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Monday 2 February 2015

Women Aren't Funny

I went to two comedy nights in LA. One was at the 'Upright Citizen's Brigade' in LA and the other was at a comedy festival in LA. The comedy festival was a weekend event and we went to see a show on the Saturday evening. Being a good ten years older than most of the audience I am guessing it wasn't particularly aimed at us, but it is worth pointing out that we were still a good ten years younger than either of the comics we saw. It was described as an evening of mayhem combined with hilarious anecdotes and guests. What it actually was was a 40 year old man telling knock knock jokes interspersed with "hilarious" tales of wanking. Then he introduced his friend (who depressingly has just been given his own comedy show on television) who told hilarious stories about wanking. In quite an angry manner. Oh and he told a very weird story about a dad in a shop where he explained why the story was funny and how he felt about it in interminable detail. Oh and he did all this explaining before he got to the punch line. It almost made you long for a wanking story. 
I was hating it but didn't want to drag my friend away if she was loving it. I looked over. She was checking her work email on her phone. We left. 
We went home and due to an inability to work the television we looked for something to watch on Netflix. We found a documentary about why women aren't funny. It was by a female comedian who interviewed male and female comedians to get to the bottom of why women aren't considered funny. Inevitably most of the males she interviewed (not all) seemed to consider humour a unique and wonderful gift that was bestowed only on men, normally white men. The women she interviewed gave an alternative (normally funnier) viewpoint. Then the woman making the documentary became obsessed with what her comic husband thought of her and how he felt threatened by another male comic she may or may not have slept with ten years ago. She may not have been the right person to make the documentary. She sort of shot us all in the foot. Thanks. 
Are women funny? I think some are. Are men funny? I think some are. I don't think humour is linked to gender. But I think humour is more celebrated in a male. There is the idea that humour in a female is to make up for a lack of other (looks based) qualities. I think men that say women aren't funny are generally threatened by women and want to belittle them, they also know that if they come across a funny woman then she'll be able to beat him in an argument and be funny whilst she's doing it and then he'll have to go and think about his natural superiority bestowed on him by virtue of him simply having a penis. And if that isn't true - what is? Society would crumble. Back in the kitchen women. Tell your knock knock jokes to the kettle. 
The problem is there aren't enough women who are visible in comedy. On a panel show for example there is one woman and maybe three or four men. If one of the men isn't funny, no problem, he's just not funny but there are three others to prove that men are. If the woman isn't funny she is simply not representing herself she is representing all women and therefore women shouldn't be on panel shows as they 'aren't funny'. There's no three funnier women also on the panel to show that they are.
I am not sure when 'women' started operating as one big unit. I personally don't get up in the morning and think 'How am I going to represent women today?' "will all the other women in the world think that the trousers I am wearing do us ALL justice?". I tend to operate as an individual. My views on everything are only representative of me, not 50% of the population. I also don't want to be in a group with every other woman on earth. I don't like some of them. 
Why are men allowed to speak for themselves but women have to speak for a gender? Why do women have to speak for anyone at all? Why can't they go on a panel show or perform comedy and talk about what ever they want? Why is whatever they do biased by them packing a vag? 
I apologise for that last sentence. I spent a while trying to construct it nicely but was aware that I had used the word 'gender' a lot and didn't want to use it again. 

I would like to make it clear that I only apologise on behalf of myself. Not all of womankind. 

Another argument raised by the male comics in the documentary was that all women talk about are women's issues. Periods, men not calling them (is that a woman's issue or VERY much a man's issue - take a good look at yourselves boys), diets. Seriously? You're throwing that at us? I can not put a number on the number of shows I have sat through where men talk about wanking, about how they treat women, about all kinds of things that are generally considered to be 'male'. But ... if they are funny I will laugh. If they are not I won't watch. I won't form the opinion that all men aren't funny and only talk about masturbation. On another note - have none of them thought of locking the door? 
Based on what I sat through in LA, a lot of television and sometimes just in general - American's aren't funny. They over explain jokes, they feel the need to add 'Just kidding!" to the end of statements which are clearly not true. But then again I love American comedy, I love Saturday Night Live, Rich Hall, Amy Poehler, I had a great night at The Upright Citizen's Brigade watching stand up. Bum. Maybe I can't make huge sweeping generalisations of a whole race of people. 
Or perhaps we can. Women aren't funny because a man may once have met a woman who wasn't (or worse perhaps he once met a woman who was and it made him feel uncomfortable). By this logic all men are perverts because I once got flashed by a man. Therefore all men are flashers. Just kidding! 
See American's adding 'Just kidding' REALLY doesn't work. 

2 comments:

somnambulist said...

Nodding along in agreement. Ridiculous statement. I have just listened to the equal opportunities ep of Yes Minister.

somnambulist said...

Some women can't operate comments properly! Meant to say that it is fascinating to hear how very little the debate has changed. The problem lies in allowing gender to make a difference to things it doesn't affect. There are just as many humourless men as women. The bald guy on Mock the Week springs to mind although I always want to give him points for trying and he does make himself laugh.