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Why are female comedians disliked more than male comedians?

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F

Fudgepuppy

Banned
There was the Christopher Hitchens remark, the Dan Carolla shtick, etc etc.

I thought the concept was absurd, but then I started hearing and reading about more and more people - male and female - confessing they didn't like any female comedians either.

So I did some research, I watched specials with Tig Notaro, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho, Amy Schumer, Maria Bamford etc etc, and I just couldn't get into them.

So where does this all come from? Is it patriarchal misogyny or is there some much more scientific reason.

EDIT. Should've specified I am talking about stand-up. There are tons of funny female writers.
 
S

skynidas

Banned
There isn't a single female comedian that I like. But I don't see how it has to do with "misogyny" or any of that crap.
 
Dice

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Plenty of women have made me laugh plenty, but no woman has made me laugh as hard as some men... but it is a small handful of men there. I figure it is part a difference of angle from which they approach social issues that I have less affinity with and part the fact there simply aren't as many women doing it but the ratio of great ones is the same.
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
daviyoung said:
Jo Brand is the shit
Click to expand...

I don't know, I used to find her hilarious but the fact she's on every panel show known to humanity is making me find her less funny through overexposure - the David Mitchell effect.
 
S

...Scatter...

Banned
Sarah Silverman has her moments. But for the most part, I don't find female comics funny.

Hard to put my finger on it. They just lack chill. And the forced sex jokes are the worst.

I'm limiting this to stand-up.
 
D

dalin80

Banned
I go to a few indy comedy clubs and about 2/3rds of the comedians are male so there is a much bigger pool of comedians to find the best ones from, that and I have to say as a whole the female ones are just quite terrible. usually about 1 in 3 of the male comedians will get good laughs through a set, may 1 in 10 women will get the same reaction and their range of material is usually quite limited as well.

There are so many sets based around 'husbands being lazy' before you just zone out and start playing solitaire.

There needs to be a much larger grass roots pool of female comedians in order to find more good ones and hopefully that in turn will allow more female comedians to be more comfortable in exploring different themes for their sets.

I consider it the Jo Brand effect, awful comedian but often pops up on comedy shows as she is one of the few female ones available.
 
K

Kuroyume

Banned
They're not funny... Unless you count an actress on a show like Seinfeld or Arrested Development, but I don't think those actors are comedians.
 
J

jph139

Member
I don't think it's "female comedians" - I mean, some of the biggest comedians around today are women. Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Melissa McCarthy... they just tend to be actresses and writers as opposed to stand-up comics.

Probably just due to historical pressure - stand-up comedy just feels "masculine" for some reason, and most female stand-up acts feel "forced," probably for those same reasons.
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
There are some, but there are less widely active female comedians. That creates less women being raised with them, less inspiration. SNL and improv however, seems to be the route most females take in their path towards stardom. There are plenty of examples there of funny women, who may or may have not translated as well to the standup club scene.
 
S

starchild excalibur

Member
I think part of is it that there may be an overall fewer number of female comedians. So while there are a ton of shitty male comedians, the smaller overall percentage of good male comedians still yields a larger number of male comedians to like as compared to female.

There's a lot of mediocre stand-up on both sides of the aisle. Percentage-wise, I don't know that I dislike female comedians any more than male comedians.
 
S

SwiftDeath

Member
I've never really found a female stand-up comedian that funny but I haven't watched many. I have found a lot of comedic writing written by females hilarious in sitcoms so maybe that says something about me? Although I absolutely adore Unbreakable kimmy schmidt and 30 rock and in both some of the funniest parts are delivered by the female characters so again not sure how my own personal biases are playing into it all.

Shiina said:
Shoes!!! lmao!!!
Click to expand...

Why would you do that to me? :(
 
A

Abounder

Banned
Most comedians are 'meh' but women tend to rely on body part jokes too much, as well as other lowest common denominator stuff. There's not a single female standup that would rank among the pantheon of greats (Carlin, Pryor, etc)
 
A

Always-honest

Banned
Dislike? Not the right word i think.
I think most comedians are still men. And only a few of them are funny. There are less female comedians, and only a few are funny.
 
kunonabi

kunonabi

Member
I just don't like the current crop of female comedians and for whatever reason I can't get into women's stand-up routines in general. I used to really love a lot of comedic actresses so it's unfortunate that I don't enjoy any of them lately. To be fair I don't like that many male comedians either so it may be more about modern day comedy than sex that's the issue for me.
 
J

jonno394

Member
There isn't a single UK female comedian I can name yet alone can admit to liking. However, I don't actually find the vast majority of male comedians funny either, stand up comedians just don't do it for me.
 
