Why are there no funny female comedians?

[JMeganSnow]

I generally don't like comediennes (am I the only one who knows that there's an actual different word for female comedians?), but the humor I like is generally benevolent and clever.

Most women take little things too seriously to EVER be able to generate real humor of the stand-up variety--they are just too self-conscious about it. Most of the humorous women I know are very sly and subtle in their humor, which makes for poor stand-up even when the woman herself is very amusing.

The women I see doing some form of stand-up always come across as Trying Too Hard. They use the formula but they don't have the sort of premises that make humor come naturally.

I have this problem, too, so I know what I'm talking about. I'm often VERY humorous by accident but when I actually try to be funny it falls flat. It seems to work better for men perhaps because they don't become so utterly self-conscious when they're doing something intentionally.

 

[PatientGrasshopper]

Kathleen Madigan- I enjoy her comedy immensely....Quite funny, just with her voice and the nerdy topics she covers......

Alright, I'll give you that she is pretty funny.

I find that there are more bad male comedians than bad female comedians. Then again, there's more male comedians in general, so that might be the reason.

This is true

Kathleen Madigan- I enjoy her comedy immensely....Quite funny, just with her voice and the nerdy topics she covers......

Alright I checked she is pretty funny.

Jo brand [link]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya3CZBY6dO0[/link]

She's alright for a laugh here and there.

Female comedians have been around for years. Myra sybil? Victoria Wood? Hattie Hayridge? Jo Brand? Most if not all have been around since or even before the 80s doing their thing in the UK, all to a high standard.

Then of course there are the women who have been forced to pretend they are men for years. Eddie Izzard anyone?

That comment was pretty funny, Eddie Izzard is a male lesbian, what makes him funny is that he seems spontaneous.

Kathleen Madigan- I enjoy her comedy immensely....Quite funny, just with her voice and the nerdy topics she covers......

Alright, I'll give you that she is pretty funny.

I find that there are more bad male comedians than bad female comedians. Then again, there's more male comedians in general, so that might be the reason.

This is true

Kathleen Madigan- I enjoy her comedy immensely....Quite funny, just with her voice and the nerdy topics she covers......

Alright I checked she is pretty funny.

Jo brand [link]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya3CZBY6dO0[/link]

She's alright for a laugh here and there.

Female comedians have been around for years. Myra sybil? Victoria Wood? Hattie Hayridge? Jo Brand? Most if not all have been around since or even before the 80s doing their thing in the UK, all to a high standard.

Then of course there are the women who have been forced to pretend they are men for years. Eddie Izzard anyone?

That comment was pretty funny, Eddie Izzard is a male lesbian, what makes him funny is that he seems spontaneous.

... it's really hard to explain exactly what I find funny, oh my favorite comedians are, Frank Caliendo, Craig Ferguson, Harland Williams...I like a good impressionist...

Based on the Youtube footage I poured over, you are a fan of comedians who point out the absurdity of everyday familiarities, as well as people playing funny characters and impressionist-based caricatures of celebrities and/or everyday people, to complete your humor aesthetic circle. You apparently are not a fan of those who replace the insight, intelligent language and resulting humor of exposing everyday ridiculousness with anger and unnecessary volume (Sam Kinison started that journey, and Dane Cook crashed it into a tree...). If I were to hazard a guess, Patton Oswalt doing his impression of Master Shake doing his Vegas night club stand-up act while under the influence of the hypno-germ (I forget what season, go look it up) would be right up your alley. Most of your humor base also tends to toy slightly with putting a surreal face on everyday interaction with the world. Most of their experimentation in this realm tends to follow the typical route of personifying animals or things and making jokes about the thing that can't act human and the behavior the thing would exhibit if it could act human. And lastly, the comedians you mentioned talk quite a bit about things I'm guessing that you yourself are more familiar with, and can better relate to. You like laughing at what you know.

Me? I like comedians who can tell a good story, especially when the story is based on a very surreal premise. I'm an even bigger fan of those who can simply [a href="http://www.rifftrax.com/"]ride a good story[/a] while pointing out sights of interest that may or may not actually exist. Bill Hicks is an example of one of my premise riding heroes, even if he tended to stick closer to the real world. Bill Cosby's material is legendary for his ability to take a 40 second event from his life, turn it into a 45 minute story and jump back and forth over the barrier of surreality as he exaggerates the thoughts and personal histories of every person and object involved. George Carlin was the ultimate hippie, taking common examples of everyday-level everything and running it through that post-acid theoretical filter of his, and then straight into the part of your brain you didn't know you were using at the time.

To be honest, I can't think of any truly standout / uncommon female examples of your type of stand-up humor, and I can't really think of too many existing female examples of mine. But maybe this will help in starting the search...

