Who you calling unfunny? Vanity Fair took its sweet time, but after more than a year of letting the anvil of an essay “Why Women Aren’t Funny” weigh down the discourse, the magazine finally issued its own rebuttal with its April cover story, “Who Says Women Aren't Funny?” And to prove that point, it assembled some of the most sparkling female wits for a photoshoot with famed photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Yes, Amy Poehler appears to be grabbing Tina Fey’s boob. You really can’t argue with comedy genius like that. Answering the call to funny alongside them were Sandra Bernhard, Susie Essman, Jenna Fischer, Chelsea Handler, Leslie Mann, Maya Rudolph, Amy Sedaris, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes and Kristen Wiig. I’m going to need a moment to soak in all this concentrated hilarious. Seriously, my sides are starting to hurt from phantom laughter just looking at them.

In response to (resisting the urge to use a profane adjective) columnist Christopher Hitchens’ decidedly unfunny article about why women are the unfunnier sex, New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley has penned a footnote-worthy essay that touches on everything from English novelist George Meredith to Virginia Woolf to tribes in Papua New Guinea. To which I say, sure, but where do the rubber chickens fit in? … continue reading

UPDATE: No, Maya's not leaving SNL after all, so just look at the pretty picture in this post and ignore the rest!

She's in. She's out. She's coming back. No, she's not. The rumors have been floating around for a while now, but EW.com insists that Maya Rudolph has resigned from, rather than re-signed with, Saturday Night Live. There's no official statement yet, but some blogs cite personal and family reasons rather than money or screen time. SNL returns this coming Saturday; this would have been Rudolph's eighth season.

The worst thing about this, other than the fact that we'll no longer get to see Maya's side-splitting impressions of Whitney Houston, Oprah Winfrey or Donatella Versace — or see her "translate" for Fred Armisen's kooky Prince or play Nooni to his Nuni — is that her departure leaves only two female cast members on SNL, Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig. And although each of those women possesses more talent than any three of the male cast members put together, that's a ridiculously low percentage — even for a show that has a crappy track record of giving women their due.

I'll miss you, Maya, but I wish you a happy life and a movie career that's more like Molly Shannon's than Victoria Jackson's. Hold on tight to the Shrek stuff!

What's the first thing you think of when you hear the word Shrek? Mike Myers? The somewhat confusing anti-obesity campaign? Female empowerment?

Crazy as that may sound, its stars argue that Shrek the Third offers some very positive images of women. And the film certainly features more female cast members than any other movie this side of Evening: Along with Cameron Diaz (who reprises her role as Fiona the ogre), Amy Sedaris, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and Cheri Oteri all voice characters. (Poehler plays Snow White, while Sedaris plays Cinderella — that's enough to get me laughing.)

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