B

border

Member
There a pretty good theory that women are generally not as good at comedy because they are generally not socialized to be good at comedy. Men are expected to be charming, sociable, relatable and jovial in order to woo women.....while women are just generally trained to accept and enjoy this behavior out of men. They rarely have to be the one who charms and entertains a potential suitor. Men are trained for comedy as soon as puberty hits, women are expected to be a mostly passive and supportive audience.

The interesting flip side of this is that it's why lesbians tend to be solid comedians. They are used to having to be funny to charm women.
 
A

Africanus

Member
Sexism may be a part yes.

But it may be more indirect in a sense. For example, a male comedian may have a better support group, better criticism, more opportunities to practice, perform, and refine his humour on average than a female comedian. Which would explain why women would have their jokes '"fall flat" more often than men.

But it is simply a hypothesis. I am not into the comedy industry very deeply, and the only comedian I follow regularly as of now is John Oliver, a man.
 
M

mgarnica89

Member
Female in comedy films have made me laugh aplenty. As for stand up , they never make me laugh. I think it's the source material that most (not all) female comedians tend to fall back on. Differences from men , Female body issues, sex and religion. Maybe i'm looking up the wrong comedians.
 
F

FiggyCal

Banned
That's pretty fucked up OP.

I think you probably went in expecting too much; and that's usually a bad sign when you're watching a stand up.
 
S

spazchicken

Member
Dice said:
Plenty of women have made me laugh plenty, but no woman has made me laugh as hard as some men... but it is a small handful of men there. I figure it is part a difference of angle from which they approach social issues that I have less affinity with and part the fact there simply aren't as many women doing it but the ratio of great ones is the same.
Click to expand...
This pretty much sums up my thoughts on the issue as well.

Also, when female comedians talk about sex, it's a little more awkward than when men do for some reason. On top of this, you can be 90% sure she'll go there.
 
M

MidnightCowboy

Member
Plenty of actresses and female writers have made me laugh, but standup is a different story. I'm sure there are some good ones, I just don't know of them.

Edit: Actually, I've seen some funny women at open mics. I'm positive I just don't know who the good women standup artists are.
 
Q

quesalupa

Member
I think there's a couple of funny female comedians. I don't think there's really misogyny or anything involved for most people not liking a lot, there just happens to be fewer good ones.
 
N

Nudull

Banned
Frodo said:
Also, Tig Notaro made me laugh more than most men ever will.
Try listening to their jokeswithout watching them as they them. Just listen to it and see if it helps, if you can't find women funny.
Click to expand...

Well, that brings up a question: do people not like female comedians because of their supposed lack of skill, or because they know they're women?
 
M

Makai

Member
Surprised by the consensus. I've definitely laughed at female comedians. Kristen Schaal is the first to come to mind, probably because she's everywhere. Although I guess it says something that the other female characters on Bob's Burgers are played by men.
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
border said:
There a pretty good theory that women are generally not as good at comedy because they are generally not socialized to be good at comedy. Men are expected to be charming, sociable, relatable and jovial in order to woo women.....while women are just generally trained to accept and enjoy this behavior out of men. They rarely have to be the one who charms and entertains a potential suitor. Men are trained for comedy as soon as puberty hits, women are expected to be a mostly passive and supportive audience.

The interesting flip side of this is that it's why lesbians tend to be solid comedians. They are used to having to be funny to charm women.
Click to expand...

I did wonder about the last line. I noticed it myself when I was trying to think of female UK comedians I find very funny, and realized that a huge proportion of them are lesbians - Toksvig, Perkins, Calman. I Google'd this and found apparently a lot of people feel the same way - I didn't even know it was a stereotype until after I (thought I) reached it independently.
 
R

royalan

Member
This is strange, because in the black community I'd say there are plenty of respected female comedians. Mo'Nique, Sammore, Cheryl Underwood were all pretty respected. They don't do much comedy these days though.
 
P

PSqueak

Banned
This is one of the few media things i personally believe you can actually blame unironically on sexism.

I mean, watch amateur stand up shows, the women will always be equally as funny as the guys, how come mainstream celebrity comedians suspiciously are mostly guys and female ones are constantly slammed?
 
S

SpaceWolf

Banned
Thinking about it now....could it be said that Sarah Silverman is the most famous female comedian of all time? To me, she strikes me as the only female comic who's really internationally recognizable.
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
I've also personally come across most females enjoying male comedians over female. Like I mentioned before, many of them enjoy the women that come from more of the improv style background.

Thanks to Netflix and online outlets, the scene has been probably healthier and more diverse than it ever has been. So, there is that.
 
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