Why arent many female comedians funny ?

kildare lad

Yamanoto wrote: »

Romesh Ranganathan's agent is a fcuking genius.

To get that fella the amount of exposure he enjoys is really top notch representation

I'd say it's more to do with the colour of his skin than his agent. Diversity and all that .

optogirl

greenspurs wrote: »

:D:D:D:D:D

Its sad that women on here take a topic pointing out an observation, and get butt hurt about it.
"hnarf arf arf" ….. Me toooooo? its funny

Because men never get upset about generalisations about them #notallmen

Utter Consternation

optogirl wrote: »

Because men never get upset about generalisations about them #notallmen

Surely you don't mean all men??? :mad::mad:

magic_murph

Homelander wrote: »

This clip is really funny, one of my favorites. No idea if she's alway this funny, but it's gold. Her accent really makes it.

Female 'comedian' talking 'funny' about her family. 0% original.

Zorya

magic_murph wrote: »

Female 'comedian' talking 'funny' about her family. 0% original.

She is very original. Her authentically polite and charming casual darkness is quite unusual. I think it's an excellent clip. It's absolutely not just about family, you are not getting the subtext, it's about so many things.

Lux23

Lux23 wrote: »

Some men find it hard to relate to the experiences of women - even though we make up half of the world, our worldview is considered niche. For example, I've never had an erection, but I have laughed at jokes about getting boners in an awkward place - it's pretty funny. But if a woman stands up and talks about the time she got her period at work and left a mess all over one of the conference chairs, a lot of the male audience will not find that funny. They probably think it's almost tragic.

It's probably the same reason a lot of men won't read a book by a female author because subconsciously they don't believe the writing could reach the depth of feeling that a man might.

Define irony........talking about male subconscious bias while also subconsciously lambasting a lot of men for not reading female authors, something of which you have no proof.

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

Now female writers of comedy shows? I NEVER had a problem there. Some of my favourite shows were written by female writers: The Royale Family, for me, is one of the funniest and real shows ever to grace TV. right up to Derry Girls.

I prefer a big mac myself :pac:

Zorya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi528286TIk

:pac::pac::pac: Hahahaha! Oh God, this lady is my new girl crush. I love her.

Mad_maxx

Man Vs ManUre wrote: »

Can’t stand Deirdre o’Kane. The sound of her voice is excruciating. She presented the 6 o’clock show on tv3 for a long time and she was just the most dreadful of anchor. She wasn’t able to have a conversation with any guest and she would just make everything about her and what she thought or would do. She is an absolute pain in the hole and I wish I didn’t have to see her on tv or hear her voiceovers.

Dreadful woman

ohnonotgmail

Guy Person wrote: »

That's not true though. Nina Conti, Maria Bamford, Michelle Wolf, Chelsea Peretti, Fern Brady off the top of my head are not feminist type comedians. If you only look for a certain type then you will only see a certain type.



What kind of parents would name their child filthy mouth?

maybe it sounds better in chinese?

Mad_maxx

Guy Person wrote: »

Mad_maxx wrote: »

There were funny comedians in the past, nowadays a female comedy act needs to be very political, card carrying feminist.

That's not true though. Nina Conti, Maria Bamford, Michelle Wolf, Chelsea Peretti, Fern Brady off the top of my head are not feminist type comedians. If you only look for a certain type then you will only see a certain type.

Mad_maxx wrote: »

I do like that Chinese American comedian though, filthy mouth

What kind of parents would name their child filthy mouth?

Ali wong

Fourier

Abdullah Old-fashioned Quid wrote: »

Does anyone remember Smack The Pony? That was class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMu0kqPo13M

Aongus Von Bismarck

I skimmed over this thread while having my morning macchiato, and wasn't exactly surprised to observe that it had failed to even reach the extremely low standards expected of a thread in AH.

I've had many women in my life over the years, and, in general, they don't tend to be particularly funny. They can often be unintentionally hilarious, but that's not a deliberate effort to be funny. The funniest woman I met was a former lover of mine. She was also deeply unstable emotionally, and I ended up having to get a barring order when the relationship moved from light-hearted romance to a Fatal Attraction style thriller. Take from that what you will.

One of the main issues I see, and which is confirmed by reading this thread, is that many deeply unfunny men consider themselves to be hilarious. This is tragic for them, and painful for us. They then have a tendency to get very angry when it is pointed out to them that they just aren't funny. They appear to mistake cynicism and bile for humour. There's a lot of those sort of men on this website. Asking them to be an impartial critic of comedy is like asking an ant to give a synopsis on the mind of a God.

