Gable 1

Cameron Gable
Benjamin Craig
The Work of Art
24 May 2016
Gender Inequality in the Industry of Comedy
Women arent funny is a phrase that is spoken way more often than
it should. The idea that one gender is automatically less funny than the other
has been disproven time and time again, yet there is still an existing stigma
that only men can be comedians. This stigma is so prominent in our culture,
that if you really thought about it, there arent many women comedians
getting a good amount of stage time. Bitch Media took data on this
phenomenon and, as recent as the year 2014, women were only 16.2
percent of comics featured at a famous comedy venue in Manhattan. This is
only a slight increase from 2011 which showed that only 15.8 percent of
female comedians were featured. Not only is that a ridiculous amount of
inequality between men and women, but that data shows that even though
societal norm and stigmas surrounding stand-up comedy is changing, its not
changing nearly fast enough. Women are under-represented in comedy and
entertainment, more than any other field of work, and like the other
movements raising awareness to the vast amounts of gender inequality in
our society, this is yet another issue that needs attention to be brought to it.
Rosie White in the article puts the issue into perfect words by saying The
comedian is presumed to be a masculine figure, with certain forms of

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comedy such as stand-up predicated on an aggressive, confident style of

delivery deemed unlikely to suit female performers, as if to be aggressive
and confident is unfeminine (White 1). The idea of men being more suited
for comedy is a stigma that must be challenged, and brought attention to, to
make vast changes in the way our society looks at female performers.
Most of the comedy that sells is what would be called blue comedy or
off-color comedy. This is a term that describes humor that is racy,
inappropriate in nature, and generally, but not always, sexual in nature.
Comedians joke this way, because its the most relatable to everyone, and
will generally make most people laugh. Its important to look how society
views things sexual in nature, when it comes to men and women. Theres the
age old idea that is thrown around a lot that if a man sleeps with many
partners hes a stud and a woman that sleeps with many partners is a
slut. If you put this in terms of comedy, specifically in blue comedy that is
typically sexual in nature, you can start to see where issues might form. A
good example of these problems can be observed in an altercation analyzed
in Fooling Around: Female Stand-Ups and Sexual Joking written by Jennifer
Foy. The article describes and analyzes a conversation between comedian
Amy Schumer and a heckler in the audience of one of her shows. At the
show, Schumer tells an off-color joke with sexual themes, which causes a
male heckler to yell that she fuck (s) everyone. Schumer being the
veteran comic she is, decides to not only call him out, but to bring the entire
audiences gaze to him. She finally gets him to stand up and retorts to his

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comment by saying The fattest motherfucker in the room. What did you eat,
every lumberjack? (Foy 709). This provokes him to reply to her rhetorical
question by saying your pussy! This incident shows that stigma in our
society. Just the mere mention of sexuality, even just in a joke meant for the
purpose of humor, caused this man to insult Schumer by saying that she is
just a slut.
While Amy Schumer has become one of the few female comedians to
become popular and well-known names, there is still the idea of women not
being as funny as men are. When arguing the idea of women just not being
as funny as men, its important to talk about why that idea exists in so many
people. Its a phrase or mantra that some swear by when picking which
comedy to watch, and when describing what they personally think is
humorous to them. However, if you look closely at the comedy that is
popular and what is marketed and advertised to the general masses, a new
story starts to form, that in general, consumers arent used to seeing female
comedy, therefore believe that they dont enjoy it. This isnt just a United
States problem either. In the article (Un)funny women: TV comedy audiences
and the gendering of humour the author, Inger-Lise Kalviknes Bore, talks
about studies done with TV comedy audiences in Britain and Norway. Bore
quotes Brett Mills whom talks about the gender imbalance of comedy by
saying:
If society is unused to seeing women performing comedy and, when
women do tell jokes, certain kinds of material are expected, its difficult

