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.

Fawlty Towers was written by a man and a woman.

Yep - Caroline Aherne - very talented.

Very few women want to be seen as funny. Too risky. You never know whether they're laughing with you or at you. You need to not be afraid to be laughed at, at least some of the time, if you want to be a successful comedian.
Also, you're mostly seen as either funny or attractive. Some can do both, but that doesn't go very far, and it's not the kind of humour that breaks boundaries. A lot of female actors would much rather be seen as not very funny than not very attractive.

I'm extremely funny. Men down the pub are always laughing at my witticisms and jokes.

Mind you, they only laugh when they repeat what I've said and pretend it's them who thought it up originally.

frankiw boyle was funny now he is just tiresome same old same old and he show on C4 was rubbish

i forgot about rosanne barr, very funny women and there are some great comic actresses, rosanne and darlene being one of the funniest. thats a talent too there are some great actors but when they do funny it does not really work robert de niro we are angels was embarassing

kathy griffin is very very funny

FB was ( and still is to many ) a very funny person. He blew away the old posh middle-class tossers ( Stephen Fry/ Ben Elton ) and people lapped it up - there was a need for him at the time as people were getting bored, but he took it too far - which is a shame. ( I think he has too many issues of his own )

sanrda bullock is very funny in her own right.

i find Joan Rivers hilarious,

and when the op mentioned child obsessed lesbians looking for trouble, Sandi Toksvig sprang to mind as a brilliantly funny example of that!

Ahh Sandy Toksvig. She's the one who came up with the now infamous line

"The Tories are the ones who put the "n" in cuts"

Tina Fey and Caitlin Moran are the two funniest humans ever to have lived!

End of:o

OP you need to listen to more radio, lots of excellent female comics who make me laugh every week.
(wistfully counting the weeks until the news quiz is back on...)

Just wanted to say how vastly underrated Sandy Toksvig is - she is always absolutely hilarious. Should be on QI more but probably be too busy with radio stuff. (yy to Clemettattlee)

Agree with Tina Fey and Caitlin Moran too.

ShoutyHamster Am intrigued by Coogan's peccadilloes! And how you know!

love Grace Dent's TV column in the Guardian too. She is very very funny.

Sandy Toksvig is hilarious! So clever, i love her!

Gina Yashere is very funny too

ruth jones

Oh yes, Sandi Toksvig is great! She has a wonderful voice, too.

Women have a greater sense of humour than men. They are able to get jokes made by either sex, whereas most men only tend to get male jokes. It's not the fault of comediennes that most blokes are too dumb to understand.

As for most script writers being male, well yes, but the entertainment industry is frightfully misogynistic and you could say that about any job within it.

Surely that's as disgusting and sexist an opinion as the op.

I agree, mayor.

I think insofar as there are differences between men's and women's humour, it's for the reasons BoF set out earlier in the thread, to do with social conditioning and expectations.

I do think, though, that there is something very special about suddenly finding a brand of humour that really works for you, that you've not found before - and I would suggest that perhaps happens more to women than men in our society. It's lovely when you suddenly read or see comedy that really speaks to you. Maybe after that it's tempting just to conclude that the other stuff you've seen wasn't as funny, not that it just wwasn't for you?

Neither sex has a better sense of humour - to suggest otherwise would be sexist and unpleasant (and untrue).

In all likeliness the sexes only have different senses of humour due to social conditioning.

absolutely Trillian.

The blokey assumption that men are funnier doesn't stand up to scrutiny. It's decided by blokes, ergo they're biased in favour of their own. And sadly blokes get out there trying to be funny more often. They have more confidence and less shame.

hold on allegrageller if this thread has made one thing clear it's that the assumption cuts both ways. There's a hell of a lot of women on this thread claiming that women are funniet

*funnier