Comediennes: Are Women Funny?

The answer is yes. Of course it's yes. How could a whole section of the population just lack the ability to make people laugh? Does the uterus leech jokes out of the surrounding atmosphere, saving them to be deposited in the zygotes of male children? That's ridiculous. And while women are grossly underrepresented in comedy, I can point to a bunch that I love.

That being said, when someone says "Hey, have you heard [female name here]? They're hilarious!" I'm more hesitant to look them up than when someone says "Hey, have you heard [male name here]? They're hilarious!" I blame this entirely on that question in the title.

So let me start by listing the two types of female comedians I don't like: 1. Comedians who write material based on the fact that they're female and 2. Comedians who try to prove that they're not your typical "female comedian." You'll notice that both of these types come about as a reaction to the "Are women funny?" question; they either answer no (Yeah, I have a vagina and tell jokes. What, you want to fight about it?) or yes (Yeah, chicks aren't funny. But I'm a bro in the body of a chick! Wacka-wacka!).

The problem comes in because these types of comedians are usually so chained down by pushing their answer that they don't tell jokes. Or at least not funny ones. My favorite female comedians are the ones who reject the question as absurd and are just funny. I love Tina Fey as a comedy writer because she writes funny stuff. I love Lisa Lampanelli because she's a really good insult comic. Not a really good female insult comic, but a really good insult comic.

The real bummer is it's not the fault of the comedians I don't like. The industry has been telling them for years that they can't make it because of their sex, and it can easily force them into one of the two paths listed above. If a female comedian isn't funny, it's more than likely men's fault, not theirs.

I know there's so much more important stuff going on like the government shutdown and the Syria stuff (Yes, I do glance at newspapers when I walk past newsstands, why do you ask?), but I think it's important for us to look at something as trivial as our comedy and see that, on a fundamental level, there are some very unfunny things going on that make the world a little less bright. I can only wonder how many great comedians haven't brightened my day because some schmuck at some point in time decided they weren't funny.