to ask if to ask why men have a better sense of humour than women?

[mdowdall]

Was discussing this with my mate in the pub earlier. Why are women just not as funny (generally speaking) as men? Where are all the great women comedians? I can only think of Victoria Wood and that chubby one with the grey hair. It's just weird.

First things first ShoutyHamster - I dont know what vanille means.
I'm not buying into this mysognyny business. Like any industry, comedy is driven by MONEY - THAT IS THE ONLY FACTOR INVOLVED. If promoters spot a comic they think they can push forward and make loads of money from they will do it - regardless of sex. As a general rule, promoters clearly think men are the best bet.
Of course I recognise that comedy is subjective and that tastes differ. There will always be female comics some people find funny. But I am talking generally in terms of the most successful comedians and also the genuinely groundbreaking comics and comic writers of our time.
The proof of the pudding for me is that French and Saunders are often held up as some kind of token of UK female comedy talent. Says it all really.

Jennifer Saunders wrote absolutely fabulous - so she has her moments -

dooooomed

dooomed

doomed

No money isn't the only factor involved.

Lots of subtle social, historical factors - lots of people have discussed them on this thread already. They combine to mean that men are indeed SEEN as the best bet. THAT'S BEEN SAID ALREADY! Then of course through being given breaks and exposure etc. the prophecy becomes self-fulfilling. People's default setting for 'good comedy' has generally meant 'blokes doing stand up' and only gradually is this changing - for both male and female audiences.

THIS HAS BEEN SAID ALREADY...THIS HAS BEEN SAID ALREADY...

What NONE of it means is that 'men = funny, women = not as funny'. Because that's not possible as comedy is subjective. So you have to look further into this 'interesting' problem to come up with the story behind it.

You seem not to be listening though. We could of course move on to the WHY - as in why is it so important for you to be able to 'prove' your point that female comics are inferior? But that's going to be almost as boring a discussion as the one I currently seem to be having so PLEASE LET'S NOT. Hurrah for everybody

Has anyone mentioned Lynn Truss? Funny woman. Very funny. Genius in fact. And she writes about sport sometimes.

Just thought I'd put that out there.

OP - think you'd better think about your thread title and then your first post - because your terms are all wrong to start with. Sense of humour is the reaction to an experience - thus this thread has already provided proof that generally women have a better sense of this because they are able to see humour from a mixture of individuals (both male and female) where you have shown to be lacking in a sense of humour because you are unable to appreciate humour delivered by females. This is because, in general, women have greater communication skills (such as interpreting body language, facial expressions, listening skills and reflective thinking).

As for whether men make better comics than women to some extent some of the previous posters have provided an insight into the entertainment business already. There are a lot more male comics than female - however I would also not discount the reasons why these individuals enter such a profession. Many comics after all do have mental health issues, poor self-esteem and a general unhappiness with life although this does not apply to all.

On the whole I tend to prefer current MALE comedians/writers, e.g.

Louis CK, Patton Oswalt, Chris Morris, Daniel Kitson, Christopher Guest, Aziz Ansari, Larry David, Steve Coogan (anybody doubting Coogan's ability for subtle humour/pathos obviously obviously didn't watch "The Trip" on BBC2), Jim Gaffigan, Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim, Dave Chappelle, Demitri Martin and more.

BUT there are tonnes of funny women working today...

Julia Davis, Kristen Wiig, Catherine O'Hara, Joan Rivers, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Chelsea Handler, Charlyne Yi, Megan Amram, Sarah Silverman...um, I'm struggling now...which makes me feel a bit rubbish really.

But yeah...most of the female comics listed so far are a bit irrelevent and 'mumsy' and one note.

op - the first prerogative of privilege is not to see that privilege.

Just because you haven't noticed how women are side-lined/dismiss/unheard, doesn't mean that it doesn't happen.

I have never had the experience of being a black person & being turned down for a job, knowing full well that it is because I'm black. You've never been ignored in a meeting, only to have your point repeated & acknowledged by men, because you are a woman. It doesn't mean those things don't happen.

Just the fact that a business & industry has been dominated by men, makes it harder for women to work there. The comedy business is often held up as an example of this. The fact that many female comics play on their femininity, often deriding it, shows how they have to renounce themselves in order to be successful.

There's also the whole issue of why men find it so hilarious to dress up as women, as if being female is humorous of itself.

there's many a PhD to be written on these topics (and probably have been), but you can't just dismiss them because you don't want to hear them. sticking your fingers in your ears and going 'lalalala' has never been a convincing argument.

HellAtWork - you may be intrigued, I couldn't possibly comment

:)

I have never met him I hasten to add :) :)

Mdowall When you start to give capitalism as your reason for why you think men are funnier than woman, you do realise you shoot yourself in the foot with this don't you? Like money is some neutral arbiter of anything?

Not when the vast majority of the world's wealth is held by males.

www.dictionary.com just in case you want to look up vanille or any other words you might not know. That's what I usually do and by doing so I generally learn a new word.

You are beginning to come across as wilfully ignorant now.

OP.

How extraordinarily dull of you to believe the crap that's fed. Men are the promoters, men believe the myth that men are funnier, it comes from Ye olden days where only men were allowed to be funny..... who wants a smart mouth wife? etc etc.

Line for line, I'd have SAndi Toqsviq over Jimmy Carr, Victoria over Peter Kaye..... and most of the male comics I really like are feminists, Mark Watson, Marcus Brigstock, Dara Obriain, Russell Howard, Charlie Brooker and Mark Thomas.

Is Charlie Brooker a feminist? Never knew that. He's always come across as quite normal in his columns.

Maybe find out what being a feminist means? It is pretty 'normal'.

I have read Charlie Brooker for years and would never have labelled him a 'feminist.' Yet I only need to read 3-4 lines of what some of the people on this board have written and...well it is the first label that springs to mind.

He is normal.....

mdowdall.....How old are you? [a bit scary that you have no idea what a feminist is]

What do you think a feminist is? [holds nose to prevent laughter]

Catherine Tait

Feminist noun...

1. The doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.

Brooker never gets involved in any of this nonsense does he?

Tait is funny.

Nonsense? Equality is nonsense?

DH finds Coogan hilarious and has adopted a few of his Alan Partridge sayings, e.g. "Back of the Net".

We may never have sex again.

I have never heard Brooker express any serious political views. However, I have never watched his tv stuff so maybe I am missing something.

KatieScarlett - I also use that one. Ah, Coogan, an absolute legend.

This must be a troll.

Actually, yes. Charlie Brooker (who was brave enough to come on for a live chat on Mumsnet) and David Mitchell both come across in their writing as fairly feminist men.

Am a bit that you consider the struggle of over 50% of the population to be treated as equals as "nonsense"

mdowdall

Please don't use that one as a seduction technique........ Nothing makes me pucker faster than imagining that I'm getting it on with Mr Partridge......