Women Aren't Funny - Christopher Hitchens

[up_the_hampipe]

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nNTDaH6LFX0C&pg=PT1265&lpg=PT1265&dq=my+bet+with+graydon+was+essentially+a+simple+one&source=bl&ots=sKemgDhyl4&sig=ACfU3U33yUhbu8n-i6euwHrDw395_XIq7Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi6g9XM8MPhAhVZDmMBHa8nB-4Q6AEwAHoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=my%20bet%20with%20graydon%20was%20essentially%20a%20simple%20one&f=false

Not quite as unambiguous as I remembered it, but that's the quote I was referring to.

Thanks. Not sure that confirms he didn't really believe it. It's a controversial stance to take, hence the dare.

But even the premise of "Women aren't funny" is something that is rather obviously incorrect. And I don't think that people have necessarily assumed that he meant "no funny women"? I think people are disagreeing with the premise as stated

I think that has definitely been assumed by many of the responses, including the article he references in the video. Although his point is bollocks, the reaction to list off some funny female comedy performers seems to be missing that point.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Thanks. Not sure that confirms he didn't really believe it. It's a controversial stance to take, hence the dare.

Controversial on account of being flagrantly incorrect

I think that has definitely been assumed by many of the responses, including the article he references in the video. Although his point is bollocks, the reaction to list off some funny female comedy performers seems to be missing that point.

No because his point was that women do not possess a predisposition to being funny, and that when they do they only imitate a 'butch, male' style of humour, and many of the female comedians named refute the latter point entirely, and undermine the former by nature of their abundance

[up_the_hampipe]

Controversial on account of being flagrantly incorrect

Or controversial that some people will agree and some people will get very angry.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Yes, I'm aware of literal definition of the word

[up_the_hampipe]

Yes, I'm aware of literal definition of the word

Oh okay, seemed like you didn't.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

I was rather obviously being glib

[Small Man Big Horse]

This is such a stupid thread and anyone who believes it is a fucking idiot. I can't be arsed to spend that much time proving Hitchens / people who think this wrong either, but in brief:

Maria Bamford - Astonishingly funny, my favourite comedian and someone who is shockingly talented.
Bridget Christie - Her latest show was amazing, and much better than Content Provider.
Tina Fey - The creator of 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, both of which are brilliant.
Jena Friedman - Watch both of the Soft Focus specials and you'll know why she's so superb.
Danielle Ward - Her show Seventeen is one of the best things on NextUp, and the Do The Right Thing podcast is fantastic too.
Jen Kirkman - Made me laugh an enormous amount when she performed at the Soho Theatre last year.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge - Fleabag alone is an amazing work, and I hear her other shows are great too.
Rachel Bloom & Aline Brosh McKenna - Created Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Nothing more needs to be said.
Laura Lexx - Has two amazing shows on NextUp, and her latest is even better than those on the service.
Natalie Paladimes - Should have won the big award at last year's Edinburgh, and the best thing I saw last year.

And that was just off of the top of my head, I could have gone on and on.

[lankyguy95]

Women have breasts so they're obviously funny. Men have testicles so they're funny too. There is a middle club that has both breasts and testicles so they're very definitely funny.

[Sebastian Cobb]

This is such a stupid thread and anyone who believes it is a fucking idiot. I can't be arsed to spend that much time proving Hitchens / people who think this wrong either, but in brief:

Maria Bamford - Astonishingly funny, my favourite comedian and someone who is shockingly talented.
Bridget Christie - Her latest show was amazing, and much better than Content Provider.
Tina Fey - The creator of 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, both of which are brilliant.
Jena Friedman - Watch both of the Soft Focus specials and you'll know why she's so superb.
Danielle Ward - Her show Seventeen is one of the best things on NextUp, and the Do The Right Thing podcast is fantastic too.
Jen Kirkman - Made me laugh an enormous amount when she performed at the Soho Theatre last year.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge - Fleabag alone is an amazing work, and I hear her other shows are great too.
Rachel Bloom & Aline Brosh McKenna - Created Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Nothing more needs to be said.
Laura Lexx - Has two amazing shows on NextUp, and her latest is even better than those on the service.
Natalie Paladimes - Should have won the big award at last year's Edinburgh, and the best thing I saw last year.

And that was just off of the top of my head, I could have gone on and on.

This does highlight the point that some of the funnier women in Britain get hidden away on radio 4 and corners of the internet while Sara Pascoe and Catherine Ryan get all the gigs on the telly.

[up_the_hampipe]

Women have breasts so they're obviously funny. Men have testicles so they're funny too. There is a middle club that has both breasts and testicles so they're very definitely funny.

Male breasts are funny. A lady breast is no laughing matter.

