Standing Up: Feminism in Comedy
Merriam Webster defines an 'inside joke' as, "A comical exchange that is understood only by people with special knowledge about the topic." Who would know more about the role of women in comedy than the female comics making the jokes?
If you were to look at your local comedy clubs, you might notice that most venues are more of a men’s club than a comedy club. A woman might be dropped in the lineup every now and then but you’ll feel like you’re playing Where’s Waldo trying to find her on the schedule. Every now and then you may even see a club advertise a “Girl’s Night” show that features an all-female cast. Yet, the notion that one night is dedicated to an entire gender is a testament to the gender disparity in the industry.
Writing a good joke is a lot more than just getting people to laugh. Think of a time when you made your friends laugh. Those laughs came from your specific shared context, which you used to make a clever observation, witty statement or something else that was funny. In this case, the premise—the setup—is woven into the fabric of ordinary life. Your hilarious quip was the punchline.
For most female comedians, the setup is all too familiar. The ordinary life they find themselves in is uniform: Male-dominated, filled with crude language, and a microcosm that demonstrates the obstacles women face every day. The punchline to this setup, however, doesn’t always end with a room full of laughter. Even in the world of comedy, gender inequality exists.
The Setup: Establishes the premise of the joke by providing the audience with the necessary background information.
Many people that aspired to be comedians did so because from a very young age when they started making people laugh. Likely, they got a lot of positive social feedback for this, which encouraged them to further want to develop this talent.
“When you’re sarcastic in the south people are laughing and they go ‘That's not funny that’s not funny,’ so I heard ‘That's not funny.’ And I didn't think I was funny,” says Sarah Tiana, a stand-up comedian and writer for television shows including “Jeff Ross’ Roast Battle,” “Sanford & Son,” “Chelsea Lately,” and “Comedy Central Roasts.”
From a young age, comical behavior is encouraged in boys and often discouraged in young girls. Girls are told—whether expressed or implied—that it wasn’t proper or polite to talk about certain subjects. Sex or bathroom-talk is thought to be taboo for girls to talk about and therefore makes a lot of people uncomfortable to hear it. When men shape a career around the same subject matter, they get away with it under the justification that "boys will be boys."
“When a man would say some crass things, that was funny and he's edgy. But if a woman were to do the same it was like, ‘Oh my god. What is she doing?’” says Nicole Schreiber, a stand-up comic and lead character on Oxygen’s show “Funny Girls” which follows the lives of female comedians. “She's so not classy… She’s not a lady.”
Perhaps aspiring female comics are discouraged by rhetoric like the controversial Christopher Hitchens Vanity Fair article arguing that women “simply lack the humor of men.” Or Jerry Lewis telling a crowd at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, “I don’t like any female comedians ... a woman doing comedy doesn’t offend me but sets me back a bit. I, as a viewer, have trouble with it. I think of her as a producing machine that brings babies in the world.”
“People always say that to me, ‘I just I really don’t think women are funny, but you're funny,’” says Tiana. “And I go, ‘Yeah, I don't think a lot of women are funny either. I don't think a lot of comedians are funny.’ Statistically there are way more unfunny men out there just because there's so many more of them.”
The Punchline: The laugh line. The setup leads the audience in one direction, and the punchline surprises them by suddenly going off in a different direction.
“I get this question a lot. What is it like to be a woman in comedy?” says Tiana. “I think people expect the answer to be like, ‘It's so hard. It's so tough.’ But it's hard being a comedian.”
Comics on Feminism
"I think that I get labeled a sex comic just because I'm a woman. Like, a guy could get up here and literally pull his dick out and people would be like, 'He's a thinker.'"
"George Clooney married Amal Alamuddin this year. Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, with Kofi Annan regarding Syria, and was selected for a 3 person U.N. commission invesigating Rules of War violatons in the Gaza Strip... so tonight her husband is getting a Lifetime Achievement Award."
"I feel like "feminist" is "gender equality." We're feminists, our show, the people who work on it, are feminists."
"There's always going to be some guys out there--'Oh, period? How disgusting!'"
Sarah’s perspective is an optimistic one. After all, we live in a society that almost elected our first woman president. However, things still don’t quite seem to exist on an even playing field for all genders in America. In 2015, women still only earned 80 cents in the workplace for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. The entertainment industry personifies the same lack of opportunities that exist on Wall Street, professional sports, or any other industry—and not only in Hollywood.
Evidently, comedy clubs are more than willing to put up room and board for male comics; However, the decision-making process is under more scrutiny when it comes to female comics. “There’s no question that in the industry many booking agents have to consider the audience that a comic attracts, and this often works against [a women’s] favor” explains Jamie Flam, director at the Hollywood Improv. “We’ve seen diversity work to our advantage here but that’s certainly not the standard.”
“Whenever I'm on the road doing stand-up at a club, I just want people to buy another ticket. I just want you to come back and see me next time I'm here.
— Sarah Tiana
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There’s a joke among comics: The only difference between a booker and a hooker is that there are some things a hooker won’t do for money. While it is easy to point fingers, it is important to acknowledge that this action is not malicious or even intentional. Rather, it may be a result of a simple supply/demand analysis.
The male-dominated world of comedy is driven by what sells tickets. Of the 683 people big enough to warrant inclusion on Wikipedia’s list of “American Stand-up Comedians,” just 92 are women. That amounts to a not-so-funny 13%. The fact that there aren’t as many women as men in comedy is not the result of the comedy industry being sexist. That is simplifying the issue. The issue is probably more along the lines of the audience being sexist. You can be sure that women would dominate the nightly lineups if that’s what drove ticket sales.