I certainly believe there's a link between intelligence and humour. It's not surprising that some of the great intellectuals of the 20th century were also known for having a broad and almost childlike sense of humour. It should also be noted that I'm an extremely intelligent man, and have an exceptional sense of humour - it borders on the genius at times I've been told.

RayCon

Do not read this if you want to remain calm ....


https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/sep/18/best-comedians-of-the-21st-century-comics-standup-comedy

Zorya

RayCon wrote: »

Do not read this if you want to remain calm ....


https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/sep/18/best-comedians-of-the-21st-century-comics-standup-comedy

I don't know most of the people on that list but my first impression is that everything has to be pre screened now for gender inclusion. Which is lame. Women can be funny that's for sure, but one doesn't need gender balanced funny lists.

I heard about this service being offered now where novelists get their book read pre publishing to make sure it will not offend against any of the tenets of ...well...social justice, I suppose one could call it. That is quite sad, and weird. Michel Houellebecq obviously never heard of that service and good for him, the cranky brilliant misogynist pain in the arse.
Recently on Netflix there were a few films I just had to turn off - Otherhood and Wine Country and a few others for example, which were supposed to be about this hilarious rollicking woman coming into her power type of theme - absolutely dreadful shyte.
The sainthood of Margaret Atwood makes me want to vomit too. The humourless grim faced ball crusher, I used to love her long ago.

I dunno what's gone wrong with me.

Ash.J.Williams

Utter Consternation wrote: »

Surely you don't mean all men??? :mad::mad:

tall men?

NeinNeinNein

RayCon wrote: »

Do not read this if you want to remain calm ....


https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/sep/18/best-comedians-of-the-21st-century-comics-standup-comedy

That list made me laugh.

Ash.J.Williams

NeinNeinNein wrote: »

That list made me laugh.

Tina Fey 1 , Stuart lee 41

Earthhorse

The 41st Best Stand up Ever has really let himself go.

IAMAMORON

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

Tina Fey 1 , Stuart lee 41

Lists compiled by journalists are scary. They are actually getting paid to do that.

Who is Tina Fey?

Ash.J.Williams

Earthhorse wrote: »

The 41st Best Stand up Ever has really let himself go.

he's no Tom O Connor!!!

bnt

I see Amy Schumer as an example of how fine a line female comedians have to walk. I dislike most of her aggressive material, but thought her Last F**kable Day sketch was top quality: it made its point without getting whiny about it and avoided easy targets. Dialing back the complaining made it more effective, I thought.

I get a similar feeling about Katherine Ryan: this is someone whose initial impressions of men were formed while she was a waitress at Hooters, which is not a good sample that leads to understanding men in general, and so her past passive-aggressive man-bashing doesn't work for me. But I thought her last Netflix special was more self-aware and reflective. We're talking about someone who can work extensively with Jimmy Carr without imploding, which is no mean feat.

A previous poster compared men making jokes about boners with women making jokes about periods. The problem there is that men in real life don't complain much about boners, while women are always complaining about periods, and men have heard it all and know periods are not inherently funny. So now you want to tell us periods are funny, when all our experience tells us that women don't find them funny at all? Comedy needs that connection to real life, I think.

IAMAMORON

bnt wrote: »

A previous poster compared men making jokes about boners with women making jokes about periods. The problem there is that men in real life don't complain much about boners, while women are always complaining about periods, and men have heard it all and know periods are not inherently funny. So now you want to tell us periods are funny, when all our experience tells us that women don't find them funny at all? Comedy needs that connection to real life, I think.

A friend of an ex girlfriend used to refer to her periods as " the bastards" , she would say something like " I have the fooking bastards " .

Zorya

Periods are not the greatest material for funniness, in fairness. They are kinda that knife edge blood rites merciless ancestral reach into the catastrophic void of death part of women's reality that men and even women have a little shudder about. Inconvenient erections on the other hand are reasonably amusing.

IAMAMORON

The thing with erections and boners is that they are so transparent...

Periods and fanny flutters aren't , there lies the problem. It is a transparency issue, it always is in the end. Women just cannot be trusted to have painful periods or fanny flutters any more, it is their loss really.

Zorya

What the fliuch is a fanny flutter?

Deebles McBeebles

Zorya wrote: »

What the fliuch is a fanny flutter?

A queef?....eh, emission of air through the vagina, usually after a bit of ye olde sex.

Still laughing at your "inconvenient erections" comment. Ah, to be young again!