[Autopsy Turvey]

This is such a stupid thread and anyone who believes it is a fucking idiot. I can't be arsed to spend that much time proving Hitchens / people who think this wrong either, but in brief:

Maria Bamford - Astonishingly funny, my favourite comedian and someone who is shockingly talented.
Bridget Christie - Her latest show was amazing, and much better than Content Provider.
Tina Fey - The creator of 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, both of which are brilliant.
Jena Friedman - Watch both of the Soft Focus specials and you'll know why she's so superb.
Danielle Ward - Her show Seventeen is one of the best things on NextUp, and the Do The Right Thing podcast is fantastic too.
Jen Kirkman - Made me laugh an enormous amount when she performed at the Soho Theatre last year.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge - Fleabag alone is an amazing work, and I hear her other shows are great too.
Rachel Bloom & Aline Brosh McKenna - Created Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Nothing more needs to be said.
Laura Lexx - Has two amazing shows on NextUp, and her latest is even better than those on the service.
Natalie Paladimes - Should have won the big award at last year's Edinburgh, and the best thing I saw last year.

And that was just off of the top of my head, I could have gone on and on.

Not one of them a patch on Dame Edna, be honest.

However I can't sleep so I'm also happy to list loads of funny women I love who were often every bit as funny as many of the best men; women who men always found funny, even when it was illegal to not be a misogynist:

Marie Lloyd
Vesta Tilley
Vesta Victoria
Elsie & Doris Waters
Gracie Fields
Joyce Grenfell
Patricia Hayes
Hattie Jacques
Penelope Keith
June Whitfield
Joan Sims
Beryl Reid
Dandy Nichols
Irene Handl
Peggy Mount
Hylda Baker
Yootha Joyce
Rita Webb
Fenella Fielding
Eleanor Bron
Joan Sanderson
Barbara Windsor
Esma Cannon
Su Pollard
Mollie Sugden
Liz Fraser
Thora Hird
Pat Routledge
Maureen Lipman
Jo Lumley
Mizza Margolyes
Sheils Hancock
Carol Cleveland
Jean Alexander
Gretchen Franklin
Kathy Staff
Faith Brown
Janet Brown
June Brown
Marti Caine
Jimmy Krankie
etc

all of them brilliant, sharp, savvy comic talents bravely fighting against the remorseless women-hating, systemic institutional abuse and grinding patriarchal oppression of post-war Britain to become highly successful, universally respected and adored icons of British popular culture (except maybe Esma Cannon).

Well I know loads of very funny women so I guess you've just cultivated a boring social life!

Nobody likes a good laugh more than I do, except perhaps my wife, and some of her friends. No of course I've had many a good laugh with many a good woman, but Hitch Major is only really saying that evolutionarily in social interactions women haven't needed to be funny in the way that men have, which is an interesting point, provocatively titled to annoy people I presume. (However, I should say many of the women I love most in the world will laugh more at videos of kittens in high heels than they will at the entire first series of Absolutely.)

I think if men and women had an equal number of comedic role models of their gender, the split in the following generation wouldn't be all that different.

Surely, but it's the fact that they don't have anywhere near equal representation, and the reasons why, that the ex-Hitchens is pondering.

This observation always comes from the kinds of men who select the women in their lives to be seen and not heard.

Do you know many men who do this? Because I've literally never known any man who does this. Although as we've established, I have cultivated a boring social life!

Well I certainly think that to a lot of men women aren't at all funny but there's underlying issues there like little willies and such.

I've never met any of these men either, even those with the tiniest penises acknowledge that Acorn Antiques is one of the best things of all time. I have known men who aren't very good at expressing themselves saying something like "birds aren't as funny as blokes mush", but when challenged they've acknowledged that quite a lot of women are brilliant at comedy, and quite a lot of men are unfunny cunts, but women don't tend to go in for careers in stand-up comedy or comedy writing so much. As to why that is:

This probably says more about how much easier it is for men than women to get on TV, stage, podcasts etc.

How much easier is it for men than women to get on TV, stage, podcasts etc, really? I suspect it probably says more about the choices that women make.

[Twit 2]

Proof IPBNB that women are funny? SMBH and AT both wrote long lists that still left off two of my faves: Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Kaitlin Olson, both of whom easily held/hold their own against 3 very funny guys.

[idunnosomename]

when Christopher Hitchens died of cancer it raised a titter so hats to him

[Cuellar]

How much easier is it for men than women to get on TV, stage, podcasts etc, really? I suspect it probably says more about the choices that women make.

If only we could ask them

[Chollis]

Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Kaitlin Olson

+1

But then Sarah Millican and Gina Yashere. So we're back down to 0

[NoOffenceLynn]

Caroline Aherne was fantastic too.

[Cuellar]

For every shit female comedian there are probably 20 shit male comedians ergo women as a sex/gender are funnier.

[alan nagsworth]

Male breasts are funny. A lady breast is no laughing matter.

I dunno. Did you not read castro diaz's story of becoming a father? There's a really funny bit about lady breast in there.

