Is it just me ... or do women make terrible comedians?

[Soviet Heavy]

Jane Lynch is nasty funny. Ellen Degeneres is great, and hell, Carrie Fisher pulls off the Dirty Old Woman routine surprisingly well.

 

[Moeez]

There's not an evolutionary purpose for females to be funny, so most of them aren't. It's only an attractive trait for men.

But either way, Joan Rivers had a documentary about her. Check it out.

http://deborahschoeneman.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/JoanREV_FINAL.jpg

 

[dagens24]

Christopher Hitchens wrote a great piece for Vanity Fair called Women Aren't Funny. You should look into it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7izJggqCoA

EDIT: Damn it, beat me to it.

Also Hitchens is amazing. I hope we get to keep him around a bit longer.

 

[c0ld3r]

I have been talking to a friend about this for about six months, glad we're not the only ones who've noticed this.

 

[lizabeth19]

Snip

And that is definitely the big thing. I like the lampooning of pop culture that Kathy Griffin does, but many people just can not stand her. On the other hand, Bill Burr has a really strong fan base that loves him but he's not my cup of tea. I'm not going to sit here and say he's a bad comic, he's a good comic with a good sense of timing and deliery, but I just prefer to watch someone else instead. A lot of it comes down to personal taste rather than men vs. women.

Right. Another possible factor affecting it is, that in Western culture, men are rewarded more than women for being funny, especially in romance, sex and dating. If men are more likely to be encouraged to be funny, then they are more likely to practise being funny and therefore develop more of a sense about what is and isn't funny. Personally I know when tell a hilarious story, it will be better the second or third time around. So part of the reason there might not be as many funny female comedians as there are male comedians is that less women learn how to be funny and instead invest their time and energy in other areas.

*That is not to say that women can't be funny or that a woman's sense of humour isn't going to be a deciding factor for a guy. More like women are told that attractiveness is key to gaining a partner/sex/emotional satisfaction.

 

[Koroviev]

I could be wrong, but I suspect that there are fewer female comedians than there are male comedians on the whole. Given that the majority of entertainment acts (see: everything) are more likely than not bad, it makes sense that there are not tons of good male comedians and even fewer good female comedians. Of course, this is speculation on my part. I don't have numbers, but based on what I have observed, which is admittedly not too much, it seems to be the case that women haven't been welcome at the comedian table all that long. I say give it time.


Personally, I love Lucille Ball.

 

[Eggsnham]

I like womens' comedy, I think it's just that people are basing their opinions on a few jokes or stereotypes.

 

[Actual]

I like this girl, but I don't think she does very many shows.


It's true there are very few funny female comedians, but that doesn't mean there couldn't be.

 

[Koroviev]

You realize women don't use their body to think, right? You also realize that the male and female brain are basically the same right?

It annoys me how this is supposed to be accepted with no basis at all. Every single cell in the female brain contains an x-chromosome instead of the y-chromosome males possess.
Isn't it possible that this might cause some differences?

It causes profound differences as it goes, there's a huge body of evidence on the changes it causes but let's use popular opinion as a barometer and it'll tell us the same thing.

Women can multi-task better.
Women are more in touch with their emotions.
Women have better linguistic skills.

but

there is nothing there that makes a difference when it comes to discussing something men could maybe do better.

What the shitfuck? That can't be right, just looking at it like that implies that there are huge differences but that we consider it polite not to talk about them for fear of sexism.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=girl-brain-boy-brain

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED202577&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED202577

http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/nervous-system/men-women-different-brains1.htm

http://www.brainfitnessforlife.com/brain-anatomy-and-imaging/9-differences-between-the-male-and-female-brain/

This is a bit tangential, but I don't see the point in emphasizing the differences between sexes. It strikes me as a divisive tactic that creates two separate camps, as opposed to creating an environment in which persons of either sex feel empowered to follow their interests irrespective of traditional expectations. Certainly there are more popular male comedians than there are female comedians, but we need not perpetuate the scenario by promoting the idea that women are incapable of being funny. There's a big difference between current abilities and the capacity to improve those abilities. Just my two cents.

 

[Jonluw]

You realize women don't use their body to think, right? You also realize that the male and female brain are basically the same right?

It annoys me how this is supposed to be accepted with no basis at all. Every single cell in the female brain contains an x-chromosome instead of the y-chromosome males possess.
Isn't it possible that this might cause some differences?