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to see how programmes diverging from such content will be made or, if
they are, how they will be intelligible enough to an audience to become
popular. The vast majority of major sitcom characters are male and
sitcom content, as a whole, has developed in response to changes in
social conditions for men. (Bore 140)
After you read this quote, and start thinking about what Mills is saying when
it comes to sitcom characters as an example, and in the way that sitcoms
have evolved socially, it starts making sense of why society isnt getting
used to the idea of female comedy.
Another problem arises with this idea of media and the gender
inequality that is present at the moment which is, this stigma is even
affecting some women by putting the idea in their head that the male
comedian is more humorous than female one. The idea isnt just exclusively
a male stigma; it affects everyone involved as a general consumer. Inger-Lise
Kalviknes Bore, whom was mentioned before when talking about the article
they wrote, talks about the conversations between general consumers of
television in Britain and analyzes what they thought of the various comedy
programs. Bore asks these participants what they think of each program, and
when asked about a certain part, one of the female participants expressed
her disinterest in the given program and said, I dont know if its a
stereotype, but in general I think in my head that female comedy isnt going
to be as funny. Bore then analyzes this conversation by stating that, While
she had disagreed with the pantomime writers argument that women are

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not funny, nevertheless at some point she had adopted the view that on TV
women are less funny than men (Bore 143, 144). The idea that women
arent as funny as men can be brought back to the idea that there arent
many women in the spotlight of comedy to begin with, which causes both
male and female viewers to develop a stigma and idea of which gender is
funny and which gender isnt, without realizing that gender isnt the correct
way to look at humor.
It isnt just sitcoms that under-represent women in the content
promoted and shown, another big offender is the late night television show.
Theres the obvious imbalance in late night, which is the lack of female hosts
in late night shows. Conan OBrien, Jay Leno, David Letterman, the hosts of
late night skew very male and always has. However, its not only in the
spotlight where women arent being represented, is behind the scenes as
well. The identities of each person in Stephen Colberts writing panel was
announced in 2015 by Splitsider, and the name showed that out of the
nineteen people in the group, only two of them were female, which is only
ten percent of the writing team behind one of the most watched late night
shows. Not only was the panel almost exclusively male, but it was also onehundred percent white, adding another layer of the lack of diversity writing
for a good chunk of the late night consumers of the world. This isnt unusual
either, while there may be the outliers in the late night, generally speaking,
the teams that work behind the scenes in writing the show and various other
creative aspects of it are mostly male, making it even more difficult for

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women to participate in comedy, even just behind the scenes and not in the
spotlight.
Another reason why we dont see a lot of women in late night writers
room, is really the lack of writing submitted by women in the first place. An
article published by Jezebel recounts the answers from a panel of female late
night writers. One of the panelists states that she is friends with a ton of
funny ladies who could probably easily write for a show out there. And they
just don't put themselves out there. Maybe they know, or think, that the odds
are against them (Carmon). When you think about this statement, it makes
sense. The average person is going to feel so much pressure with all of these
news articles and personal stories going around showing how horrible it is for
women to get work in the field of comedy. Not only that, but the conditions of
a writers room for women right now arent ideal either. The same panelist
from the article discussed above talks about her experiences as a new writer
in the room and how she feels afraid to bring up her ideas and talks them
down before they are discussed. She adds at the end of that thought by
saying if there were another woman in the room to say, 'Come on Jill, you
can do it,' you know, be supportive, that would be great. But there's not right
now (Carmon).
Its the sad truth, but at the moment, even when women make it into
the writers room, there is still a very brooding sense of being underrepresented and not being able to speak your voice in a confident matter.
Even if the male writers of the room are all very supportive of you and your