IAMAMORON

Zorya wrote: »

What the fliuch is a fanny flutter?

I am not sure either to be honest, but there were loads of women shouting it a lot lately so I presume they are funny, the flutters that is. The debate on fannies is still ongoing.

Wayne Jarvis

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

Still laughing at your "inconvenient erections" comment. Ah, to be young again!

I count myself lucky at my age that I still get convenient erections.

Deebles McBeebles

Guy Person wrote: »

I count myself lucky at my age that I still get convenient erections.

I have to use a splint myself :eek:

The mention of inconvenient ones just brought back memories of teenage years when it was uncontrollable.

Zorya

Thanks for the thread. When I checked out more of Sindhu Vee, I got a whole stream of videos of women comedians live at the Apollo. Some of them are so funny - Sara Pascoe and Sarah Millican, for example. Great way to spend a sick day.

EmmetSpiceland

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

A queef?....eh, emission of air through the vagina, usually after a bit of ye olde sex.

That’s the “classic” queef, alright. But no one talks about the “real” queef.

I understand that they are, far, less common. The “classic” occurs so easily, usually when engaging in sexual intercourse in either “doggystyle” or “the rifleman” positions. Air gets trapped and then queef’d back out. Totally harmless and can give you a bit of a giggle.

However, the real queef occurs when a woman is seated in a certain way that when some flatulence occurs, from the anus, and instead of being passed out through the arse cheeks, due to the laid back seated position, it gets forced up past the “varse” and out through the “flaps” causing a ripple of disturbance.

As I said, incredibly rare, but, none the less, equally as hilarious. The real danger, with this type of “fanny fart”, is the potential for stink in the air that doesn’t come with the “classic” queef.

take everything

Kate McKinnon from SNL is a very funny woman.
Kristen Wiig also.

Another one for Smack the Pony.
Doon McKichan (from The Day Today fame), Sally Phillips and Sarah Alexander.

That dating video skit from Smack the Pony with Doon and Sally as hot lesbians
looking for a man but not holding out much hope is so funny.
That reminds me: Rebecca Front is another funny woman.

The girls in Friends are naturally funny tbh.
A lot of funny women around.

But no, Amy Schumer is still not funny.

reg114

Victoria Wood was very funny in her day

FunLover18

I listen to The News Quiz on BBC and they regularly have female panelists. Susan Calman is one of my particular favourites, a very funny woman. Also if you look at sitcoms with writers rooms there are a lot more women popping up in them, Megan Ganz (Community) and Megan Amram (The Good Place) come to mind.

Zorya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nd-PyJfEy0

:pac::pac:
And she was brilliant in Afterlife.

terrydel

Joan Rivers is a genius. Only a handful of men better than her, cant think of any woman in her league.

take everything

Someone mentioned Russell Howard being a comedian.
When did that happen.

Funny women to me have a different flavour to their comedy to funny men. It's often that they're just very funny actresses rather than straight out stand up.

Anna Faris is hilarious for example in a lot of her roles.

terrydel

Sarah Silverman was genuinely brilliant when she first came to public attention.

50% (or more) of the population is about as genetically distinct from the other as limestone is from granite. We will probably never be able to reconcile the fact that we're just a bit different to the opposite sex. We're probably different in more ways than we are capable of understanding.

I rarely find women comedians funny. Women often find other women hilarious in a way that seems completely odd. We're different. We relate to different things and we have different kinds of humour. Ok. What's the big mystery?

If nobody found these women funny, they wouldn't be selling-out comedy clubs and theatres, leave alone stadiums (eg Amy Schumer - yes it's bizarre, but humour is subjective)

Mr.Fantastic

Abdullah Old-fashioned Quid wrote: »

I was just rewatching some Richard Pryor during the week because my brother's gf hadn't heard of him and I think my heart still belongs to him. I think he was pretty instrumental in shaping the actual way stand up was produced and consumed as well, like the big tours in big venues, how personal the comedy was, the thing of filming live shows rather than recording comedy "albums".

Have to agree with this Richard Pyror's standup show in long beach was great.

Remember seeing it when I was 14 on DVD.

FunLover18

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I rarely find women comedians funny. Women often find other women hilarious in a way that seems completely odd. We're different. We relate to different things and we have different kinds of humour. Ok. What's the big mystery?

