Yes, of course. Often. It’s one of the reasons I love my wife.
From what I’ve read, stand-up is still somewhat of a boy’s club, so it can be easier for men to get a start with networking compared to women. And there are still a lot of people who think that men are funnier than women, both people in the audience and people organizing shows, so that makes it harder for women to get jobs in stand-up.
Also, there is apparently more than a little sexism and harassment in stand-up. Here’s an article about it, but I’ve also read about it other places. So it’s not just that women might be less confident (because men are trained to doubt themselves less than women), but that women have to deal with more hurdles than men when starting a comedy career, and not all deem it worthwhile.
I think the disparity comes down to three things:
- Women like funny men. Men don’t really care that much about funny women.
- Men have the freedom to make jokes about stuff that women can’t. There are certain subjects that are just too sick for women to make jokes about. That’s a total double standard, but there you go.
- For men, humour is used as a way to assert yourself in a group. There’s always competition to be “the funny one”.
Men, in other words, are under more pressure to be funny than women. Therefore, they try harder and practise more and, as with everything, practise makes perfect. Moreover, they have a wider latitude to make jokes, since they can touch on taboo topics that women just can’t.
Therefore, on aggregate, men tend to be funnier than women. It’s more important to them and they try harder.
I think it starts from an early age.
Think about who the class clowns were when you were a kid. They were probably boys. Class clowns tend to be disruptive and mildly defiant of authority. In other words, class clowns skirt the edges of “bad”, something which is more tolerated in boys.
I was a class clown. I don’t think it’s coincidence that I’m not particularly feminine. I did care about being a “good”, but I never believed being funny and being good were mutally exclusive because I could always make authority figures laugh too.
Leaving show business aside and focusing strictly on social situations…
Men tell jokes. A lot of them are terrible jokes, but everyone who’s even half-listening knows the guy is telling a joke.
Women make funny comments. If you aren’t listening closely you don’t realize that what they just said was actually hilarious.
When I was a kid my mother was the funniest grown-up I knew. But my father knew how to insert a setup and punchline into any conversation, so he got the reputation for being the funny one.
About ten years ago, I read an article in the Washington Post about a recent ad magazine article. The ad mag had created a stir by saying (paraphrase from memory) that humor-based campaigns aimed at women were usually ineffective, because women didn’t have as much a sense of humor as men.
My first reaction was to note that the premise was an awfully broad brush. Humor is very personal, and just because one person thinks something is funny is no guarantee that the next person will. So two people with completely different senses of humor would consider each other lacking in a sense of humor.
However, I also reflected on how only a few generations ago, women were subjected to ridiculous levels of prejudice of the form of not being taken seriously. (I’m not saying there’s no such prejudice today, but what was considered acceptable would appall most people today).
It makes perfect sense that if you have to work harder to convince people that you’re not a feather-brained lightweight, you’d be less likely to display an affinity for broad humor like slapstick and the scatological (at least when you’re in the presence of people who hold these prejudices about you).
LHOD’s statement above might be an example of this.
I’m also reminded of the purported exchange when George Bernard Shaw asked the British actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell, “Why do you suppose it is that women are completely lacking a sense of humor?”
She replied, “God did it on purpose, so that we may love you men instead of laughing at you”.
Don’t you believe it…!
Why, in my life I’ve met women who were Plenty funny…!
(Why you laughing…? Its TRUE…!)
Translation: “The women didn’t laugh at our ad campaign that was hilariously funny, because some woman couldn’t iron her husband’s shirts right. It was so funny, and the women just didn’t get it. Women have no sense of humor.”
Agreed.
Now, look up the Swiffer Duster commercials, read the next paragraph in my post, and get back to me.
I hate to be that guy, but I find most female comics to be unbearable. Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer, Margaret Cho, Lisa Lampanelli… all nails on chalkboard to me. Ellen DeGeneres is reasonably entertaining, but not exactly what I’d consider especially funny. Maria Bamford has her moments, but is also largely nails on chalkboard. Natasha Leggero is pretty funny in what little I’ve seen of her.
Christopher Hitchens certainly thought so:
Why Women Aren’t Funny
and Why Women Still Don’t Get It
Hitchens ascribes it to asymmetries in mating rituals.
Well, a lot of men are nails on the chalkboard to me (or some other noise that actually bothers me-- nails on a chalkboard don’t): Sam Kinison, Jamie Kennedy, and Steven Wright, I can’t turn the TV off fast enough; I hated Robin Williams with a passion; The only movie I really liked him in was The Birdcage, where he stepped aside, and let Nathan Lane be the funny one. Most other men just make me go “Huh?” 
I do love John Mulaney, and Chris Fonseca, and I kinda like Nick Swardson, and I liked Seinfeld before he got all repetitive, but Wanda Sykes is so far my all-time favorite. I also love Paula Poundstone, Kate Clinton, Suzanne Westenhoefer, Sarah Silverman, and I even kinda like Kathy Griffin, although more for her delivery than her material. I also love some funny women who aren’t exactly stand-up comics, like Tracey Ullman, Samantha Bee, and Paget Brewster, the last of whom has done several sitcoms where she was hysterically funny. I know she’s known for Criminal Minds, but that’s not really typical of her work.
I agree on Lisa Lampanelli, though. They can’t all be gold.