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ideas, the sense of not belonging or feeling like an outlier is very real and
can cause people to not excel in what they want to do, not just in this single
situation. There needs to be more than just two women in a panel of writers,
otherwise it still doesnt work. A business cant counter act these claims by
hiring their token female and stating that the company is all inclusive,
because there is still that underlying sense of misogyny existing if that is the
case, and if ideals really will change, society needs to start by equally
representing the inhabitants of the world. Not just women, but all different
forms of diversity.
Women not only have to deal with feeling like outliers in a room full of
men, but also have to deal with the men who do believe that women arent
funny. As was stated in the previous paragraph, even with the added security
of all the men in the room being very supportive, it still isnt enough to make
someone feel one-hundred percent included. Its not hard to understand that
this optimistic idea isnt how the world always works. There is always
someone who doesnt agree with your ideals and also believes in stigmas
you dont believe in. Everyone deals with this, so of course this provides
another obstacle for women to work in the comedy industry.
However, its not just having to deal with a difference of an opinion
that female comedians and writers have to deal with, its the fear of what
those people with the different ideals will do. In the article Recovering Our
Sense of Humor: New Directions in Feminist Humor Studies, the author Kathryn
Kein analyzes three different memoirs written by female comedians. In her paper, she mentions a

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statement from Anne Beatts, in which she says Former Saturday Night Live writer Anne Beatts
recalled that star John Belushi, being of the chicks-arent-funny school, often requested that
the women writers be fired (Kein 672). While the article doesnt state whether or not women
were ever fired from Saturday Night Live for this reason, its still a scary thing to think about. If
someone had worked extremely hard work in the field they want to work in, harder than their
male counterparts, and their job, all they had worked so hard for, was being threatened due to a
co-worker believing that their gender wasnt qualified to do the job correctly, you would feel a
lot of extra stress and pressure on your shoulders on a daily basis. It might even make you resent
the work you do and resent the people you work with.
These are some of the problems that women comedians deal with every day. Obstacles
come from every corner causing the dream an aspiring female comedian has to drift away, and
there isnt just one group of people to put blame on for this. Consumers, big comedy
corporations, and people who believe in bigotry, everyone has a part in the way that conditions
are for the female comedian. So its important to take all of these elements references so far, and
think about what solution can be formed to stop this gender equality from continuing.
A solution for this problem, already exists in Portland. It is called the
All Jane Comedy Festival which is a festival for women both in the Portland
Metro Area and in other parts of the United States. This event both brings
awareness to the under-representation of women is the industry of comedy
and entertainment, and also showcases the best women comedians, proving
that women can be funny too. The festival first premiered at Curious Comedy
Theater in 2012 which is a non-profit comedy theater dedicated to improving
the lives of people through the art of comedy. This festival is one of three

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outreach programs they support, the others being an Alzheimers outreach

and a childrens outreach. Curious Comedy Theater has been open for almost
eight years and the All Jane festival gets bigger and brings more attention
to the issue of gender inequality in comedy every year.
While this event does everything stated in its mission, it also provides
a great example of why this type of event is needed in the first place when in
2014 the event was attempted to be protested by a mens rights activist
who was interviewed by the Willamette Week. The man, who called himself
Matt The Lone Woof in an attempt to keep his identity secret, tore down
the original posters from the event around Portland, and put up his own that
were doctored versions of the original which you can see in figure 1. In the
interview with the Willamette Week, he talks about his issues with the
festival, the protest he was that was attempting to organize, and his ideas
when it comes to feminism. Two quotes from his responses provide excellent
examples from awful ideals, which are too common. The first comes about
when the interviewer, Amy Miller asks him if different marketing could create
an all-female event that wasnt threatening to men. He responded
saying, Well, no. The fact that its all female is sexist. Why does it have to
be all female? Are there any all-men festivals? If you called it All Dick and No
Jane, the feminists would be up in arms. He then states later in the
interview that, Well I bet Im the first outspoken one in Portland. Which
makes me kind of brave if you think about it (Miller).