Nice analysis of my comedy style. Are you a student of psychology by any chance. Anyway you mention Bill Cosby and the thing is I do rather like him even though his formula of tell a story of an incident in his life and drawing it out doesn't seem to work well if another comedian does it, an anecdote is one thing but Bill Cosby turns what would be an anecdote into an entire routine.

 

[GrimmjowPantera]

Come to Britain. We have many good female stand up comedians.

 

[teaster]

Come to Britain. We have many good female stand up comedians.

Eddie Izzard being one of them.

No but seriously... Great comedian

 

[PatientGrasshopper]

Ok first thing is first, PatientGrasshopper without a doubt You are sexist.(Based on what I've seen from you)

Anyways, last I checked there are many hilarious women, you just have to look at shows like "Premium Blend" Or "Last Comic Standing" They also appear in TV shows and such, just look closely and expand your comedic horizons, also there are heaps of funny female comedians, that and I am going to get this thread locked.... (I hope)

I am not trying to say it being sexist, there are plenty of unfunny male comedians. I also don't hate female comedians simply because they are female, I hate them because they are not funny.

Ruby Wax, Ellen DeGeneres, Ella Chen, Sarah Silverman, Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Cho, Chelsea Handler, Kathy Griffin, Amy Sedaris, Kathleen Madigan, Laurie Fondiler, Megan Mooney, FIONA O'LOUGHLIN, Marisa Orth,Dercy Gonçalves, Catherine Tate, Amanda Egge Amanda Egge, Heloisa Perisse, Lucy Porter, Erica Doering, Jo Brand...

All succesful comedians in their own right. If you like them or not is a case of taste. Personally I dislike Jim Carrey and some consider him a comedian too.

To give some more thought on the OP's question, just stop a moment and think of this:

'How many succesful female .....' are there? On the dots (.....) you can fill in any word which has a male equivalent like: comedians, formula 1 drivers, soccer stars, colege football teams, american presidents, etc, etc.

Uhm.. none? Now to answer the OP's question: 'It's a man's world.'

Thread Fini.

You know what I think you hit on something there. I am trying to see if I can think of a job women are known for more, nurses, that's the first thing that comes to mind but you don't get famous being a nurse. Oh wait civil rights leaders, Rosa Parks, she may be one of the most successful civil rights leaders. However I see your point. Although I disagree with most the women you listed.

I do have something to add, Judge Judy is funny, funnier than any of the male judges, but then again she is not trying to be a comedian, I would probably be intimidated meeting face to face. She is a better judge than the other TV Judges except for maybe Mills Lane, because she tells it like it is and doesn't take crap.

I generally don't like comediennes (am I the only one who knows that there's an actual different word for female comedians?), but the humor I like is generally benevolent and clever.

Most women take little things too seriously to EVER be able to generate real humor of the stand-up variety--they are just too self-conscious about it. Most of the humorous women I know are very sly and subtle in their humor, which makes for poor stand-up even when the woman herself is very amusing.

The women I see doing some form of stand-up always come across as Trying Too Hard. They use the formula but they don't have the sort of premises that make humor come naturally.

I have this problem, too, so I know what I'm talking about. I'm often VERY humorous by accident but when I actually try to be funny it falls flat. It seems to work better for men perhaps because they don't become so utterly self-conscious when they're doing something intentionally.

I see what you are saying because I know women who are funny unintentionally or spontaneously, but wouldn't do well with stand up, and as others have mentioned I think on TV shows like sitcoms and such which mostly involves interaction with other people, women can be funny so yes I am mostly referring to stand up.

Come to Britain. We have many good female stand up comedians.

Eddie Izzard being one of them.

No but seriously... Great comedian

OK you got me there Eddie Izzard= Great female comedian. I do enjoy some British comedy, like I like Are you being served? I have seen a bit of the British the Office and I love the American version but haven't seen enough of the British version to make a comparison.

 

[Darkwolf9]

It's mostly the perspective. You tend laugh at things when you hear a story that is from the extreme of your perspective on things. What I mean is, if a joke or story is being told in a way that you can relate and then it's believably embellished you tend to enjoy it more. Comedians people usually enjoy match their personality and talk and/or complain about the things those people can relate too. Unfortunately most women comedians that I've ever seen haven't been able to tell a good story and make it almost believable that it happened.

 

[Hookman]

Jo Brand. Shes probably one the best(if not the best) female comedians I've seen/heard.

