More than 13 years later and it’s still pissing us off.
As it should.
In 2007 I was a college sophomore returning to campus from winter break and I picked up a Vanity Fair in Penn Station and read Christopher Hitchens' article "Why Women Aren't Funny." Here's how it began. This is a real article printed in a real magazine by a (formerly) real man. pic.twitter.com/f4sA240krt
He’s wrong, of course (and we know it). Absolutely never heard that from a male friend? He needs to expand his circle of acquaintances. My husband has said that to many people about me. And I know a number of other men who find that women are able to make them laugh.
I liked Hitchens but damn was he off base with that one, and it’s a shame that an editor didn’t save him from himself there.
I can sort of agree with Hitchens’ observation that women will praise a man for being funny but men tend not to praise women for being funny — that was generally the case in my experience 20+ years ago — but even if our experience was typical that doesn’t show what Hitchens claims it does. It was a reflection of men not wanting to admit that women were funny, and/or not wanting to admit that they found funniness attractive, rather than being some objective evidence about whether women are, in fact, funny.
It reminds me of the complaint by self-proclaimed Nice Guys that “women say they just want a guy who’s nice, but then they end up dating good-looking guys.” There was some truth to that, but it was because women were culturally conditioned to say they wanted “nice,” whereas men were free to be more honest about what they wanted in a partner. (A woman who said she wanted an attractive man would be derided as shallow, and conversely a man who said he just wanted a woman who was “nice” would be pitied as some desperate sad sack.)
Anyway, back on topic — I was talking to a friend about that Hitchens piece some time last year, in the context of remarking that we seem to have gotten over that shit as a society. I don’t think it’s really considered controversial any more to say that many of the best comics working today are women — people like Iliza Schlesinger, Jen Kirkman, and Amy Schumer aren’t just the best “women comics,” they’re among the best period.
I was in a group years ago in Sydney which included a woman who was a natural-born raconteur-comedian. She could say just about anything and people would laugh themselves silly; always with her, never at her. She also mentioned in passing that her brother Benny was coming soon from the UK to visit her. He turned out to be the comedian Benny Hill. (But she was one helluva lot funnier than he was IMHO.)
Which leads me to the conclusion that there is probably a gene or two for comedy, and which also perhaps helps explain why what is found funny and what not differs so markedly across the globe.
Which leads me to the conclusion that there is probably a gene or two for comedy
Could be environment, though. My family all tend to have a similar type of humor – dry, ironic, often dark. But neither my mother nor father had that sort of sense of humor, so it’s hard to know whether nature or nurture. My dad, though, was the king of the dad jokes. He had (probably still has) a zillion of them.
My son always claimed he learned to understand, appreciate, and use sarcasm out of self defense. He said it was the only way to grow up sane around me. He might be right.
I got the sarcastic turn of phrase from my Irish/English maternal grandmother. Even now at 69 a lot of people are still unsure when I am being serious or just sarkie.
He’s wrong, of course (and we know it). Absolutely never heard that from a male friend? He needs to expand his circle of acquaintances. My husband has said that to many people about me. And I know a number of other men who find that women are able to make them laugh.
I liked Hitchens but damn was he off base with that one, and it’s a shame that an editor didn’t save him from himself there.
I can sort of agree with Hitchens’ observation that women will praise a man for being funny but men tend not to praise women for being funny — that was generally the case in my experience 20+ years ago — but even if our experience was typical that doesn’t show what Hitchens claims it does. It was a reflection of men not wanting to admit that women were funny, and/or not wanting to admit that they found funniness attractive, rather than being some objective evidence about whether women are, in fact, funny.
It reminds me of the complaint by self-proclaimed Nice Guys that “women say they just want a guy who’s nice, but then they end up dating good-looking guys.” There was some truth to that, but it was because women were culturally conditioned to say they wanted “nice,” whereas men were free to be more honest about what they wanted in a partner. (A woman who said she wanted an attractive man would be derided as shallow, and conversely a man who said he just wanted a woman who was “nice” would be pitied as some desperate sad sack.)
Anyway, back on topic — I was talking to a friend about that Hitchens piece some time last year, in the context of remarking that we seem to have gotten over that shit as a society. I don’t think it’s really considered controversial any more to say that many of the best comics working today are women — people like Iliza Schlesinger, Jen Kirkman, and Amy Schumer aren’t just the best “women comics,” they’re among the best period.
I was in a group years ago in Sydney which included a woman who was a natural-born raconteur-comedian. She could say just about anything and people would laugh themselves silly; always with her, never at her. She also mentioned in passing that her brother Benny was coming soon from the UK to visit her. He turned out to be the comedian Benny Hill. (But she was one helluva lot funnier than he was IMHO.)
Which leads me to the conclusion that there is probably a gene or two for comedy, and which also perhaps helps explain why what is found funny and what not differs so markedly across the globe.
Could be environment, though. My family all tend to have a similar type of humor – dry, ironic, often dark. But neither my mother nor father had that sort of sense of humor, so it’s hard to know whether nature or nurture. My dad, though, was the king of the dad jokes. He had (probably still has) a zillion of them.
My son always claimed he learned to understand, appreciate, and use sarcasm out of self defense. He said it was the only way to grow up sane around me. He might be right.
Now that’s a cool story.
I got the sarcastic turn of phrase from my Irish/English maternal grandmother. Even now at 69 a lot of people are still unsure when I am being serious or just sarkie.