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?
The article also explores the phenomena of whether pretty can be funny and how today “the funniest women on television are youthful, good-looking, and even, in a few cases, close to beautiful.” Close to? Sheesh, Tina Fey and her sexy librarian glasses make me want to take her into the stacks for naughty study sessions.
But I digress. Of course the women have their own self-deprecating takes on whether they’re lookers. As Tina said, “If I am one of them, it’s just under the wire.” Amy Poehler, her former Weekend Update co-anchor, concurred:
“For funny ladies, we’re attractive. But when you open us up to real, professional attractive people — I do not want to run with those horses.”
Snicker. God, I love funny women. And I love funny women when they’re trying to make other funny women laugh, like in this behind-the-scenes video from the photoshoot. Oh, Amy Sedaris, who hasn’t used the old “tubes tied” excuse?
The funny ladies were posed as today’s tawdriest paparazzi princesses. To wit, we have Sarah as Amy Winehouse, Jenna as Lindsay Lohan, Wanda as Naomi Campbell and Chelsea as Britney Spears. I have no idea who Sandra is supposed to be or, kind of, why she is there at all. Don’t get me wrong, I love her. But she’s not exactly au courant. And while I’m a fan of pretty much all the women, I do wish they’d been more diverse with their selections. Like, uh, where is Margaret Cho? And they didn’t pick any of the lesbian comedy titans? Or, for that matter, Kathy Griffin?
Still, while those are legitimate quibbles, I think the queens of comedy have forever put to rest the inane idea that women aren’t funny. Sneering, self-important, misogynistic, middle-aged white males? Well, that’s another story.
