Why are there so few women comedians?

Re: we're just funnier!!

I don't have the talent but it seems strange that women were allowed to engage properly in the arts and just followed in men's footsteps. I would have thought that something different/new/exciting would have come about.

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I don't think that's strange at all. It's an intersting perspective though. One I hadn't thought about.

I'd have though that if there was something new and exciting in Art, men would have discovered it. Unless you think women have some insight to enable them to take art in new direction simply by virtue of being women.

Interesting idea.

-Rd

Re: we're just funnier!!

you mean piggy's a man

Re: we're just funnier!!

"you mean piggy's a man "


Why do I always get this????


Yes...I'm a


Maybe there's a way I could change my username to something else. Butch perhaps!!

miss piggy?

Piggy,

I had thought that too, until recently. It's the association with "Miss" Piggy. You could change your name to boar, but that's a bit boaring...

Re: miss piggy?

I wonder can you change your name? Or do you just have to register as a new person. Maybe a mod can answer that one.

Re: we're just funnier!!

Hi daltonr

It's not that I think women are "better" but I do think we would have a different perspective and something different to bring to the table of art etc. but I don't see it.

Other groups previously excluded from society have added to and changed the culture of the society they subsequently joined. Look at the black community; how they have changed the face of American (and therefore modern Western) culture. They may not have taken over painting and sculpture (yet) but there's a very tangible, discernable African American contribution to the arts (dance, music, fashion etc). I don't think that case of women is directly analogous to groups such as African Americans but it does illustrate what I might have expected to happen.

If we accept that men are led more by different visual stimulii to women (and I think they are), then a big change in the arts should have happened. And if there is no difference, how do we explain the proliferation of the female nude in art and pornography without an equivalent for women.

I should probably read more books on these subjects - it would probably save you all having to read this Don't worry, I do have a life, promise!

Rebecca

Re: we're just funnier!!

Perhaps women's outlet for stimulii is fashion, surely during the course of the last century the amount of creative effort put into fashion in its various forms, from actual clothes to interior design demonstrates this. A lot of what is considered fashion is quiet alien to men who just can't see it leading to the inexplicable (to me) phenomenon of the (hopefully deceased) new man and gay men telling us how to dress (shudder).

Re: we're just funnier!!

Hi ican'tbelieveitstaken

I'm afraid it's not so alien to men at all: Versace, Gucci, Jon Rocha, Dior, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen, Vidal Sassoon, Max Factor, Tommy Hilfigger, Calvin Klein etc. etc. Women are as poorly represented in interior design, couture, perfume, hair and make-up as they are in many other areas. There are some exceptions here too of course; Coco Chanel, Eileen Gray, Linda Barker.

The notion of women's creative juices resting in the decorative or applied arts is an old one. The Victorians were the first ones to really run with interior design but as with many other areas and not dissimilar to the situation today, interior design was led by men, such as William Morris. Women didn't actually design anything; they might have painted some tiles, or done a bit of embroidery in a workshop or had some sway in loosening their husband's purse-strings but they weren't (and aren't) the leaders. Back then they couldn't but now they simply don't even though they can.

The only really famous couture designer I can think of at the moment is Stella McCartney, daughter of Paul, and even at that, she's closer to the fringe than the epicentre. When feminism was on the rise, there was a bit more female involvement; Biba, Mary Quant, Vivienne Westwood but it wasn't sustained.

Rebecca

An evolutionary explanation

I started this discussion about comedy and now we are on to lots of other areas. Let's go back about 2 million years. Men and women evolved differently. It's a bit of a simplification, but men hunted and women nested.

Different characteristics would have been favoured for the two roles. Men probably grew bigger and stronger over time as that would favour the hunter.Evolution definitely favoured aggression and risk taking in men. Evolution probably weeded out aggression and risk taking in women. Evolution would have strongly favoured competitive behaviour, leadership skills and dominance activity in men.

On the other hand, it seems that women have evolved better verbal skills and some people skills.

So the relative proportions of men vs women who were stronger, more aggressive, more competitive,more risk taking and more dominant increased over the past two million years. That gives men a huge natural biological advantage over women in areas where these skills are rewarded, for example business and politics. 100 years or so of feminism and 20 years of equality laws cannot overcome millions of years of evolution.

While woman's better verbal skills are a help in these areas, they don't compensate for the lack of aggression and competitiveness.

I still don't know why women are not funny. Women always say that they want a man with a GSOH. Maybe men have had to evolve a GSOH to live with women

Niles

What do women think

By the way Ms. Ribena, would you agree that women are inherently less funny than men? Not just at the very top, but at all levels. Are your male children and nephews funnier than your female children and nieces? Are your adult female friends more or less funny than your male friends?

Niles

Re: What do women think

Hi Niles

I don't buy into many of your claims on the evolutionary differences of the sexes. They can actually prove very little of the caveman stuff; the jury is still deliberating on the balance between nature and nuture. Steven Pinker's "Blank Slate" is an interesting read in that area.

And no I wouldn't necessarily agree that men are funnier on the basis that men dominate stand-up - they dominate many areas but it doesn't make them "better" at it than women. I also think humour is "in the eye of the beholder". Some jokes seem childish to me and many women have a more wry, cynical sense of humour. I can appreciate both, at times. Anyway, "sense" of humour isn't actually a sense of course, as it is culturally conditioned and changes from country to country and over time. We all know the stereotype of the Germans' lack of sense of humour and many of us can remember a time when racist and sexist jokes were ok; although I suppose they probably still are in some circles.

