Christopher Hitchens says no in this arrogant rant. This understandably upset a lot of people. Unfortunately, research has shown that women don't make audiences laugh as much as men. Here's a clip from the British comedy panel show QI:
This doesn't mean the case is closed. Just like nearly everything in the feminist blogosphere, this can be traced back to cultural influences, at least in part. Women aren't SUPPOSED to be funny. Men are. Certainly not all men feel threatened by a funny woman's wit, but surely some do. Certainly not all women laugh less at other women, but if people believe that women are not funny, why wouldn't they laugh more at men? At a certain point, the belief that women can't make us laugh as effectively as men is sure to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Audiences will expect that women are merely chuckle-worthy and will ignore or downplay the hilarity that women are capable of.
Though Ronni Ancona joked about there being equal numbers of men and women, it does seem that there are fewer females who choose to make a living making people laugh. Perhaps this is because they won't get as many laughs, or because they've never seen themselves as or wanted to be comedians. There could be any number of reasons, but the more we see women being funny, the more we'll start to believe that they are. Funny women have been around for ages, but it wasn't until recently- due to the success and critical acclaim of women like Tina Fey, Amy Sedaris, and Sarah Silverman- that being a comedian was a normal thing for a female to do, not just an anomaly.
And finally, the obvious: humor is subjective. Maybe one woman doesn't share your sense of humor, but she is hilarious to someone else. One woman doesn't represent all women, just as anyone from any group cannot encompass everyone.
So even if you aren't a comedian, go ahead and tell your joke, no matter what your gender. Folks from all walks of life are capable of injecting some much-needed humor into our world.
I wanted to point out one thing -- attention seeking.
ReplyDeleteIn, say, high school, the attention-seeking females can generally get attention by dressing, err, appropriately.
Attention-seeking males mostly can't, and being funny is one way to get that attention.
Not that I'm expressing any moral judgment here, and it's not as if women can't be funny (Tina Fey is indeed wonderful), it's that I think there's a larger pool to work from with males.
I suppose that's largely what Hitchens was aiming at, though flippant and thoughtlessly. I.e., there's a plausible evolutionary reason for men to be good at humor.
Still, there are enough people in the world that there should be plenty of fine women comedians. And on a lesser scale, more people trying to be funny is better than more people trying to be serious.
At least I'd prefer that world.