Really Funny Women?

Cafe Society
41

Argh! How could I have forgotten Madeline Kahn?? “Me too” to everything you just said, plus two more gems:

Miss Trixie in Paper Moon;

and her grand-slam debut performance as Eunice Burns in What’s Up Doc?

Her being drop dead gorgeous was a bonus.

.

42

I am afraid I have been unduly influenced by this video:

Iliza Shlesinger does some SERIOUS booty shaking 15 seconds in. Most of the time when comedy women do sexy, they parody it, they are, after all, comedians. But this is straight up bootylicious goodness. I’m totally impressed!

43

Amy Poehler. For a while, she was SNL’s MVP; and before that, she was part of the underrated, hilarious Upright Citizen’s Brigade.

44

As of Post #43:

Funny Women Preliminary “A-L” Today, 01:38 PM

===========================
Bea Arthur
Maria Bamford
Elayne Boosler
Jo Brand
Carol Burnett

Jo Caulfield
Margaret Cho
Jane Curtin
Ellen DeGeneres
Tina Fey

Dawn French
Garfunkel & Oates (Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci)
Janeane Garofolo
Kathy Griffin
Stephanie Hodge

Madeline Kahn
Shappi Khorsandi
Laura Kightlinger
Jen Kirkman
Lisa Lampainelli

Vicki Lawrence
Natasha Leggero
Wendy Liebman

Funny Women Preliminary “L-T”
Today, 01:46 PM

Julia Louis Dreyfuss
zoe Lyons
Kathleen Madigan
Andrea Martin
Sarah Millican

Morgan Murphy
Tig Notaro
Cheri Oteri
Amy Poehler
Paula Poundstone

Gilda Radner
Rita Rudner
Jennifer Saunders
Kristen Schaal
Amy Schumer

Amy Sedaris
Iliza Shlesinger
Sarah Silverman
Jean Stapleton
Pam Stone

Julia Sweeney
Wanda Sykes
Judy Tenuta
Aisha Tyler

=============================

New names (if any) will go into a third (or more) preliminary. Results of preliminaries will determine further polling.

Comments and critiques welcomed!

Thanks for the input. Keep 'em coming.

45

I LOVE Josie Long. She has such a genuinely infectious enthusiasm for everything she does and she’s completely brilliant.

46

Ugg, what a train wreck. Broads just aren’t funny. Wasn’t *The Piano *supposed to be a comedy?

47

:smack: How could I have forgotten her? She’s funny, adorable, gay and lives five minutes away from me. It is nice to see humour that’s totally uncynical.

48

Too late to get Amy Poehler on the list?

49

Nope. She’s there.

50

So she is, I just didn’t see her.

51

She was the last name to get on the polls already up.

Here’s an idea I’ve had and I’m wondering how others might feel about it.

  1. Locate some largish list of female comics
  2. Take off the names we’ve already used
  3. Post the results as another preliminary poll’s contents. (20-30 range)

Anybody?

52

It would appear that interest in this topic is mild at best. Here’s a summary of both polls at the 10-voter mark:



      
View Poll Results: Funny Women Preliminary "A-L" (vote for 5)  
This poll will close on 06-15-2011 at 01:43 PM 

Tina Fey              9 90.00% 
Carol Burnett         5 50.00% 
Jane Curtin           4 40.00% 
Ellen DeGeneres       4 40.00% 
Laura Kightlinger     4 40.00% 
Garfunkel & Oates     3 30.00% 
Janeane Garofolo      3 30.00% 

Bea Arthur            2 20.00% 
Maria Bamford         2 20.00% 
Margaret Cho          2 20.00% 
Kathy Griffin         2 20.00% 
Madeline Kahn         2 20.00% 
Vicki Lawrence        2 20.00% 
 
Jo Brand              1 10.00% 
Jo Caulfield          1 10.00% 
Dawn French           1 10.00% 
Shappi Khorsandi      1 10.00% 

Stephanie Hodge       0 0% 
Elayne Boosler        0 0%
Jen Kirkman           0 0% 
Lisa Lampainelli      0 0% 
Natasha Leggero       0 0% 
Wendy Liebman         0 0% 

Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 10

View Poll Results: Funny Women Preliminary "L-T" (vote for 5)  
This poll will close on 06-15-2011 at 01:51 PM 

Gilda Radner          6 60.00% 
Amy Sedaris           6 60.00% 
Paula Poundstone      5 50.00% 
Sarah Silverman       5 50.00% 
Rita Rudner           4 40.00% 

