Allie Sloan

Are Women Funny?

Mini Research Project

Gender and Communication

BACKGROUND
While preparing for this mini research project and looking through the list of
options to choose from, researching the roles of males and females within stand up
comedy stood out to me the most. As a female who happens to find herself, for the most
part, very funny, and someone who cannot stand the comment, women are in fact not
funny, this topic definitely got me excited and interested in what others had to say on the
topic. For my research I gathered facts and information from stand up performances
(both of male and female comedians) and I also had a handful of friends list five
comedians off the top of their heads to see what gender came to mind first, which had
interesting results. In this research report, I will challenge the stereotype that women
comedians are pushed aside in favor of men, question why the idea of the glass
ceiling exists in the first place, and show the relation between what we have learned
about in class and how gender issues still exist in in the real world today and are not just
theories from our textbooks and class discussions.

RESEARCH
One of my favorite comedians is none other than, Sarah Silverman. At the age of
44 she has become most famous for not only being a female American stand up comedian
but also for not being afraid to voice her opinion. Unlike most male comedians who
arent afraid to voice their opinion, Silverman seems to come under fire when her
opinions are brought to the medias attention. So, because she is a woman does this just
mean she has a big mouth? No. The fact is she just really cares about the issues she

discusses in her stand up routines and one issue she cares about, wage equality, happens
to be an issue that continues to be of importance.
Silverman has been in the media most recently for a video she
released discussing her experiences with the wage gap, which included an anecdote
about once getting paid less money for a set at the New York Comedy Club than her
friend Todd Barry, despite having identical slots. (article)
While standing up for the notable wage gap and challenging the glass ceiling
between working men and working women she mentions that it wasnt about wanting the
$60 she didnt get and Todd Barry did, It was just a shitty feeling [to not get paid the
same amount as a man who had the same slot as you Silverman states. If its the same
job, people should ideally get paid the same. A transparent barrier in the workplace that
allows professional women to look higher and see possibilities for advancement, but
prevent them from attaining higher positions, is the idea of the Glass Ceiling (pg. 321).
Silverman also brought up an interesting fact about her Twitter page. The tweets
Silverman posts where she mentions womens rights and equality are always the ones that
triggered the most violent and negative tweets back in response. Those and tweets
about gun control She jokingly added. But why is this? Why in this day and age when
we now have a woman running for president are we worrying about and questioning
whether a woman is funny or not just because she raises serious issues? Is it simply our
genetic makeup, or how we are raised and how are thoughts are shaped that devolve the
funny side of our personalities?
The gender differences and stereotypes that are seen around the world and most
noted in our culture make it hard for women comedians to do what they love. Recurring

media depiction that places people into narrowly defined categories is how our book
defines stereotypes (pg. 98). Though, not always right in the open like the Silverman
issues in the media, in the documentary Women Arent Funnydirector and stand up
comedian Bonnie McFarlane challenges the misconception that in fact women arent
funny. While on an up and down roller-coaster throughout the whole film McFarline
interviews both male and female comedians like Joan Rivers, Wanda Sykes, Dane Cook
and many others on this issue and their opinions. Some of these comedians definitely do
not beat around the bush and though statements like: women only become comedians if
they were molested when they were younger are thrown around jokingly, McFarlane and
her fellow comedian friends put an end to the concept that you can only be a comedian if
something traumatic happened to you. So only bad things happen to female comedians?
How does this make sense? With stereotypes like this and many others that come up with
female comedians I needed to take a closer look.
When I asked six of my friends to list five comedians off the top of their heads, I
was looking to see what gender came to their minds first. I was surprised by some and
some not so much.
Jack
1. Will
Ferrell
2. Nick
Kroll
3. Hannibal
Buress
4. Larry
David
5. Dave
Chapelle

Emily
1. Tina Fay
2. Amy
Pahler
3. Grace
Helberg
4. Aziz
Ansari
5. Chelsea
Handler

Shelby
1. Amy
Schumer
2. Louis CK
3. Marc
Maron
4. Abbi
Jacobson
5. Illana
Glazer

Justin
1. Bill Burr
2. Eddie
Murphy
3. Will
Ferrell
4. Iliza
Shlesingar
5. Ralphie
May

