Women, know your limits

[PanzerJaeger]

double post

[gaelic cowboy]

What does that have to do with anything?

I knew I should have used a smiley

[econ21]

Fragony, you obviously have never heard Jane Lynch - probably the funniest comedian on TV at the moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsGNaNFW1bk

Although I think Heather Morris is running her a close second:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYib...eature=related

[Husar]

If you like impersonation, maybe try Martina Hill, if you understand some german.

Anke Engelke also won several comedy awards here.

[Papewaio]

Joan Rivers...

[Louis VI the Fat]

Seconded. My list of funny Norwegians isn't that long, but therre are plenty of women on it:

- Anne-Kat Herland, has been a riot for over a decade now.
- Kari Slaatsveen and Pernille Sørensen are in that same category, and in addition they are the very definition of MILFs.
- Linn Skåber is very funny and also good at the surreal which is a big bonus for me.
- Janne Rønningen is always funny when doing stand-up.
- Siv Anita Andersen is a very funny actress, even though she's had a habit of selecting very unfunny shows. But in Etaten, she was very good.
- in addition, there are several very funny females on the radio station p3.

As for more international names, there are several good female comedians on Michael McIntyre's show(and similar concepts). Plenty of those on the Daily Show are very funny, and I have always found the females on Mad TV to be a lot funnier than the males.

And I have undoubtably forgotten a bunch of people now.

I would go into a lenghty argument about all this, HoreTore. But we all know I just won't stand a chance, Norwegians are experts on lack of sense of humour.

~~o~~o~~<<oOo>>~~o~~o~~

have you guys never been around genuinely funny girls in your own lives?

Nah, not really, no.


Women are excellent audience for humour though. They do get the jokes, know just how to have some fun. They make for fantastic company. They just aren't very accomplished at being active comédiennes.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Apart from stand-up, have you guys never been around genuinely funny girls in your own lives?

Nope. Was the class clown ever a girl?

In our culture, it's funny when a guy talks about cheating on his girlfriend and having to stop at a gas station to clean the glitter lip gloss off his penis (actual Dane Cook crap)

No, no its not.

[phonicsmonkey]

No love here for Tina Fey? I think she's hilarious

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Well, of course there are funny women. Pride and prejudice is very funny, and that woman from the all the marx brothers movies too. And so on. But picking out individual examples is kind of futile, it doesn't do much towards the claim that actively making jokes is more of a male thing.

My impression is that in normal conversational humor they are just as funny. Performance humor is something more men go for, in the same way that performance athletics is.

[PanzerJaeger]

Nah, not really, no.

Nope. Was the class clown ever a girl?

I don't know what to say. Maybe you guys are hanging around the wrong type of women, or maybe you don't relate to them on a social level. Lots of men never really do.

I went to all male schools until college, so I couldn't comment on those years, but there are plenty of female class clowns at the university level.

[Strike For The South]

If you're going to palgarize a column please make sure its not a famous peice from a famous author. Cmon tulipWomen don't have to be funny for the same reason women only bring enough Monet for the cover If you can't make a women laugh, you won't be going home with her

[rajpoot]

My impression is that in normal conversational humor they are just as funny. Performance humor is something more men go for, in the same way that performance athletics is.

This.
The reason there aren't many good women comedians is because not as many women as men go to become comedians.

[Major Robert Dump]

APRIL MACIE is probably one of the best feature-length comedy shows I have ever seen.

The woman made Howard Stern blush when she went on his show.

The woman has people get up and walk out because she won't quit picking on them and speculating on their gentilia and bedroom habits

The woman got banned from the USO tour because of her dirty mouth.

I would also recommend SARA SILVERMAN stand up (not the show)

[Montmorency]

Dorothy Parker.

[Beskar]

Angela Merkel when she announced that Germany was going to bail-out Greece a second-time, until they actually realised she was serious.

[Ronin]

In our culture, it's funny when a guy talks about cheating on his girlfriend and having to stop at a gas station to clean the glitter lip gloss off his penis (actual Dane Cook crap)

that hack is not funny...
you could say he is successful as a comedian...but that's a different thing.
Same way the musician that sells more records is not necessarily the most talented musician

but gross when a girl talks in the same manner. It sucks and it is hopefully changing

but somehow they can exploit that and get away with not even being that funny, but "she's a girl and she' saying yucky stuff" as an example I present to you the entire career of Sarah Silverman....

as to genuinely funny female comedians...
Janeane Garofalo
Kathleen Madigan
Margaret Cho

are the names that come to mind.
but I must admit I prefer male standups...and my top 10 would probably be an all male one.

