A Truth Universally Acknowledged at Last: Women Are Funny
“On the whole men have a stronger or, at all events, a more inclusive sense of humour than women, just as men have a stronger physique, and for much the same reasons.”
Cornhill Magazine, 1899
Men are funnier than women—or so the cliché goes. Displaying strength and intelligence helps men to attract the best-quality mates, so a well-honed wit is as advantageous to them as well-toned abs. In return, all the women need do is look pretty (natch) and laugh at the men’s jokes.
But, as any woman who has ever sat around chatting with her female friends about their partners’ peccadilloes knows, women are hilarious: rolling on the floor, tears streaming down their faces funny. Why are so few female wits mentioned in the history books alongside Voltaire, Oscar Wilde, and Mark Twain? Is it that women’s humor is personal rather than universal? Is that why no one thought their jokes worth writing down?
It’s certainly true that men have dominated the ranks of professional comedy, whether as stand-ups or writers of comic scripts; they still do in the 21st century, with women only making up 15 percent of the writers on top-rated comedy shows, according to one estimate. But that doesn’t prove women are less funny; it just means they haven’t been encouraged to be funny for a living. Comedy wasn’t seen as a “feminine” profession.
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A few women in centuries past were noted for their wit: Nell Gwynne, mistress of King Charles II, was renowned for it. Aphra Benn wrote comedies that were very popular with 17th-century theatergoers. And Jane Austen’s dry humor holds up two centuries later, with gems such as, “It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage.”
It's not until the early 20th century that we find some pioneering women taking to the stage with stand-up routines. Moms Mabley, a gay African American woman, started in vaudeville in the 1920s and developed her comedy act with material about husbands, children, and domestic life: “They say you shouldn’t say nothin’ about the dead unless it’s good. He’s dead. Good!” She was an attractive woman but learned to play down her sex appeal, adopting the “Moms” persona, complete with housecoat and floppy hat, to make audiences focus on her words rather than her appearance.
Stand-up can be an aggressive arena, with male comedians aiming to control the audience and putting down hecklers with ruthless one-liners—behavior that is not traditionally “ladylike.” Self-deprecation became a common trait among women comedians, almost as if they were apologizing for entering a man’s world. Fanny Brice quipped, “You think beautiful girls are going to stay in style forever? I should say not! Any minute now they’re going to be out. Finished! Then it will be my turn.” Phyllis Diller often joked about her plain looks and lack of domestic talents: “My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving is to commemorate Pearl Harbor.” Joan Rivers later took up this mantle. Self-deprecation makes the female stand-up seem less aggressive and more identifiable, so she runs less risk of alienating her audience.
Dorothy Parker’s humor covered a range, from sophisticated and worldly to cynical and self-deprecating. In 1917, she was hired as Vanity Fair’s theater critic and penned some brilliantly scathing reviews; in one, she invited audiences to bring their knitting to the show in order to pass the time, suggesting “If you don’t knit, bring a book.” She was sacked in 1920 after upsetting an influential producer, but by then she was established as a talented author of short stories, poems, and pithy one-liners about the impossibility of relationships between the sexes, about drinking, and about writing itself. She turned her wit on others at times—“If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised”—but more often it was directed at herself: “Ducking for apples—change one letter and it’s the story of my life.”
Could you be an attractive woman making jokes about sex without putting yourself down? British-born comedian and singer Marie Lloyd tried it, favoring risqué material with double entendres, such as the song “She’s Never Had Her Ticket Punched Before” and the famous line “A little of what you fancy does you good.” She paid a price in the moral fervor of the day, with fierce criticism of her bawdiness from male and female theatergoers alike. In 1913, she was detained on Ellis Island and charged with “moral turpitude” for traveling with a man to whom she was not married, and she ended her career depressed and alcohol-dependent.
A couple of decades later, Mae West successfully used her sexual independence as material for her whip-smart comic writing, and saw no need to play down her physical assets. Her raunchy quotes were shocking for the times—“Good sex is like good bridge. If you don’t have a good partner, you’d better have a good hand.”—and she didn’t get away with it scot-free. In 1927 she spent 10 days in jail after being prosecuted on a morals charge, and during the 1930s her ribald dialogue was often censored, while her personal life was checkered. But she remains much loved and admired today for daring to raise her voice against the hypocrisy and misogyny surrounding sex.
All of these women were trailblazers for the current generation of brilliant women comedians: Amy Schumer, Tina Fey, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall, Miranda Hart, to name but a few. Some of them still use domestic material, such as husbands, children, and housework, in their acts; a few are ditsy; but no subject is off limits, from politics to penises, and they no longer need to worry about being “unladylike” when they stand up to perform.
Gill Paul’s novel The Manhattan Girls is about Dorothy Parker and three friends navigating life, love, and careers in 1920s New York City.
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