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All of the publicity that this mens right activist brought to the
festival however, really worked in the favor of Stacey Hallal, the festival
creator and founder of the theater the festival was hosted at. Almost every
show, was sold out, and was filled to the brim with people of all different
backgrounds excited to support female comedians and wanting to change
the inequality existing today. Matt The Lone Woof, nor anyone else for that
matter showed up to picket the festival. The festival ran very smoothly that
year, and goes strong to this day. In addition to that, Hallal changed the
name from All Jane No Dick to just All Jane to be more trans inclusive, in
order to spread more equality throughout the Portland area.
The idea behind the festival is to have an event for awareness to the
injustices of gender inequality, especially in entertainment, but there is such
a social stigma that exists around women that causes people to think that
events like this are anti-men and are only meant to make women seem
better than men, instead of just realizing that everyone is equal, and that
women only want to be treated as such. Events like these are no different
than any other awareness event such as black history month, or gay pride
parades. They all seek to just teach society about equality and even
provides opportunities for everyone to be involved so that we can live in a
more prosperous world.
So what can our society do to change these stigmas and to stop
spreading these underlying thoughts of misogyny, no matter how
unintentional and nave? Firstly, spread awareness to the injustice that is

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happening. Attend events like All Jane and donate to causes that support
the task of rectifying this current situation. Spread the word about these
events as well, because the more attention they receive, the more attention
the problem itself receives. Finally, think hard about your preferences in
entertainment and comedy. Think about how many women actors and
comedians you enjoy watching. Is the ratio between them equal? If not, try
watching content with female comedians, this gives them the exposure they
need and deserve. Dont just stop there though, support comedians of all
different backgrounds and diversities, because everyone deserves an equal
chance, not based on their genetic composition and background, but based
on their experience, drive, and passion for what they do in life.

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Figure 1:

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Annotated Bibliography
Bore, I. L. Kalviknes. "(Un)funny Women: TV Comedy Audiences and the Gendering of
Humour." European Journal of Cultural Studies 13.2 (2010): 139-54. Google Scholar. Web. 26
May 2016. This article argues that the reason there is the idea of men being funnier than women,
is because women are rarely featured in popular comedy, specifically in television. The author
uses data from their own research to prove their arguments. This article was found from a
credible academic database, lists many credible sources, and is peer reviewed. This article is very
crucial for my paper because it shows real examples of people being affected by the lack of
women in comedy and how it creates their opinions on women comedians.
Carmon, Irin. "The Only Women In The Late Night Writers' Rooms." Jezebel. Jezebel, 14 May 2010.
Web. 27 May 2016. This article makes the argument about how hard women have it in late night
talk show writers rooms. It describes the questions and answers given and how uncomfortably
naive they are. It argues basically that social stigmas need to change about women writers and
comedians and provides this panel analysis as evidence. This article is not peer reviewed and
may be a little biased, but the most important part for my paper is the quotes and the questions
given to the panelists, providing excellent examples of accidental discrimination.
Atakav, Eylem. ""Let's Do It! Let's Do It!": Gender Politics and Victoria Wood." Feminist Media
Studies 10.3 (2010): 359-63. Academic Search Premier [EBSCO]. Web. 26 May 2016. This
article argues the idea of men being better at comedy and their work than women by analyzing
the work of Victoria Wood and providing insightful examples. This article was found on an
academic database and was peer reviewed. This article will be helpful for my paper by providing
more specific examples of the work of women comedians and an analysis of it.