It causes profound differences as it goes, there's a huge body of evidence on the changes it causes but let's use popular opinion as a barometer and it'll tell us the same thing.

Women can multi-task better.
Women are more in touch with their emotions.
Women have better linguistic skills.

but

there is nothing there that makes a difference when it comes to discussing something men could maybe do better.

To be fair, there are plenty of ideas about what men do better: like map-reading, parallell parking, room orientation tasks and so on.
It is just that these ideas are seen as sexist and outdated in the popular opinion. Who knows? Maybe these ideas are correct?

 

[Fooz]

whats funnier than a female comedian?

Everything

 

[Sejs Cube]

Again, Don't get me wrong, I'm not sexist it's just the impression I get.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not sexist I just make sexist comments and present myself holding sexist opinions."

What.

 

[Aries_Split]

The thing is that women don't need to be funny to get attention - thus the majority of comedians and funny people are men.

snipped

Can we make it a rule that if you don't know what the hell you're talking about, please don't say "Let's look at this from an evolutionary and sociological viewpoint"?
Because honestly, the second I read this, I'm almost positive I'm going to be in for some college freshman bullshitting with no basis in anything.

This was one of the times.
Sorry bro, but umm, no.

 

[hooblabla6262]

Reminds me of when Pauly Shore tried to make a comedy club with pretty women as the comedians, and like everything he does it failed miserably...
Oddly enough, the only good female comedians I have ever seen, kinda looked like Pauly Shore.

 

[Taerdin]

It's just you. I don't say that because I think your sense of humour is bad, I say that because your experience is so limited. Think of how many female comedians you've seen, there are probably at least 100 times that number that exist (or more). Do you think you have an accurate sample? Just by the sheer number of them it's quite probably that some of them are great comedians.

People who you seen in the mainstream are not necessarily the best at what they do, in fact this is rarely the case anymore at all. It's who you know, not what you know. People get lucky with the right connections and get far, other people with amazing talent often get overlooked. I'm not saying this is 100% true of all case, I'm simply saying that it happens. For every deserving and talented person who makes it there are tons more that don't. This isn't a speculation, this is fact.

Glad I could help.

 

[Koroviev]

This is a bit tangential, but I don't see the point in emphasizing the differences between sexes. It strikes me as a divisive tactic that creates two separate camps, as opposed to creating an environment in which persons of either sex feel empowered to follow their interests irrespective of traditional expectations. Certainly there are more popular male comedians than there are female comedians, but we need not perpetuate the scenario by promoting the idea that women are incapable of being funny. There's a big difference between current abilities and the capacity to improve those abilities. Just my two cents.

The reason to emphasise the differences is because otherwise you place unattainable goals upon people. There's a reason that different sexes behave in different ways and it only hurts people to pretend that we should all act the same, why make people feel bad for something that comes naturally?

Now if we're going to do the 'different but equal' thing that means that we have to realise that sometimes a sex won't be as typically suited for a job. It happens, it's why there aren't as many men in the caring professions and why female groups and male groups solve the same problem in radically different ways. If we don't accept that there are differences then it's always going to be 'society keeping the women down' regardless of whether it really is or not, because we'll be too terrified of viewing the alternative explanation, that maybe most women CAN'T do something as well as most men.

OT: I've not seen many good female comedians but from what I've heard there are far less. I remember reading that comedy clubs try to give equal time to female comics despite there being less, so they're less picky about what comics they bring in.

I appreciate the thoughtful reply, but I believe there is some degree of misunderstanding here. I did not intend for my response to imply that everyone should strive to excel at the same things. I agree that such encouragement would be counterproductive, as indeed, not everyone is capable of doing well in the same areas. What I did try to argue is that people should not be limited based on their inherent qualities. Just because the prevailing belief is, say, that men make better engineers than women, does not mean that society should discourage women interested in engineering from pursuing work in such a capacity.

To reiterate, I am in agreement with you with respect to the fact that different people excel at different things. Does gender play a role? Yes, it probably does. However, that gender may increase the likelihood of excelling in this or that field does not necessitate that society impose limitations on people's aspirations. The occupational arena is not a fixed dichotomy.

 

[Thespian]

There are lots of very, very funny females out there - Natalie Dee and Hyperbole and a Half not the least of which. Still, I know very little good female comedians. Jo Brand comes to mind.