‘Funny for a girl’: Experiences of women in comedy

“Wow you’re really funny, especially for a girl!”

This comment has followed me throughout my life, in both casual conversation and professional auditions. In the comedic world, women are considered to be funny punchlines but not funny comedians. Yet, comedians such as Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and countless others have been fighting back against this stereotype since their first moments on stage. In fact, Maya Rudolph has gone so far as to condemn the term “female comedian”. Rather, she insists that she is a comedian, plain and simple, and her gender has no bearing on her ability to make the audiences laugh. As these comic heroines set the tone for the modern comedy world, a new generation of young comics are starting their work and are redefining what it means to be “funny for a girl”. We reached out to four young, female comics for their opinions on the experiences of women in comedy.

Frances Patano

“In the real world, the lack of respect [for women] is infuriating. For every time I hear a man say women can’t be funny, or women can’t be funny without talking about sex or trashing themselves, that just tells me …One of the biggest problems is physical comedy. If a man does slapstick, ridiculous physical humor, it’s hilarious. If a woman does it, it’s weird. Because for some reason, women are supposed to have more sensibilities and behave better, and seeing women act in a physically crude or ridiculous way is often dismissed. That’s why I make it my personal mission to write explicitly physical comedy sketches for everyone show — beating that stigma one weird ass character at a time.”

Angela White

“Unfortunately, I do not think I am equally respected [as a female comedian]. From the praise we receive, I believe most of our audience believes we are genuinely funny. I think I can make jokes about anything. However, being in a female comedy group means that many of us share similar views on some topics, so our comedy gains a particular voice that one might think is the stereotypical “liberal woman’s point of view.”

Carissa Redfield

“There have been times where I’ve stood in a group of male comics and had to listen to dick jokes for hours on end — but at the same time, being part of a co-ed improv comedy group breaks that up and makes it so we all have to have equal footing in order to improve and have fun. I think that in the rehearsal room and onstage, there are social constructs regarding the power dynamics of gender that everyone has, regardless of the setting, and comedy is no exception.”

Meredith Brandt

“There is a barrier for women in a lot of fields of work, and I think it can be seen very clearly in the comedy world. There’s that trope that women aren’t funny, that female comedians are annoying, that they’re not as funny as men. I feel very fortunate that I am a part of a group that demands respect for female comedians. But we have to work incredibly hard to be equally respected. Comedy is just another field where there is a glass ceiling in need of breaking…We’re comedians. We also happen to be hella hilarious women, but on that stage we’re comedians. Genuinely funny comedians, not just “funny, for a girl” comedians.”

From these interviews, it’s easy to see that while there is now a larger space for women in the comedy world than has existed in the past, there is still more work to be done. Many audiences still carry preconceived notions that women simply aren’t as funny as men or don’t have access to the same comedic material. Despite this opposition, there is a new era of creative, strong, hilarious women who are working to rewrite the rules of comedy, one joke at a time.