Kathleen Madigan      2 20.00% 
Amy Poehler           2 20.00% 
Jennifer Saunders     2 20.00% 
Jean Stapleton        2 20.00% 
Wanda Sykes           2 20.00% 
Judy Tenuta           2 20.00% 
Aisha Tyler           2 20.00% 

Julia Louis Dreyfuss  1 10.00% 
zoe Lyons             1 10.00% 
Andrea Martin         1 10.00% 
Sarah Millican        1 10.00% 
Cheri Oteri           1 10.00% 

Morgan Murphy         0 0% 
Tig Notaro            0 0% 
Kristen Schaal        0 0% 
Amy Schumer           0 0% 
Iliza Shlesinger      0 0% 
Pam Stone             0 0% 
Julia Sweeney         0 0% 

Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 10
53

Zeldar, I have not seen the thread you posted this in yet. Maybe others have missed it as well. Give it a few bumps. Maybe post a link to it in this thread!

54

See Post #44.

Links to the two preliminary polls are in there. Both are Cafe Society polls.

55

It looks like the L-T poll is stuck at 29 voters, since I have been delaying posting this comparison. This is as close as I could get it at the 30-votes mark:



View Poll Results: Funny Women Preliminary "A-L" (vote for 5)  
This poll will close on 06-15-2011 at 01:43 PM 

Tina Fey          22 73.33% 
Carol Burnett     15 50.00% 
Ellen DeGeneres   15 50.00% 
Madeline Kahn     13 43.33% 

Bea Arthur         8 26.67% 
Jane Curtin        8 26.67% 
Janeane Garofolo   8 26.67%

Margaret Cho       6 20.00% 
Dawn French        6 20.00% 
Garfunkel & Oates  6 20.00%  
Kathy Griffin      6 20.00% 
Laura Kightlinger  6 20.00% 

Vicki Lawrence     5 16.67% 
Maria Bamford      4 13.33%  
Jo Brand           3 10.00% 

Elayne Boosler     2  6.67%
Jo Caulfield       2  6.67% 
Stephanie Hodge    2  6.67% 
Shappi Khorsandi   2  6.67% 
Jen Kirkman        1  3.33% 
Wendy Liebman      1  3.33% 

Lisa Lampainelli   0  0% 
Natasha Leggero    0  0% 

Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 30 
(Latest count: Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 37)

View Poll Results: Funny Women Preliminary "L-T" (vote for 5)  
This poll will close on 06-15-2011 at 01:51 PM 

Gilda Radner         15 51.72% 
Amy Sedaris          15 51.72% 
Rita Rudner          12 41.38% 
Sarah Silverman      11 37.93% 
Julia Louis Dreyfuss 10 34.48% 
Amy Poehler          10 34.48% 
Paula Poundstone      8 27.59% 

Jennifer Saunders     5 17.24% 
Kristen Schaal        5 17.24% 
Kathleen Madigan      4 13.79% 
Wanda Sykes           4 13.79% 
Judy Tenuta           4 13.79% 
Iliza Shlesinger      3 10.34% 
Jean Stapleton        3 10.34% 
Aisha Tyler           3 10.34% 

Andrea Martin         2  6.90% 
Pam Stone             2  6.90% 
Julia Sweeney         2  6.90% 
zoe Lyons             1  3.45% 
Sarah Millican        1  3.45% 
Morgan Murphy         1  3.45% 
Cheri Oteri           1  3.45% 

Tig Notaro            0 0% 
Amy Schumer           0 0% 

Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 29

It might make sense to decide what a reasonable cutoff would be in combining the names from these preliminaries. Ideas?

56

25% of the vote or more gets in? That seems reasonable. That gives you seven from each.

57

Seems at least reasonable to me. Thanks.

58

There have only been a few votes since that summary just above and I’m about ready to do a “final poll” for the funny women.

If no more votes come in by Monday, I will.

59

I have seen 2 women in my life who were truly household name comediennes. 2 women whose standup acts were so well known that you would hear their jokes quoted by just about everybody (in their time) and when somebody would make a joke you would think that they were channeling that specific comedienne. They were:

  1. Roseanne Barr
  2. Joan Rivers

I might give Sarah Silverman an honorable mention - but Wanda Sykes and Ellen Degeneres (puh-lease). They were never funny. Not for 2 seconds.

60

Brett Butler (the child ain’t right).