Rebecca

Please close this topic

This is becoming embarrassing, women are so obviously inferior in almost every aspect of human endeavour, why continue this humiliation? Some moderator please do a mercy killing on this thread.

scotland

Wow! - there are some mighty long posts in this thread. I have a vague recollection that in Ancient Egypt at some stage, women were the bosses.

Maybe there's a way I could change my username to something else. Butch perhaps!!

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People will just think you're a lesbian if you do that.

Re: scotland

"People will just think you're a lesbian if you do that."

Good point.
But at least if everyone is gonna think I'm a burd I might as well be a lesbian.


Rebecca,

The reason you don't get a lot of jokes (or think they're childish) is probably similar to the way I just don't get Sex and the City or films like Little Women!!
We're just very different in a lot of ways.

Evolution

Lads - this is an important subject. Can we try to keep it civil. Ms. Ribena is on her own it appears and fair play to her for arguing her side of the story.

Ms. Ribena

You don't accept this evolutionary stuff. Lots of people don't, but most scientists do.

Presumably you accept some of it?

There are huge physical differences between men and women e.g. height, bone structure, reproductive biology, hair and skin quality. Presumably you accept that these are 100% biological or evolutionary and nothng at all to do with culture?

Niles

Re: Evolution

Piggy,

You've kinda hit the nail on the head for me. How different are we exactly? The problem is nobody really knows. I think a lot of women shy away from dealing with that question properly in case the hard-won equality rights are clawed back. People (esp. women) might not want to discuss this too much but I believe that we need to get down to the nitty gritty of this issue to reach the next level of human maturity. Personally, I used to suspect that women weren't featuring more highly in lots of roles because the roles themselves were designed by men for a masculine world and therefore women couldn't/wouldn't ever be as good as men in them. I would be fine with that if I had seen women come out with a new take on everything, but they/we haven't and that is what I dispair about.

Niles,
Of course I accept the Theory of Evolution (which is about humans relationship to other species, not to one another)!! I just argue with your extrapolation of it; there is very little scientific evidence to establish how much gender difference is learned and perpetuated in society and how much is down to genes.

But hey whatever about a feminist rant, I certainly didn't mean to hijack Niles's thread to get up on a personal soapbox. I honestly thought when I mentioned anything like this on the thread that some women would have put their oar in, if only to tell me I'm talking muck on their behalf. Back to dispair!!

Rebecca

Re: Evolution

Rebecca,

Strictly speaking this should be in the craic but I think it illustrates my point quite well. Very funny too...


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Check entire body for spots & tweeze hairs.

Return to bedroom wearing long dressing gown and towel on head.

If you see husband along the way, cover any exposed areas.



HOW TO SHOWER LIKE A MAN:

Take off clothes while sitting on the edge of the bed.

Leave in a pile.

Walk naked to the bathroom.

If you see wife along the way, shake knob at her making woo-hoo sound.

Look at manly physique in the mirror.

Admire the size of your knob and scratch your ass.

Get in the shower.

Wash your face. Wash your armpits.

Blow your nose in your hands and let the water rinse them off.

Make fart noises (real or artificial) and laugh at how loud they sound
in

the shower.

Spend majority of time washing privates and surrounding area.

Wash your butt leaving those coarse hairs stuck on the soap.

Shampoo hair. Make shampoo mohawk.

Pee.

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Leave shower door open, wet mat on floor, light on and fan on.

Return to bedroom with towel around waist.

If you pass your wife, pull off towel, shake knob at her and make
woo-hoo

noises again.

Throw wet towel on bed.

humour

sorry for coming in late on this. I'll bypass all the later evolution/feminism stuff and go straight to the comedy point..
I must have seen most Irish comics over the last 10 years and can never remember once laughing a comediennes joke so I am of the mind that women, as a whole (tongue firmly in cheek) are just not funny.
So I think, the only women who make it to the top in this country are the ones who play the game and put on a visual gag (nualas, DOK). Again, I think DOK rode on the back of "Paths to Freedom", where her stuff was pretty much wrote for her. There is the delivery aspect to a joke, but if the material is bad, its bad. I think its pretty much a closed shop at the top due to RTE. Take fair city, didnt Keith Duffy say he would have liked to start his acting carrer in fair city but it was impossible to get past the front door in montrose? (enough about his acting skills tho). It looks like the same goes for the comedians/comediennes, if someone in RTE thinks it makes for good tv, they'll be put on. DOK is obviously loved, as were the nualas, whom I as well as everyone else here seems to think they were an absolute pox on womens chance of making it in comedy.
But then again, Jason Byrne is loved, he truly is funny, but to be honest, he doesnt make for good tv. It just doesnt translate well.
Funniest female of all time in my book has to go to ruby wax. joan rivers next.

btw, I went to see Reuben(check out [broken link removed] ) and Dave McSavage in a duble bill last week in crawdaddy, hilarious stuff, I heartily recommend you try and see either of them. (quick plug for reuben playing in vicar street 11th june)

torch

i can only think of smack the pony for something very funny acted out by girls...i think its down to the fact that guys like comedians more than girls. Girls being more mature they always go for the more serious or a kind of humour most guys don't really pick up. flame on!

re

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Girls being more mature they always go for the more serious or a kind of humour most guys don't really pick up
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You mean unfunny stuff?