MK
1. Adam
Sandler
2. Rebel
Williams
3. Bill Murry

Troy
1. Dave Shapell

4. Aziz Ansari

4. Kat Williams

5.Kevin Heart

5. Aziz Ansari

2. Gabrielle
Iglacious
3. Kevin Hart

The outcome from Emily, who I already knew to be a big fan of stand-up, and
MK, who rarely would watch stand up unless we made her, did not surprised me by their
results. However looking deeper, I connected Emily and Shelby to being more
progressive and more liberal out of this group had a huge impact on how they think as
well as how they were raised to have no stereotypes towards others, explains why they
had the list of comedians that they did. For my male friends like Jack and Justin they fall
into a boys boy stereotype from being raised more conservatively and not being exposed
to as many gender and cultural differences growing up. This I release had to have had an
impact on their thought proses of creating their list.

WOMEN COMEDIANS
Watching Women Who Kill with top comediennes Amy Schumer, Rachel
Feinstein, Nikki Glaser and the hilarious Marina Franklin all together in New York City
for a night of stand-up was very interesting. These ladies pull out all the stops and own
their femininity while keeping the audience almost crying from laughter.
Common qualities that are seen in all of these women help shape the idea of what
a funny woman is. Not just one of them but all of these women had jokes about the men
in their life, sex, drinking, and other things revolving around their daily lives and of
course the random PMS jokes. I also found it interesting that they would relate these
jokes back to themselves, not in a self-centered way but in a joking way like they were
poking fun at themselves. The women we see in stand up today have no problem stating
the facts or sounding like one of the boys. We hear more and more women using curse
words comfortably and making sick jokes like men. However there is always a cute

smile that comes after these nasty jokes, as if to say look, I can say these dirty things but
still look like a polite lady.

MALE COMEDIANS
In Bill Burrs stand up act Let It Go he models the ideal tough guy persona and
never tip toes around anything in his jokes. Burr is popularly know for making jokes
about things such as religion, race, gender and family dynamics, however the difference I
saw between Burr, like other male comedians and women comedians with their jokes was
that he would relate his jokes back around to making fun of the subject at hand rarely, if
ever, himself. As if he could never be at fault. What I gathered from Burr and male
comedians like himself was that they see themselves as the strong guy and that is
something they feel they have to protect.
As seen on page 202 in our textbook showing listening styles and the sexes, it
clearly states, evidence suggests that men and women can be equally good listeners, but
they may listen differently of for different purposes (Kirtley). For example on the chart
provided to us on page 202, the female style to attending to information tends to search
for the relationships among separate pieces of information whereas the male style tends
to look for a new structure or organizational pattern. How we have differences in how
we take in the information we gather on a day-to-day basis reflects how we put that
information back out to the world. This is seen in how comedians gather their jokes.
Women comedians as weve learned want to address important issues head on, whether
they are issues of importance to them or issues in their daily lives. Unfortunately, women
delivering the same message as a man may be judged more harshly by society. The same

message shouldnt be judged differently just because its delivered by a woman rather
than a man.

CONCLUSION
From the stereotypes seen first hand with these stand up comedians and the ideas
we have learned about in class and our textbook, we of course know stereotypingis an on
going problem, but what can be done about it?
If our world is changing then it only goes without saying we are changing with it. We
need to start with the youth and the next generation. Stereotypes, the glass ceiling and
other negative thoughts about gender roles have come up due to how we are raised and
how our thoughts are formed. [Negatives ideas and thoughts about others] creates
such a rage in certain people, but of course that comes from fear Sarah Silverman. This
goes back to nature vs. nurture and what influences us the most. Whether it be parents or
what you pick up through media, you first need to understand how you are influenced
before you can choose to lessen or negate the influence (pg. 175). We need to get women
comedians out of this negative light and accept them for who they are, funny humans.

REFERENCE PAGE

Ivy, D., & Backlund, P. (2004). GenderSpeak: Personal effectiveness in gender

communication (3rd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Let it go [Motion picture]. (2010). Chatsworth, CA. United States Image

Entertainment. Netflix.

Perezhilton.com. Sarah Silverman Encourages Women To Ask For More In

Support Of National Equal Pay Day. (n.d.). Retrieved April 16, 2015, from
http://perezhilton.com/2015-04-06-sarah-silverman-equal-pay-day-video#.VS79mJTF_39

Women who kill [Motion picture]. (2013). New York City, NY. United States:
Entertainment One. Netflix.