But then it was from the account of a man. Shit maybe I'm wrong about all of this

[Famous Mortimer]

Hitchens was a fucking prick and no mistake. If he believed what he wrote, he was a fuckwit, and if he didn't believe it, he was still a fuckwit.

Whenever anyone mentions what a brave thinker, or whatever the favoured euphemism for "pile of shite that pretends to be left-wing" is, he was, I remember him writing about Margaret Thatcher. Fuck him and every worthless opinion he held or pretended to hold for money.

Even at the time, as I left that party, I knew I had met someone rather impressive. And the worst of "Thatcherism," as I was beginning by degrees to discover, was the rodent slowly stirring in my viscera: the uneasy but unbanishable feeling that on some essential matters she might be right

[Autopsy Turvey]

Was Thatcher and everyone who sympathises with any of her beliefs really not just entirely wrong about absolutely everything, but an actual fucking worthless evil fucking prick fuckwit fucking argh argh fucking pricking fuck kill blaaaargh fuck them hope they die? If so, grow up mate.

[Piggyoioi]

Dont really know many decent female comedians and haven't heard many of the names mentioned. Anyone wanna link to some good bits from youtube?

[NoOffenceLynn]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O0ESNN03YwE

Caroline Aherne's interview with Bernard Manning is fantastic.
She gave him a forum to justify his hateful humour, but outwitted him with a subtle funny and great reply.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Here's my favourite Maria Bamford special, filmed just in front of her parents - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5tl2d1

[Chriddof]

Was Thatcher and everyone who sympathises with any of her beliefs really not just entirely wrong about absolutely everything, but an actual fucking worthless evil fucking prick fuckwit fucking argh argh fucking pricking fuck kill blaaaargh fuck them hope they die? If so, grow up mate.

I think people have every right to refer to Thatcher and her adorers as fuckwits, pricks, and every other name they can think of. Thatcher and her polices - not to mention those of Reagan - are responsible for a huge amount of things that have gone horribly wrong in the years since. People like that inflicted such immense damage upon society that the consequences continue and worsen to this day, to the point that we're basically living in an era of non-stop trauma. I've read news reports of people who have committed suicide from not being able to cope with the sheer bleakness of our times. In the current cultural landscape, I can't blame anyone for yelling at dreadful excuses for human beings such as Christopher Hitchens, the sort of person who could have possibly acted as an obstacle against hate - but didn't, and chose to simply step aside.

[Bronzy]

a dildo in thatcher's dead arse

[Dr Sanchez]

a dildo in thatcher's dead arse

Hey, there's nay need for that son. That's a fuckin' woman you're talking about.

[Bronzy]

Hey, there's nay need for that son. That's a fuckin' woman you're talking about.

Here Pat, Pat yer starting tae sound like wan a' them...

[Autopsy Turvey]

I think people have every right to refer to Thatcher and her adorers as fuckwits, pricks, and every other name they can think of.

Of course, and people also have the same right to say the same about Kinnock or Blair or Corbyn. We all have the right to scream 'fuckwit' at each other, it's just a shame that's all we do now.

we're basically living in an era of non-stop trauma.

Good grief man. On the one hand, when was the last era that didn't consist of non-stop trauma for the vast majority of the world's population, and how much worse is this one? On the other hand, speak for yourself sunny Jim. Most people out and about seem to be getting on with their lives with a degree of stoicism, hope and good humour. The fuckwits.

I've read news reports of people who have committed suicide from not being able to cope with the sheer bleakness of our times.

This might not wholly be Thatcher's fault.

dreadful excuses for human beings such as Christopher Hitchens

Peter Sutcliffe is a dreadful excuse for a human being. Using such language against an entertaining dead polemicist sounds a bit like absurdly disproportionate, judgemental, supercilious hooey and flimflam.

the sort of person who could have possibly acted as an obstacle against hate - but didn't, and chose to simply step aside.

Who acts as 'an obstacle against hate'? In what way did he step aside from acting as an obstacle against hate? Who could he have shielded from hate? Unless you mean hatred of Mother Teresa? And when you say hate, I presume the hate that you hate isn't the hatred for the 13/14 million people who voted for Thatcher's fuckwitted cunty prick Tories, as they were cunts and fuckwits and dreadful excuses for pricks and hate is too good for them, get up Neil I HATE you etc.

[Autopsy Turvey]

Speaking of Thatch hate, another very funny woman was Linda Smith, I don't think she's been mentioned yet (I just noticed all the funniest women are dead, but that's also true of men, so). I like that she was so keen on doing affectionate routines about cricket, not exactly a hack trope of alternative woman comedy. Also, a great line tying us back to the "non-stop trauma of existence" line of thinking: "I tend to think, with Ainsley, if you're that happy, you haven't really understood the world."

[Twed]

I always thought she was like a funnier Holly from Red Dwarf without having to be written. Just naturally that droll.