I was not aware that this was such a common thought, it's especially popped up lately in response to that new movie Bridesmaids...and movies lately, Sex and the City, Juno (sorry Chris), all these 'I HAVE to get married or my life is over' or 'I love to shop/look cute (and 90 minutes later) *gasp* there's more to life than being gorgeous! Who knew?' these types of movies, no, they are not funny...but to say women as a whole are not funny, especially entertainers, my professional opinion is these people don't have any idea what they're talking about. What's everyone else think?

I personally can think of a few examples that prove just the opposite is true:

Lucille Ball
Carol Burnett
Gracie Allen
Betty White
Gail Storm
ZaSu Pitts
Roseanne
Paula Poundstone
Ellen Degeneres
Rita Rudner
Mo Collins
Stephnie Weir
Alex Borstein
etc.

I think women - both in the movies and outside of the movies, in everday life - can be funny, but I think female humor is less common than male humor. I've known some pretty funny women and I've known some pretty dull, serious men, but I think, in general, men have the better sense of humor because they're not afraid to look stupid or make themselves look goofy or silly, whereas I think a lot of women are much more reserved in that aspect.

But I do definitely like your list of women! Particularly Lucy and Betty White. They were/are very talented in comedy, but it seems all we have in the movies today by way of comediennes are Sandra Bullock and Kate Hudson. Yuck.

Have you ever read Lucy in the Afternoon? It's a great book...she was famous for making this Godawful lemonade she thought was great, put in 2 6packs of Minute Maid lemonade mix, only enough water for 1 6 pack, NO sugar whatsoever, and she didn't know why everybody hated it.


And the author said after she died (shortly before she died she was due for an appearance back in Buffalo, NY), she came to him, and he asked her why she died, and her answer to him was 'because I didn't want to go to Buffalo!' and I wouldn't put it past Lucy to come back from the dead to give a sendoff like that.

I was not aware that "women not being funny" was a common opinion and I kind of doubt it. At least I don't share it. Either way, I wouldn't base the opinion on the crop of movies you mentioned. There's a good chance it's not the women in them. Maybe they're just crappy movies.

I certainly believe they are, it's a matter of poor writing, horrible execution and mediocre actors taking on menial parts. But I find that to be true of most movies coming out, I haven't been to one since a year ago in July, and that's not like me, that should say how bad movies have gotten lately.

Producers of SNL say that John Belushi thought women weren't funny and spoke up about it on the set.

alan smithee wrote:

I was not aware that "women not being funny" was a common opinion and I kind of doubt it. At least I don't share it. Either way, I wouldn't base the opinion on the crop of movies you mentioned. There's a good chance it's not the women in them. Maybe they're just crappy movies.

This is new to me.

While the world of stand up comedy tends to be male dominated; I think comedic actresses, who aren't necessarily comediennes, tend to be funnier than their male counterparts.

Women stand-up comedians aren't typically that funny, but a comedic actress definitely can be. I think Tichina Arnold and Tisha Campbell are funny as hell.