Do we though? I mean the same can be said of different men. I'm not doubting that men and women are different but I don't think there's more variability between what men and women find funny than there is between what different men find funny. It's not like male comedians are only funny with men and vice versa. I can't stand Lee Evans but yet clearly some people love him but I don't think my or their gender comes into it. I think this point about men and women having different senses of humour only comes up when discussing females comedians. Someone made a derisive remark earlier about how original it was for a female comedian to talk about her family as though it's not a very common subject in men's routines as well. I think men and women have different perspectives definitely but that doesn't necessarily mean that one perspective is less funny than the other.

Pineapple1

take everything wrote:

But no, Amy Schumer is still not funny.

Probably in the minority here but I find her funny enough. Shes great in her movies and have seen her in The Roast Of where she is on stage. Always gets a chuckle out of me. The hate she gets over in the States especially is desperate.

FunLover18

FunLover18 wrote: »

I don't think there's more variability between what men and women find funny than there is between what different men find funny.

Starting at the chromosome, it's just inevitable that there will be greater variation as between women and men vs people of the same gender, across the whole range of human behaviours. Because the building blocks we're made from are different. I don't know if this disparity extends to humour, but anecdotally it does seem to affect our tastes and our motivations.

Take for example the fact that women tend to be more empathic than men. That's as scientifically solid a fact as that milk tends to have more nutrients than water. It's just one example of a biological difference, but it's relevant in that it might inform what we find funny, eg poking fun at a disability vs finding humour in being a Mum.

We're just different. We're not aliens to one another, but clearly we're programmed differently and I see no reason to assume that this doesn't extend to our perceptions of what is funny.

It doesn't really mean anything to say that I'm a man and I find Lee Evans tedious, but I think Aisling Bea is funny (she is). We're talking about overall trends, not our own anomalous characteristics. It's true, most men don't seem to find women comedians funny, but of course they can be, and are funny.

Fourier

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Take for example the fact that women tend to be more empathic than men. That's as scientifically solid a fact as that milk tends to have more nutrients than water.

Studies more lean toward women self-reporting as more empathic:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5478130/

Study wrote:

Whereas experimental and neuropsychological measures show no consistent sex effect, self-report data consistently indicates greater empathy in women

Fourier

Fourier wrote: »

Studies more lean toward women self-reporting as more empathic:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5478130/

Without even delving into studies and quoting different interpretations at one another -- why would women be clearly diverging from males, whether self reporting or not? My strong belief is that men and women are genetically and biologically programmed to be different, but it doesn't have to be biological. Let's say it's social.

Clearly there is something inherent to being a female that tends to make make females and males different in behavioural terms. That's the point.

ILoveYourVibes

ILoveYourVibes

I give you Jennifer Saunders.

Fourier

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Without even delving into studies and quoting different interpretations at one another -- why would women be clearly diverging from males, whether self reporting or not? My strong belief is that men and women are genetically and biologically programmed to be different, but it doesn't have to be biological. Let's say it's social.

Well the point of the studies is that women aren't actually different in terms of empathy. And the self-reporting difference is actually quite small. So there isn't really a clear difference. That people think there is a difference is true enough.

I think trying to explain these things in terms of deep differences in "programming" isn't going to work. I would tend to electro~bitch's view where it's probably something more about being a comedian as a career rather than men and women being programmed massively different. Also what Funlover18 said:

Do we though? I mean the same can be said of different men. I'm not doubting that men and women are different but I don't think there's more variability between what men and women find funny than there is between what different men find funny

Pineapple1

Pineapple1 wrote: »

Probably in the minority here but I find her funny enough. Shes great in her movies and have seen her in The Roast Of where she is on stage. Always gets a chuckle out of me. The hate she gets over in the States especially is desperate.

didn't she change her act up, thought a lot of her complaints was she toned down her act from what got her notoriety beforehand....i liked her "older" stuff but havent seen much of her recent stuff..

Wayne Jarvis

Juliet Victorious Self-preservation wrote: »

didn't she change her act up, thought a lot of her complaints was she toned down her act from what got her notoriety beforehand....i liked her "older" stuff but havent seen much of her recent stuff..

Yeah, there was one specific joke she had that got lots of complaints and she changed her act after that. This is the joke.


"I used to date Hispanic guys but these days I prefer consensual"


She initially defended the joke but quickly changed her opinion when she kept getting stick on Twitter over it. She apologised and then started doing feminist, "woke" material. She was good on the Comedy Central Roasts but other than that I never really liked her act especially now with her "My pússy smells like a small barnyard animal" jokes followed by 60 seconds of gurning and random noises. She reminds me of Lee Evans a bit in the way they just make noises and do over exaggerated actions instead of just writing material.