I also think there have been some really funny actresses and writers through the times who we’re overlooking. I’m not a fan of Lucille Ball personally, but I recognize great talent. Carol Burnett was brilliant. Many episodes of Friends were directed by women. Alice Ghostley was a brilliant and funny character actress who worked through the 50s, 60s and 70s. Katherine Hepburn and Irene Dunne were very funny. They turned out some serious performances as well, but they were in all the best screwball comedies.
And Dorothy Parker may be the funniest American ever.
Very interesting, thanks. Much food for thought.
It’s interesting how he touches on many of the same points as this thread so far. I shall read your links in more detail, and return with some commentary when I’ve gathered my thoughts a bit.
Although it does devolve a bit into a “battle of the sexes” slapfest. Which, BTW, is something I really don’t want to happen to our little discussion here. I really wasn’t intending that when I started the thread, as it’s not a type of debate I find interesting in the slightest. (Not that I don’t have feelings on the subject, I do. Those can be summed up as: Men mostly suck, women are mostly pretty cool. When the War of the Sexes breaks out, I’m officially a traitor. It’s just that the actual debating/slapping tends to get pretty unattractive. Although I suppose I should have realized the risk.)
Maybe my thread title is misleading. Anyway, to repeat my own position from the OP, just for the record: I personally don’t actually find women less funny than men. Some of the funniest people I know are women. I don’t even find men and women funny in fundamentally different ways. Funny is funny, at least to me. Although, clearly, some people do see such a difference, so maybe I’m the odd one out there.
I just seem to find *fewer *women than men funny.
Funnier smelling, at least.
Eh, I liked Sarah Silverman’s standup, but her Comedy Central show sucked rotten eggs. Rita Rudner, understated humor but funny as hell. Kathy Griffin and Margaret Cho are their own demographic, and it ain’t straight men. And you need a humor transplant if you don’t find Robin Williams funny. He was the improv talent of our generation. Big fan of D.L. Hughley too, and a lot of what he deals with is relationships.
There are more male stand-ups, but there are probably an even mix of comedy actors, and comedy writers (ratio may vary in different fields - screenwriters or journalists - but balances out in the wash).
I think it’s just visibility that creates the perception males are funnier. In my personal experience, people I know or who I am fans of, it comes out quite close to even.
Robin Williams was just a bunch of coke-fueled stupidity. Real improv talent is more than just rushing around the stage stuttering nonsense. Jimmy Fallon’s spot-on imitation of Williams shows everything that was wrong with him.
For improv, I prefer someone who makes sense. Say, a Hugh Laurie, or Dawn French.
BTW: French & Saunders.
Also, one of the most powerful women in entertainment, who operates mostly behind the scenes, but is hilarious whether she’s writing or performing: Tina Fey.
How can this question possibly have an answer? There’s no way to objectively measure “funniness” and what is funny differs from person to person and we all acknowledge that funniness at least exists in both sexes.
Suppose that we could agree on some way to objectively determine if men or women are funnier, what would be gained by doing so?
If I am deciding whether or not to spend money to go see a comedian I do not find their sex to be a helpful predictor of whether or not my money will be well spent. Incidentally I have spent about the same amount of money this year on female comedians (Jen Kirkman and Paula Poundstone) as I have on male comedians (John Hodgman and Mike Birbiglia). They were all great but if I had to pick, I would say Paula Poundstone was the best (and that was the most expensive ticket).
That’s obviously a bit of a problem. But I figure as follows: If everyone agrees that, yeah, there seems to be more funny men than women around, that might mean something. Conversely, if the case is that, nah, it’s just me, that might mean something, too. Something less interesting, 'cause then it’s just me, and we can go home, but still something.
Even if we don’t all agree on what’s funny, it should be possible to say something about the general amount and distribution of funniness in society.
Bear with me for a moment while I wax philosophical: It’s like if everyone has a box, containing what they personally find funny. We have different things in those boxes. But we can make statements about the boxes themselves, without talking about the contents. We can say whether we keep the boxes in the living room or the kitchen, who gave us the boxes, what color or shape most boxes are. Know what I mean?
Everyone finds *something *funny. So for the purposes of the discussion, let’s just define funny as “what each of us happens to find funny”. Then we should be able to talk about the entire collection of those “what-we-happen-to-find-funny” objects, Or maybe we could call them WWHTFFs for short. (Although, that’s a silly name for them, so let’s not.)
Anyway, to do this, we don’t have to agree on who or what is or isn’t funny.
Huh. This is either a theory of epistemology that I just created, or nonsense. I hope it’s the former.
This is not about “my comedian is better than yours, I’m right, you’re wrong”, and certainly not “I like X comedian, oh you do too? Let’s be BFFs!” (Although which comedians you like or not may interesting as data, I suppose). That’s for later, in the bar.
Also, it’s not about comedians in particular, although for obvious reasons they’re low hanging fruit when talking about funny. But I’m just as interested in funny people IRL, and just funny in general.
(And yes, I’ve turned the word “funny” into a noun. Apparently, I’m trying to construct a technical vocabulary here. Wish me luck.)
My idle curiosity might be satisfied somewhat? That’s not enough for y’all? 
Anyway, we can’t. But, as I said, I don’t think we have to.
I think there’s something to this. Boys horseplay, clownery and being generally disruptive is often accepted as boys being boys. Girls, on the other hand, well that’s just not acceptable behavior for a girl.