The only difference between a comic and someone on unemployment is the person on unemployment is guaranteed the check is in the mail on the 15th. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not record specific data about the salaries of stand-up comedians. Entertainers and performers in general, however, made roughly $18.60 per hour in 2010—amounting to about $30,000 per year. For some, the risk is worth the reward. When comparing the industry averages to the leaders, the income gap becomes rather apparent.
In 2016, Kevin Hart was the world’s highest-paid comedian, ending Jerry Seinfeld’s nine-year reign. According to Forbes’ list, Hart earned $87.5 million between June 2015 and June 2016. The comic making history on the list, however, was Amy Schumer, who was the first woman to break into Forbe’s Top-10 list--coming in fourth with $17 million. This monumental feat gives the inference that society is becoming more accepting of female comics, yet highlights the progress that still has to be made.
“I think more women are being given a chance. You can't keep somebody out of the game forever,” says Schreiber. “Women are not going away. We're not gonna stop. So you either give us a chance or we're just gonna keep bothering you.”
In recent years, there have been noticeable efforts across all levels of the entertainment industry to feature more women. Comedians such as Kristen Wiig, Lena Dunham and Amy Schumer have paved a way for other upcoming female comics. Film franchises like “Ghostbusters” have been rebooted with all-female casts. This year, Samantha Bee left “The Daily Show” to host her own talk show on TBS, and both Maria Bamford and Chelsea Handler had new series debut on Netflix.
“What tends to happen is that someone breaks big as a woman and then there’s a long period of time where everyone is kind of imitating it,” says Scout Durwood, a comedian who appears alongside Nicole Schreiber on Oxygen’s “Funny Girls” as well as other shows including “Justified,” “House of Lies,” “The Mindy Project,” and “Mary + Jane.”
Comedy Central’s recently announced slate of half-hour stand-up specials—a reliable indicator of which performers are on the verge of breakout careers—featured five women out of 17. There’s a lot more work to be done before the comedy world reaches real gender equality, but the recent successes of notable female comics have opened the door for other women in the industry.
“You know there are lot of strong female voices in entertainment now,” says Schreiber. “It's a sort of thing where when you see the formula starting to work I think executives are like, ‘Oh, people do want to hear female voices. Let's do more of that so we can hit that demographic.’”
The gender gap in comedy isn’t just limited to stand-up comedians. To get a portrait of gender imbalance in TV comedy-writing staffs, look up the writing staff of the top 10 sketch comedy shows on IMDB. The results are no surprise. Out of the staffs of shows like “Saturday Night Live,” “The Daily Show,” “Last Week Tonight,” only two writing staffs are over 50 percent female: “Inside Amy Schumer” and “Broad City,” which both center on female characters. “Portlandia” came close, with women making up 40 percent of its writing staff.
“I think the hardest part about being a woman in comedy is that usually you're the only one on the show,” says Tiana. “So if you don't do well people continue the stigma that women aren’t funny. It's like a burden on your shoulders of just being like 'I have to do so good.'' Because if I don't then people will be like, ‘Oh women aren’t funny.’”
While it appears that women are making strides in the comedy world, there are some quantifiable results that suggest otherwise. A Variety article in 2015 reported that in 2013-14, only 15.1 percent of executive producer credits went to women, “down noticeably from 18.6 percent in the 2011-12 season.”
The Tag: Additional punchlines. Sometimes they build on the original punchline, and sometimes they twist in another direction or even back to the start.
Much of the comedy we laugh at comes at the expense on another person’s pain, discomfort, or unhappiness. Watch the “Three Stooges,” “I Love Lucy,” or “Seinfeld”, the bulk of the humor here arrives from the lead characters’ misfortunes.
Feminism is something that can be hysterical (pun intended). “For me feminism is humanism with the understanding that women are operating at a deficit in social currency,” says Durwood.
It can’t be denied that comedy clubs accept rhetoric that would otherwise be considered inappropriate in most work places. Language that is often racist, homophobic, or misogynistic has proven to be the bread-and-butter for many comedians—male and female alike. While this is usually a consequence of an on-stage persona, many times it doesn’t stop at the end of a set.
“If you're a feminist, you wanna make change. Change doesn't start with you yelling and reprimanding someone,” says Schreiber. “Know what change you want to bring about. Because that’s what being a feminist is. It’s bringing about change for women. Like I said, you can't yell and scream and berate men.”
Comedians often look at “political correctness” as a hurdle that impairs discussion. Those on the other side of the argument would say that it is used essential to upholding the status quo and protecting those with a lesser voice.
“People love to get offended,” says Tiana. “And I always think that you're not really offended, you're just worried someone's gonna think that you're not offended.”
Laughter comes from pain and alleviates it. They don’t call it the “best medicine” for nothing. “People love to be offended because it makes them feel like they're doing something. It makes them feel like they have an opinion,” says Tiana.
Many comics do material that is subversive or even sexual in nature, and they often get plenty of laughs. Certain topics, however—such as misfortunes in gender or racial issues—don’t garner the same laughs they used to. It may not be “political correctness.” It may just be that many people no longer find those jokes funny anymore. Comedy that kicks people while they’re down is simply going out of vogue. Perhaps chivalry isn't dead, but these women don't need a door held open for them. They're standing up themselves... for their jokes and for their principles.