Women Aren't Funny - Vanity Fair

[Sundae]

Below is an edited excerpt from this article in Vanity Fair this month.

Be your gender what it may, you will certainly have heard the following from a female friend who is enumerating the charms of a new (male) squeeze: "He's really quite cute, and he's kind to my friends, and he knows all kinds of stuff, and he's so funny … " However, there is something that you absolutely never hear from a male friend who is hymning his latest (female) love interest: "She's a real honey, has a life of her own … [interlude for attributes that are none of your business] … and, man, does she ever make 'em laugh."

Now, why is this? Why is it the case?, I mean. Why are women, who have the whole male world at their mercy, not funny? Please do not pretend not to know what I am talking about.

This is not to say that women are humorless, or cannot make great wits and comedians. And if they did not operate on the humor wavelength, there would be scant point in half killing oneself in the attempt to make them writhe and scream (uproariously). Wit, after all, is the unfailing symptom of intelligence. Men will laugh at almost anything, often precisely because it is—or they are—extremely stupid. Women aren't like that. And the wits and comics among them are formidable beyond compare: Dorothy Parker, Nora Ephron, Fran Lebowitz, Ellen DeGeneres. (Though ask yourself, was Dorothy Parker ever really funny?)

In any case, my argument doesn't say that there are no decent women comedians. There are more terrible female comedians than there are terrible male comedians, but there are some impressive ladies out there. Most of them, though, when you come to review the situation, are hefty or dykey or Jewish, or some combo of the three.

For women the question of funniness is essentially a secondary one. They are innately aware of a higher calling that is no laughing matter.

Childbearing and rearing are the double root of all this. As every father knows, the placenta is made up of brain cells, which migrate southward during pregnancy and take the sense of humor along with them. And when the bundle is finally delivered, the funny side is not always immediately back in view. Is there anything so utterly lacking in humor as a mother discussing her new child? She is unboreable on the subject. Even the mothers of other fledglings have to drive their fingernails into their palms and wiggle their toes, just to prevent themselves from fainting dead away at the sheer tedium of it. And as the little ones burgeon and thrive, do you find that their mothers enjoy jests at their expense? I thought not.

I can't help thinking he misses the point. Whether men find women funny does not define whether the women are funny. I appreciate humour in both sexes, but I had a long hard think after reading this article. I realised that the times I have laughed hardest face-to-face have always been with or because of other women. When reading the written word I laugh most at men's writing, but hardest at women's. When it comes to stand up or comedy programmes it is men. Which simply suggests horses for courses to me.

He only seems interested in whether a woman is funny to a man, and why a man doesn't find her attractive even when she is. Fair enough - he's a man and obviously one who doesn't gaze far away from his own navel.

I can only assume he doesn't get to appreciate the same humour as I do. I have often laughed so hard at something a female friend or colleague has told me that I can't speak. But I guess he doesn't experience that, rooted as his idea of humour is in sexual attraction.

He can blame it on the fact some women squeeze out babies if it makes him fell better, I'll carry on laughing at who I want to regardless of gender.