Alex_P said:
There's usually a strong element of aggression in the humor in stand-up comedy.
That makes it more of a "masculine" thing, in the sense that it's closer to stereotypically masculine modes of self-expression than stereotypically feminine modes of self-expression.
Therefore, it's likely that more men will do stand-up comedy than women.
very interesting observation.
i find a similar thing with music, too: a large portion of musicians, especially in rock, hip-hop, and pop music in general, tend to be men, involving subject matter revolving around drugs, violence, rough sex and heartbreak. great examples are bands like blind melon, nine inch nails, pearl jam, oh who am i kidding the list is endless. the ones that stand the test of time all have very powerful, energetic music and stage presense, regardless of your personal opinion of their music. even more optimistic music, like incubus or sublime or led zeppelin, has a touch of sorrow even in their happiest songs.
when female musicians break into the mainstream, they can't seem to convey that same power, no matter how much they try; are britney spears and pink on the same wavelength as, say, pink floyd and nofx? (the only exceptions i can think of right now are heart {with the wilson sisters on vocals and lead guitar} and kittie {an all-girl death metal band from london, ontario}; there are a few more, but time hasn't been so kind to them, except maybe fleetwood mac--ooh, i forgot about them).
maybe it's because i'm a male musician who doesn't quite get the appeal of 99% of hip-hop music, but i feel like men want to make more of am impression with what they do, while women could care less if they make a dent as long as they can shake their ass to it.
but back to the actual topic:
the same kind of reasoning applies: george calin, bill hicks, lenny bruce, richard pryor, etc all aimed to make an impression on the world (even if they thought we were doomed); while most female comedians i see on tv (eg clips from the Just For Laughs festival in montreal, quebec) just ***** about boring things. do they just want to vent? i know a few coked-out sluts who do it all the time (and that's not meant in spite, they really are coked-out sluts with mad,
mad issues).
there was one older female comedian, i don't remember her name, who was talking about getting a mammogram, and just the way she told it was hysterical ("great, dorsal fins!" XD); but the rest of her routine wasn't as interesting. most female comedians seem to suffer the same fate.
by the way, i know there are a lot of bad male comedians, too. the per-capita ratio i think would be about 3 good male comedians for every 1 female. dispute me for it, flame me for it, i don't care. it's a message board, discuss!!