Marta Acosta forwarded me another link, this time to a Vanity Fair article by Christopher Hitchens attempting to explain Why Women Aren’t Funny.
The hell?
Largely an examination of gender mixed with wit vs. humor, the upshot of Hitchens’ article seems to be that men will laugh at anything, and therefore have more material to draw from so as to create the funny-funny. Women are serious about most things, and expect to be entertained by men, and thus are more picky about what they laugh at.
Perhaps, says Hitchens, men do not want the competition from women in the funny department, but more likely, men like “childish” humor while women do not. Add to that the “authority” given to women by virtue of being the ones that reproduce and birth children, and you have the root of all that silly humor: the mocking of that authority – women.
Dude. DUDE.
I’ll be the first to admit: pregnancy is often funny. It’s not comfortable, and it’s bizarre and scary and incredibly moving at times (literally and figuratively), but be real, here. I have to stand on my head to empty my bladder, and rolling over is like steering a cruise ship. I can’t reach the faucet on the sink because my belly is in the way and my arms are too short. And we won’t even discuss stretch marks and how they make me scratch my gut like I’m on the back porch drinking a beer.
And afterward? Motherhood of a toddler? Or an adolescent? Or heaven help us all, a teenager? If you can’t find the humor in it, you’ll go bananas.
All these women he describes in the throes of maternal formality? I have no patience for them anyway. Even without discussion of motherhood and children, women in my acquaintance are pretty amusing. I think yesterday might have been one of the more serious things we’ve written about here, and even then some of the terms Candy used made me snort.
The spinning imbalance of power and authority in the article between men and women, humor and seriousness, political and familial authority – thinking about that article too much just made me dizzy. Men, the social and political authority in patriarchal societies, are subjugated under the authority of women, and therefore we are mocked and certainly aren’t funny? Amongst ourselves, we ladies are serious, self-absorbed, and have the funny drummed out of us during the absolutely formal experience of childbirth?
So what the hell is with this assumption that women sit around taking themselves too seriously – are you kidding me?
Edited to add:
Ann Althouse’s site discussed the article, as did Melinda, a comic who drew a very clear parallel between women and anger, and anger and comedy. Then, a group of comics do some dissection amongst themselves at Jenisfamous.
I wanted to comment, but the comment was too long, so it turned into this rant.
Basically, it’s the old Victorian double standard. Women are like Satan—all-powerful and cunning, yet so low and stupid they can’t use that power and have to be Protected From Themselves. By of course not having any say over their money, their bodies, their labor, or their lives.
Which is of course a big crock of crap to cover up men jabbering so endlessly we can’t get a word in edgewise, using up all the planet’s resources irresponsibly, and punching their girlfriends in the face all the time.
Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know I was too stupid to use satire. I should go get pregnant again and stay in my place, barefoot in the kitchen. Right, Mr. Hitch?
Yeah. Can you tell that torqued me off? And STILL does?
What? So I can’t admit in public that I LIKE Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, and Will Ferrell movies? C’mon, Zoolander…Talledega Nights…The Longest Yard? Anyone?
Deb,
That joke was hi-fuckin-larious. Awesome. Thank you for sharing it.
Glad you liked it, Sally. Did I just prove that women are funny?
Surely this was written just to get attention? In my entire life, I’ve never heard anyone suggest women weren’t funny before. It would be like saying “men have lungs and women don’t” or something. Just not an idea that would even cross someone’s mind. I suspect he’s just trying to get people stirred up.
So delighted to give the SBs something to get you all riled up about.
Many men think that they’re way funnier than they often are. I remember some jackass telling an unclever misogynistic joke. When I didn’t laugh, he said, “You don’t have a sense of humor.”
I said, “I have a great sense of humor. You’re not funny.”
They think that if we don’t laugh, it’s because we don’t get it.
I also saw that part on “Last Comic Standing” where a woman got dissed for telling a dating joke, but a guy who followed told dating jokes and the male judges laughed.
Oh, you drew me out of lurkerdom for this one. I couldn’t even stomach the first page of C. Hitchen’s article. “Was Dorothy Parker funny?” Is the man so busy generating humor, he can’t appreciate anyone else’s? What a self-absorbed asshole!
The points I really wanted to make were:
1. Gifted comedians of either sex are rare.
2. Gifted women comedians often choose to stay home and raise kids (or go out and work a steady job to raise kids) rather than to develop their careers as comedians.
3. Still, funny females have a huge impact on all comedians. Don’t tell me Chaucer lifted that “Wife of Bath” sketch from a transvestite! Many comedians (of both sexes) talk about their funny moms. (And dads, to be fair.)