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Foy, Jennifer. "Fooling Around: Female Stand-Ups and Sexual Joking." J Pop Cult The Journal of
Popular Culture 48.4 (2015): 703-13. Academic Search Premier [EBSCO]. Web. 18 May
2016. The author connects the idea of female comics telling jokes sexual in nature, to the ideas
of Freud, specifically the ideas from Freud's "The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious."
Further into the essay, the author goes into detail about the female comic, Amy Schumer, and
analyzes her material to argue how it's used both for humor, and to challenge societal norms, or
what the author calls "challenging the male gaze." Not only does the author list various credible
sources, the journal is peer reviewed by scholarly sources and was found by a credible academic
journal. The part of this essay that is particularly helpful for my paper, is the section about Amy
Schumer, and specifically the portions that analyze her encounters will male hecklers, because it
can provide examples of the issues female comedians deal with, that male comedians don't have
to deal with as much.
Kein, Kathryn. "Recovering Our Sense of Humor: New Directions in Feminist Humor
Studies." Feminist Studies 41.3 (2015): 671-81. Academic Search Premier [EBSCO]. Web. 18
May 2016. The journal article analyzes 3 different books and how they answer various questions
about female humor, comedy and feminism, and how the stigma against female comedy affects
the jokes that are written. This article is peer reviewed and scholarly and was found on a credible
research database. This article is very useful for my paper by providing a wealth of knowledge
about 3 different books I can reference throughout the paper, but also provides good questions I
can ponder or quote in my paper to have the reader examine societal norms in comedy.
Koester, Megan. "Why It Sucks to Be a Woman in Comedy." VICE. VICE Media LLC, 3 Dec. 2015.
Web. 30 May 2016. This article argues for the idea of women being very under-represented in
entertainment comedy. She provides examples of the very few popular female comedians and

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provides analysis of why the author believes that is the case. This article is slightly biased, but
has good examples of women being under-represented that I am able to use for my paper.
Miller, Amy. "Brave Men's Rights Activist Attempts to Take Down an All Female Comedy
Festival." Willamette Week. Willamette Week, 14 Oct. 2014. Web. 18 May 2016. This article is an
interview with a "Men's Right Activist" who protested an all-female comedy festival in Portland
called "All Jane No Dick (Now just titled "All Jane" to be more trans friendly.)" There argument
that is most prevalent here is the ideals of the interviewee in question, however the article, most
notably, the title, has a little bit of a sarcastic undertone. The interviewee talks about his issues
with festival, especially its former name and why he replaced posters from the event with his
own, and why he thinks the event needs to be more male friendly. Most of this article is just an
interview so in that sense it's credible and unbiased, however, it has to be said that there is an
underlying sarcasm throughout the article and the article was also written by a comedian
performing in said festival. This doesn't affect the usefulness for me though, because this article
will be used to talk about the festival as my "solution" to the problem stated in the paper, and will
showcase an example of why we need a festival like this.
Mitchell, Kaitlyn. "We Crunched the Numbers on How Much Stage Time Female Comedians
Get." Bitch Media. Bitch Media, 4 Feb. 2015. Web. 18 May 2016. The given article argues that
female comics get very little stage time, and how even though conditions have improved for
female comedians, there is still a lot more room for improvement. They make these claims in the
introduction, and back them up with statistical data taken from a comedy venue titled, Caroline's
on Broadway. This given article is somewhat credible, given that they use statistics, however, the
fact that the numbers are taken from just one comedy club does make them a little less credible.

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This article is useful for my paper, because it will provide good solid examples of the imbalance
of gender in the comedy industry.
White, Rosie. "Funny Women." Feminist Media Studies 10.3 (2010): 355-58. Academic Search
Premier [EBSCO]. Web. 18 May 2016. The entire article argues various stereotypes of women in
entertainment some examples being, the idea that women should strive to be the attractive role in
entertainment and not strive to be "the buffoon" and the age old idea that "women aren't funny."
The article states these claims and challenges them by bringing up examples of famous female
comedians and misogynistic issues they have had to deal with. The article is peer reviewed by
scholarly sources and was found from a credible research database. This article is immensely
useful for showing examples of inequality in specifically the comedy industry.
Wright, Megh. "17 Men, 2 Women: Colbert's Writers Room Shows That Nothings Changed in Late
Night." Splitsider. Splitsider, 10 Sept. 2015. Web. 26 May 2016. This article argues that besides
the fact that Stephen Colbert talks about wanting to involve women more, and believes in
diversity, data shows that his panel of writers, 19 in size, skews heavily male and one-hundred
percent white. This article gets slightly biased when it talks about Colbert personally, but the data
is completely accurate, which is the main piece being used in my paper. This is useful in order to
show more ways in comedy and entertainment that women aren't being represented in.