P.S. - also, to people that are interested in comedy and comedians...I´d suggest checking out "The green room with Paul Provenza" on Showtime.....the show is just basically a bunch of comedians talking.
Earlier in the year there was also a good show with Seinfeld, Louie C.K., Chris Rock and Ricky Gervais discussing their views on comedy.

[Fragony]

I would go into a lenghty argument about all this, HoreTore. But we all know I just won't stand a chance, Norwegians are experts on lack of sense of humour.

[Adrian II]

The truth is that a large part of comedy revolves around crassness. [..] (actual Dane Cook crap) [..]

Meh, bad example. The best in America (Dennis Leary, Bill Hicks, Jerry Seinfeld) or the best my country (useless to cite their names here for obvious reasons) don't do that sort of crap. Female comedians and writers don't have such a hard time, there just aren't many of them around.

AII

[Vladimir]

Ok. So the point of the thread is that Fragony hasn't seen any good female comedians. Right?

[Ronin]

The best in America (Dennis Leary, Bill Hicks, Jerry Seinfeld)

You do realize Dennis Leary is basically just a Bill Hicks rip-off right?
his act is funny, but it's not original and putting him in a list of the best seems a tad too much.

[Adrian II]

You do realize Dennis Leary is basically just a Bill Hicks rip-off right?
his act is funny, but it's not original and putting him in a list of the best seems a tad too much.

As punishment for this gross misrepresentation, you will now have to sing along.

AII

[Ronin]

As punishment for this gross misrepresentation, you will now have to sing along.

AII

misrepresentation .
you know why Dennis Leary has a career? because there is no cure for cancer :D

[Adrian II]

Here's something weird for ya.

In the early 1960's we had a children's program on Dutch tv done with marionettes. It was innocent and corny, you could see the strings on the puppets and so on, but never mind, kids love that sort of thing. The hero was a hobgoblin named Paulus and the villain was a witch named Eucalypta. This Eucalypta character spoke in a high-pitched, cackling voice which every Dutchman still recognises today even if the series is long gone.

Now the weird thing is that every Dutch male between the ages of 40 and 60 can still imitate Eucalypta. Impeccably so. Not a year goes by without some guy in my vicinity going "Zoooo Paulussie, daar heb ik je te PAKKEN!" Yet no woman from the same (or any other) age bracket can. Women just can't get Eucalypta right.

There's a lesson in there, though I have no idea what it is. Maybe an ethnographer would explain that this points to some dark secret in the Dutch soul.

AII

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Start a thread out with misogyny and see where it gets you.


Far fewer women doing standup than men; qualitatively, I don't think you could assert that much difference.

Comedic actresses we have in plenty and always have. Again, I don't think you could assert a qualitative difference meaningfully.

Sitcoms featuring comedians (either gender) run into the same problem all shows do. Many start out pretty funny and entertaining, but.... How many episodes can you crank out before it ceases to be innovative? How many more must we suffer through before the show starts jumping the shark?

[InsaneApache]

Plenty of funny women.

In the past.

Hattie Jacques. Joyce Grenfell. Lucille Ball.

More up to date.

Jennifer Saunders in Ab Fab. To coin a phrase, brilliant.

Caroline Aherne in everything she's done. Scorchio.

A couple of examples.

[Lemur]

Despite the wisdom of the old saying, de gustibus non est disputandum, I'm going to point out that it's impossible to assert that women are in any meaningful sense less funny than men. Where to start? First define "funny." Then try to form a definition that can be meaningfully applied to everyone. Once you're done with that, go tell Lucille Ball, Tina Fey, Margaret Cho and Jennifer Saunders how they can't possibly be as skilled at comedy as they appear to be. (Maybe they're all secretly men or something?)

Then sit down and watch some Harry Enfield for the rest of the day.

[Adrian II]

I'm going to point out that it's impossible to assert that women are in any meaningful sense less funny than men.

True. And valid as well. Personally I've laughed my arse off watching Ab Fab, albeit not for Saunders but for Lumley. But it can't hurt to provoke like Fragony often does and then see what transpires. The one thing I take away from this thread is Ronin's great remark about Dennis Leary's career. Oh snap. It left me speechless. I'll be passing that one on to friends.

AII

[a completely inoffensive name]

I'm so glad there are not any women posting here, polluting the thread with unfunny posts about equality.

[Samurai Waki]

Lisa Lampanelli...

[Scienter]

Tina Fey
Amy Poehler
Whoopi Goldberg
Ellen Degeneres
Samantha Bee
Margaret Cho
Sarah Silverman
Liz Winstead
Sandra Berhnard
Janine Geraffalo (sp?)
Wanda Sykes