I also think people have to relate to the basic premise of the humor. Shit jokes are universal, and you can appeal to both sexes with that. Pregnancy jokes, though—I wonder how many single men and never-pregnant women would be willing to sit through a 15 minute monologue about pregnancy? Some would—maybe in the interest of research—but a lot would be totally zoning it out. OTOH, women who have gone through it can talk for HOURS about the funny stuff of pregnancy. ‘Cause if you don’t laugh, crying looks like a pretty good option.
Hitchens is just trying to shock and stir up some muck. He admits there are good women comics (although his list is pretty darn short, in my opinion—what rock does *he* live under?), and brings up research that says women appreciate humor more, and in practically the next paragraph, tries to tell us that be that as it may, men will laugh at anything. Logic doesn’t seem to be his strong point.
He’s skating the edge of “that’s funny” and “that’s stupid.” Fortunately, with my superior feminine abilities of discerning funny vs. unfunny, I could tell the difference right away. What a jerk!
But if he gets people thinking about that kind of stuff, he’s done something good for the world, right?
Sarah, if you haven’t read it yet, check out Pregnancy Sucks: What to do when your Miracle makes you Miserable by Joanne Kimes and some doctor. There’s a version for men, too. I think Kimes was a professional comedian before she was a writer.
It will make you laugh so hard you might go into early labor.
I remember reading this article when it was published in Vanity Fair. My main reaction was “huh?” I realized that he was trying to go for satire and that he desperately believed he was being funny. All of that understanding was there, and still it just wasn’t funny.
I wasn’t offended, really, but I did feel a great wave of pity for poor Mr. Hitchens. It must be hard to work so hard for satire and wit and to fail so miserably. The poor man just can’t seem to find his sense of humor no matter how big the flashlight or how nimble the proctologist.
My favourite joke-and happily told these last 20 years- What’s the difference between a prostitute, a girlfriend and a wife? The prostitute says, “O.K that’s it, your finished”, The girlfriend says, “Ohh, you’re finished” and the wife says, “Beige. I think I’ll paint the ceiling beige.”
I have been happily married for over 30 years and know why I laugh at this joke. I wonder how many men would.
Oh, since Christopher Hitchens started loving Bush and calling for MORE MORE WAR, he’s just become only ever more pointless than he was before as a pseudo-Leftist drunken poseur.
Bah. Real men love women’s sarcasm and snark. Mr. Hitchens, on the other hand, is probably just threatened…
Christopher must’ve been in his cups when he wrote that; or, locked in a closet in the basement for the past 20 years or so.
I simply know too many sly, funny women who contradict his theory.
But perhaps these funny women don’t feel compelled to huck their wares onstage, for an anonymous public, and instead choose to amuse, entertain, and console those in their inner circle.
To put it another way: funny women aren’t the base attention whores that CH’s funny men might be.
CH needs to get out a bit more, maybe.
Hah, I’m sure the reason that that prat moved to the US is so he wasn’t deafened by the chorus of eyerolling (there was so much that it *was* audible, honest) that went on whenever he issued a pronouncement back home in the UK. Looks like the honeymoon period is starting to wear off in the US as well.
Now can we all pleeease ignore him for the troll he is, despite the “suave”-sounding accent and pseudo-intellectual rantings?
Captcha: family53. While we’re speaking of families, it’s not just those humourless feminists he picks on; he’s not that fond of queers either. Or lefties who haven’t *cough*sold out*cough* seen the light of true whatever-the-hell he’s standing for now.
Some jokes are funny— Deb’s joke, above, was funny. But anyone who thinks jokes are all there is to humour is, well, kind of an idiot.
Is it just me, or did he say that women aren’t funny because men are stupid? Because there’s just so much wrong with that sentiment that I don’t know where to begin.
I think the best response to this article appeared on McSweeneys website in a piece written by Kate Kreshner – check it out it’s hilarious.
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2007/4/11kershner.html
The poor man just can’t seem to find his sense of humor no matter how big the flashlight or how nimble the proctologist.
jocelynnesimone for the WIN. See there, Chris? That’s how you do it.
Hitchens is an ass. Worse than that he’s not funny either. Women are all powerful and the only reason men cultivate their own humor is for women’s sake? Only Jewish people are funny? Only “hefty” or “dykey” women can be funny? My first response would be to kick his lily white behind but I’m too much of a lady (I could take him though). Second response is to say humor is a defense mechanism, it works differently for men and for women. Humor is about pain too, something women are more willing to consider and reflect upon than men.
Dorothy Parker is funny. She used humor as a defense mechanism as well as a way to make a living. She was on a first name basis with pain, was not afraid to name it and still makes me laugh some 70 years later. Will anyone say the same for Hitchens?
This reminded me of one of my favorite Sylvia strips. Sylvia is sitting at a counter and a man is asking her what the world would be like without men. Her answer—“No crime and lots of fat, happy women.”