 

[Mythbhavd]

There were some great comediennes in the past...Gracie Allen, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Ellen Degeneres was good before she started pushing an agenda with her comedy, Rita Rudner, Joan Rivers, Rose Marie, Betty White, Lily Tomlin, Phyllis Diller, Whoopi, Patricia Routledge (doesn't do standup, but hysterical in her roles), Jane Curtin, and Minnie Pearl.

But, I'm drawing a blank on some recent comediennes who are funny. Perhaps Lisa Landry?

 

[PatientGrasshopper]

There were some great comediennes in the past...Gracie Allen, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Ellen Degeneres was good before she started pushing an agenda with her comedy, Rita Rudner, Joan Rivers, Rose Marie, Betty White, Lily Tomlin, Phyllis Diller, Whoopi, Patricia Routledge (doesn't do standup, but hysterical in her roles), Jane Curtin, and Minnie Pearl.

But, I'm drawing a blank on some recent comediennes who are funny. Perhaps Lisa Landry?

Yea although it seems they had a different standard of comedy back then, today everyone is so focused on the obscene.

 

[[Gavo]]

Um... Tina Fey?

I don't know why people like Sarah Silverman...she just is lame. I saw five minutes of her show and turned it off. Not even five.

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

There are tons of decent female comedians, are you stupid or do you just have no sense of humor? Like Kathleen madigan, Kathie Griffin(sometimes), Lisa Lamponelli and a few others I can't remember the names of...

 

[PatientGrasshopper]

There are tons of decent female comedians, are you stupid or do you just have no sense of humor? Like Kathleen madigan, Kathie Griffin(sometimes), Lisa Lamponelli and a few others I can't remember the names of...

I thought the only reason Kathy Griffin was funny was because she was not funny.

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

There are tons of decent female comedians, are you stupid or do you just have no sense of humor? Like Kathleen madigan, Kathie Griffin(sometimes), Lisa Lamponelli and a few others I can't remember the names of...

I thought the only reason Kathy Griffin was funny was because she was not funny.

I said (sometimes). What more do you want from me?

 

[NonMagicPoet]

Women tend to not have a good sense of humor.

However, my boyfriend thinks Sarah Silverman is brilliant, but he's one of those people who reads into the "message" of something rather than taking something at face value.

 

[NonMagicPoet]

]Um... Tina Fey?

I don't know why people like Sarah Silverman...she just is lame. I saw five minutes of her show and turned it off. Not even five.

I agree entirely.

 

[Gummy]

some of the Australian comediennes are alright. what I've seen of Fiona O'Lachlan is passable "We've got seven kids, and we're committed, we're going to keep trying till we get one we like" Kitty Flannagan is alright as well "Apparently the Irish still count the Titanic as a success, because by all accounts that boat was full of English people". as for the north americans: Maria Bamford seems pretty good, and Kathleen Madigan is 'ok'.

as has been said above in one way or another. a lot of female (and male) comics fall into the trap of talking about periods, pms, and other sexual issues. and instantly polarising the audience. 50% of the viewers simply don't relate, and more to the point simply Don't want to hear about some of these things.
but humour is as personal and subjective as anything else. so one mans groaners could be another man's comedy gold.

by way of contrast, one female performer whom I absolutely loathe is Australian Judith Lucy.
not remotley funny, and awful both to look at, and listen to.

 

[Convenient_Label]

Okay, the next person that says 'Eddie Izzard' is going to force me to invent the erstwhile device-for-stabbing-people-in-the-face-over-the-internet...

Eddie Izzard is:

1)Rabidly Heterosexual
2)A Transvestite
3)Weakly Transgendered

Eddie Izzard is not:

1)Female
2)Gender Dysphoric

Yes, he may have described himself as "a lesbian trapped in a man's body" but we like to call that sort of humour 'irony' here in the UK...

Sorry, it's just I have friends that are strongly transgendered and friends that are simply not fully cisgendered and I know for a fact that the second set hate to be mistaken for the former set and assumed to be gender dysphoric. It would be like me telling everyone somebody was gay because I saw him hug a man.

 

[EeveeElectro]

Jo Brand? Dawn French? Victoria Wood? Catherine Tate? Kathy Burke?

I saw one female comedian on a TV show, can't remember her name, but she was Asian and kept talking about that. It wasn't that funny after a while.
She stood really still too, and I prefer the ones like Lee Evens who jump around the stage like a spaz. There's loads of female comedians, but men are probably more famous.
Anyway, the women go on about vagina's and husbands, but I believe the men talk about masturbating and their wives bad habits too.

 

[Convenient_Label]

Anyway, the women go on about vagina's and husbands, but I believe the men talk about masturbating and their wives bad habits too.

That's where you're wrong. Both the men and women talk about vaginas, it's just one set tends to talk about owning them and the other set talks about wanting regular access to them.