip-club sketch with a punch line about equal pay that doesn't land the way it could. The point is that Schumer is venturing into territory where others fear to tread.

But she has more to hang her hat on this year than a funny show.

Thursday was a pretty good day for Schumer. Inside Amy Schumer's second season won a prestigious Peabody Award (others went to The Americans, Fargo, and The Honourable Woman).  And Time put her on its list of the world's 100 most influential people, alongside President Obama and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Academy Award-winner Tilda Swinton wrote a sort of tone poem about her: "Amy's got your back./She's in your corner. /She's an honesty bomb./ And she's coming for you." This from a woman who looks like David Bowie's chic alien lover on the red carpet.

Swinton plays Schumer's boss in Trainwreck, scheduled for a July opening. The film, Schumer's first produced screenplay, is directed by Judd Apatow, who has a decent track record when it comes to getting comedians' scripts onto the screen: He's done it for Steve Carell, Seth Rogen, and Lena Dunham.

In the film, Schumer plays a commitment-phobic writer for a men's magazine who happens to fall for the subject of one of her pieces: a sweet guy sports doc (Bill Hader).

Schumer fits into Apatow's band of merry man- (or woman)-children who are forced to grow up, no matter how much they kick and scream. But unlike Rogen and Dunham (and to a lesser extent Carell), Schumer's voice is already established outside Apatow's influence. He's simply affording her a wider audience.

That's certainly something she could use. When she hosted the MTV Movie Awards earlier this month, she opened her monologue with, "Half of you don't know who I am, and half of you think I'm Meghan Trainor."

When the show was over, not many more people knew who she was. The ratings for the program were low, due in part to MTV's fading brand and to competing against the season premiere of Game of Thrones.

Schumer's comedic break came during Comedy Central's 2011 roast of Charlie Sheen. Host Seth MacFarlane introduced her: "What can I say about Amy Schumer? I actually mean that sincerely. I've never heard of this woman."

She opened her set by targeting guest Mike Tyson for his history of sexual assault. "Hey, Mike, here's something you'll never hear - 'Great tattoo!,' " referring to Tyson's facial artwork. "You have a slutty lower-back tattoo on your face." When Tyson tried to come back at her, she ad-libbed, "Is his interpreter here?"

When the roast ended, everyone watching remembered Amy Schumer's name.

Her own show debuted in 2013, when Comedy Central was trying to give platforms to voices other than the white males who had dominated its schedule. This effort had already led to new network stalwarts like Key & Peele the year before and would lead to Broad City the year after.

Not much has changed between Inside Amy Schumer's first season and the third. But that's a testament to the strength of the show. It came roaring out of the gate with an assured voice and point of view, skewering culture's representation of gender and sexuality. It hasn't wavered since.

Inside Amy Schumer

10:30 p.m. Tuesday on Comedy CentralEndText

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@mollyeichel