how about the Queens of comedy? Laura Hayes, Mo’Nique, Adele givens and Sommore. I found it quite funny.
I also think the OP doesn’ t particularly like women trying to be funny. The reason I say this is he (or she) says that he discounted comedians like Ellen degenres because “Again, I meant I don’t consider lesbianism very feminine in nature.” Only the very feminine are considered by him to be " female stand-up comics". So non-feminine comics don’t qualify and of course a comic who was very feminine wouldn’t be standing on a stage baring her psyche to the audience. Sort of self fulfilling.
I find her creepy. Remember how in grade 4 there would be a girl who would try to become popular by constantly bulling and teasing the special ed kids? She always strikes me as that girl grown up.
I have to say though that I don’t like standup comedy and I’m kind of strangely proud that not too many women do it. When I was watching the Aristocrats I swear I didn’t laugh once. Oh, I did laugh once when Taylor Negron was talking about losing his credit card. For some reason that’s pretty funny to me. Because he wasn’t acting like a standup comedian I guess! Everyone else was just making me want to barf. That movie really summed up standup comedy for me. Guys trying to impress each other.
Kathleen Madigan? Did anyone mention her? She’s pretty funny. I’ve seen her in person.
In general, though…I’ve been to an open mike night at a comedy club and there were 7 men & two women. Most of the men had pretty lame routines but got a couple of laughs, the first woman came on with a bitter and sarcastic monologue and didn’t get one laugh, but the second woman, who came next to last in the program, made the audience laugh from the minute she stepped up to the microphone. She was just a funny person. Here is her first line that got a laugh:
[paraphrased, obviously] “Hi, I’m straight, white, and female. I’m happily married, I wasn’t abused as a child, and I’m not in therapy. So you might wonder–what’s to laugh at?”
I expected her to become a big name, or at least a recognizable one. Well, I’m not helping either–I don’t remember her name. Ronni or Rona or something like that. But she was definitely funny.
It seems to me that you’ve created a definition of being feminine that precludes being funny. Or maybe you’ve created a definition of funny that precludes being feminine. I’m not sure how you expect anybody to get around that barrier. Maria Bamford might be the most traditionally feminine woman on this list, but I think you ought to figure out what your issue is.
Interesting discussion, especially in regards to the link between femininity and funniness. I admit it’s kind of hard to think of a beautiful woman in a sexy dress telling hilarious jokes. Sarah Silverman’s attractive, but even in most of her stand up comedy that I’ve seen she wears pants.
(Note: I opened this thread hours ago and got sidetracked by offline stuff. I see Kathleen has already been mentioned, but I’m posting as-is anyway.)
I’ve long noticed that the majority of female comics aren’t funny. I’ve almost as long been trying to pinpoint precisely why. The main conclusion I’ve come to is elmwood’s; much of their material is not inclusive nor universal. I’ve also noticed that timing is frequently an issue.
But I’m checking into mention that I caught Kathleen Madigan’s Comedy central hour-long special. She’s damn good. Great timing, and good topics.
Although I’ll admit she has a lot of sports material, it doesn’t dominate her act. Mostly her subjects are pretty inclusive, such as money isues. I highly recommend her to anyone and everyone who is frustrated about the fact that they don’t see many funny women comedians.
And she’s pretty cute, IMO. Just my type, in fact. And her act is a traditional one, as opposed to “stream of consciousness” acts like Janeane Garofalo and Kathy Griffin.
For the record, I’m a fan of Sarah Silverman, Janeane Garofalo and Kathy Griffin, though they are way down the list of my favorites comedians. I don’t dislike Roseanne and Ellen, and I can’t stand Margaret Cho and Rita Rudner. Interestingly, of these comics, the ones I can’t stand are the ones with traditional formats.
That’s why I’m such a huge fan of Kathleen Madigan. She’s a woman doing traditional format stand-up comedy, she’s feminine / fairly attractive, and she’s funny as hell. That’s hard to find.
Wanda Sykes is absolutely one of the best female comedians around. I think she’s given it up for a while to focus on movies and tv, but if you haven’t seen her do standup you’ve missed out.
Kathleen Madigan is also fantastic, but lesser known.
By the way Marley23, I checked out Maria Bamford on the net and it just so happens that she’s performing this Tuesday here at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater in L.A. (and for only 5 bucks!)
I made a reservation. So I’ll have a consensus for you soon.
I’ve been a fan of Janeane Garofalo since The Ben Stiller Show, so I was predisposed towards her… but when I saw her do live standup a few years ago, I was blown away by how funny she was. She’s one of the two funniest people I’ve seen live (the other being Greg Proops).
It’s been a while since I’ve seen any of them, but I found Elaine Boosler, Dianne Ford, Monica Piper, and Carol Leifer laugh out loud funny. My favorite of the ones already mentioned, though, is Rita Rudner. Going waaay back (because I do) I still remember Totie Fields with a smile. I really liked her.
I think there are a lot of funny women around, but they don’t get widely known as easily as the men. Pity.
I believe there might be less female comedians than male. That’s just a guess from all the years and routines I’ve ever seen on talk shows and Comedy Central and HBO and so on.
But, I mean, if you go from the old days of Joan Rivers or Phyllis Diller all the way up to Margaret Cho or Elvira Kurt or Ellen or Sarah Silverman, not to mention women who have been on TV series (Lucille Ball, Roseanne, Megan Mullally) or on sketch comedy programs (Gilda Radner, Molly Shannon, Amy Poehler), that’s a huge spread of styles and years.
For you to not find any female comic funny eludes me. Maybe you just have a problem with women?
IMO…
It’s just not seen as sexy (I know, I know, tons of people on this board will disagree- especially if they’ve seen Amy Poehler at UCB).
Men get attention (and women, if they are heterosexual) based on what they do, including talking loudly and taking crazy risks to get girls’ attentions. Women get attention based on their looks. Bitch magazine (totally underrated) did a great piece on this and why women politicians were lambasted if they made jokes (that weren’t at their own expense). Women always want a guy with “a good sense of humour,” but some guys’ just want someone to laugh at their jokes.
Also, who gets to dictate what’s funny and what isn’t? Lemme guess…
“What did the guy say to the woman after she told him she was a stand-up comedian?”
“Oh, do you have a girlfriend?”
