Is there a more difficult combination for an actress to do well? Comediennes seem like they have to be abrasive, abusive, or stupid (or all three), and while I can usuallly see the humor, those are also instant turn-offs. Is this an American trait; is it the nature of our comic tradition that to be funny you have to be unappealing? Or is it just for women; can the doperettes run off a long list of funny, sexy actors?
A few who have managed to pull it off:
Teri Garr in Young Frankenstein
Maura Tierney and Vicki Lewis on NewsRadio
Megan Mullally on Will & Grace (gets a pass on the abusive/abrasiveness, because it’s such an caricature it makes me think the actress must have a great sense of humor to play it so over-the-top)
Any other nominations for the funny and sexy list, or musings on why it’s so rare?
Where to begin?
Writers who can’t write for female characters, funny or not. Screenplays wherein the men are the funny ones and women are there for eye candy or to project upon (see the thread about The Girl).
Casting actresses in comedies for looks rather than a background in stand-up or improv.
Christopher Hitchens.
Acting like a lady.
What is considered attractive in a woman versus a man.
The assumed qualities of very attractive women.
What men find funny versus what women find funny (and who gets the final re: what’s ‘really’ funny).
In addition to the ladies listed above, comedians I both enjoy and find attractive include Amy Sedaris, Amy Poehler, Sarah Silverman, Anna Faris, Christina Applegate, Monica Keena, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Joanna Lumley, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Wanda Sykes…
Certainly not. With average or downright ugly male comedians, just being funny hides a multitude of flaws.
Mary Tyler Moore, in either the Dick Van Dyke show or her own.
Or, in her current incarnation: ** Tina Fey**
What do I win?
ETA: yeah, I know they are different kinds of Funny, but I do think Tina is carrying the sitcom torch in the way that MTM did when her self-titled show ruled the airwaves…
How has Jane Krakowski not been mentioned? She’s very pretty, & while perhaps more “actress” than “comedienne,” good at a kind of whimsical sexiness / sexy comedy.
That’s sort of what I meant about the comedy tradition. How many TV comedies have there been where the lead character is a buffoon, who is kept in check (and belittled) by a wise, long-suffereing spouse. Usually the lead is a man, but not always; there was I Love Lucy. Neither character comes out looking all that good.
You go on to mention a few Saturday Night live cast members. One change I’ve noticed on that show over the years is how they’ve embraced the stand-up comedy style of performance. Compare the Aykroyd/Curtin Weekend Update with the Fey/Poehler era. The new play-to-the-audience approach doesn’t work for me like the old, deadpan style did. A background in stand-up seems to bring with it a particular stand-up personality.
Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve & Ball of Fire
Myrna Loy in The Thin Man & Love Me Tonight
Miriam Hopkins & Kay Francis in Trouble in Paradise
Veronica Lake in Sullilvan’s Travels
Joan Blondell in Golddiggers of 1933 and Footlight Parade
Carole Lombard in My Man Godfrey (A little clueless and manipulative, but her heart was in the right place. And extra points for having the funniest closing line in movie history.)
