why women aren't funny...

kaci_beeler · Post by **kaci_beeler** » December 7th, 2006, 6:14 pm

That article is written to stir up excitement. They say all press is good press and I think that dude is betting on it. He's acting to the equivalent of a flamer online.

I personally think that based on the ratios of women in comedy to men in comedy, 8 out of every 10 women comedians are "funny", and 4 out of every 10 men comedians are "funny".

TexasImprovMassacre · December 7th, 2006, 7:12 pm

kaci_beeler wrote:I personally think that based on the ratios of women in comedy to men in comedy, 8 out of every 10 women comedians are "funny", and 4 out of every 10 men comedians are "funny".

I usually find the men and women comedians to be equally "not-funny".

but I would like to agree with you by saying

first comes love
then comes marriage...

arthursimone · Post by **arthursimone** » December 7th, 2006, 7:14 pm

9 out of 10 genderless robots are "funny"

the tenth is a toaster. still funny.

starkserious · Post by **starkserious** » December 9th, 2006, 3:11 am

My favorite funny women,

Kathleen Madigan
Sue Murphy
Wendy Liebman
Rita Rudner
Paula Poundstone
Maria Bamford
megan mooney
Jen Cargill

Many others I can't remember now....But women can be way funnier then men...I've worked with most of the ladies and they slay audiences all the time with laughter.

taminelson · Post by **taminelson** » December 9th, 2006, 2:31 pm

...women.

York99 · Post by **York99** » December 9th, 2006, 4:27 pm

nadine wrote:
Jastroch wrote:
EskimoSpy wrote:Then why is it that Charna Halpern is still allowed to write books about how to be funny? (and name drop)
Fucking Christ. Is there some Austin Improv Law that says everytime we allude to "Truth in Comedy" we have to accuse Charna of name dropping? Can't we just shut up about this already?
Ummm. I think that's the first time EskimoSpy ever posted anything about Charna Halpern (who name drops a lot).

I love this argument. People say that she drops names like that's a BAD thing. She's selling books, people. She can claim some of the top comedians of the past generation were trained by her. Wouldn't YOU drop those names? If you say "no" then you're just foolish. Let's also keep in mind that, by dropping those familiar names, she is bringing people into the improv world and growing the artform that YOU love very VERY effectively.

It's not like she's coming up to you at parties and dropping names. She's using them as success stories in her book. Her success stories happen to be famous because of the industry she's in.

So, instead of looking down your nose at her for dropping names, thank her for dropping positive attention on improv.

End manifesto.

nadine · Post by **nadine** » December 9th, 2006, 4:36 pm

York99 wrote:
nadine wrote:
Jastroch wrote: Fucking Christ. Is there some Austin Improv Law that says everytime we allude to "Truth in Comedy" we have to accuse Charna of name dropping? Can't we just shut up about this already?
Ummm. I think that's the first time EskimoSpy ever posted anything about Charna Halpern (who name drops a lot).
I love this argument. People say that she drops names like that's a BAD thing. She's selling books, people.

Err. What argument were we in this thread making? I don't see it in the posts.

But (to stay in context with this thread) I give props to Charna for being
a succesful woman in improv.

nadine

TexasImprovMassacre · December 9th, 2006, 4:40 pm

York99 wrote:
End manifesto.

i'll end your manifesto.

ratliff · Post by **ratliff** » December 10th, 2006, 11:31 am

York99 wrote:
nadine wrote:
Jastroch wrote: Fucking Christ. Is there some Austin Improv Law that says everytime we allude to "Truth in Comedy" we have to accuse Charna of name dropping? Can't we just shut up about this already?
Ummm. I think that's the first time EskimoSpy ever posted anything about Charna Halpern (who name drops a lot).
I love this argument. People say that she drops names like that's a BAD thing. She's selling books, people.

I haven't been a complete dick in a while. This seems like a good opportunity.

Truth in Comedy is a very poorly written book. It doesn't help that the design, typesetting, and copyediting all make it look like a vanity press book, but the fact is that the writing sucks, and the endless series of famous names being dropped is only a small part of that. I read the whole thing and when I finished was still really confused about certain aspects of the Harold, which only began to be clarified when I took Justin's workshop on it. I learned more about the possibilities of the Harold by doing it (however poorly) than I did by reading about it. The Harold deserves better representation in improv literature.

I'm not saying Halpern's not a great teacher, because I don't know that. I'm not saying I hate the Harold, because just this week I saw A Sip of Chantico do what I assume was a Harold and it was completely fucking awesome and made me want to do it, and I'm only just starting to see all the possibilities in it.

I'm saying that as a raw improviser who had NO IDEA that there were different schools of improv or that Charna Halpern represented one, I really disliked everything about the book except for the feeling that it was possibly describing something really interesting. It wasn't just the name-dropping. I now feel like it's hurting rather than helping its cause. I wish Dasariski would collaborate on a Harold book.

kristin · Post by **kristin** » December 10th, 2006, 1:22 pm

ratliff wrote:I'm not saying I hate the Harold, because just this week I saw a Taste of Chantico do what I assume was a Harold and it was completely fucking awesome and made me want to do it, and I'm only just starting to see all the possibilities in it.

I'm just going to ignore everything else in this thread and say...

Wow Ratliff, Thanks!
And yes, that was us doing a Harold (though about a 35-ish minute one).

ratliff · Post by **ratliff** » December 10th, 2006, 3:29 pm

Oh yeah, and I was also going to return to the original point of this thread and mention that when I think of the improvisers in this town who consistently make my jaw drop and make me think, 'Jesus Christ, please let me someday be one tenth that good,' most of them are women.

Girls Girls Girls did not force me to write this.

TexasImprovMassacre · December 10th, 2006, 4:09 pm

I only laugh at people

Christoph · Post by **Christoph** » December 10th, 2006, 11:43 pm

"There are plenty of funny women, way more than there used to be, but as a rule women are not as funny as men. The reasons are simple, and fairly boring. Hitchens quotes at length from a Stanford University study that proves conclusively that women don't respond to punch lines as enthusiastically as men do; I can't imagine why he even brings up the study unless he has a word count he's trying to meet. Why not just get right down to it? Men love jokes, women don't. Men tell jokes, women can't. Men have cocks, women don't. End of story," - Nora Ephron

Read the whole article here - it's mostly about Condi Rice:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nora-ephr ... 35949.html

It's not really really funny.

York99 · Post by **York99** » December 11th, 2006, 2:12 pm

ratliff wrote:Truth in Comedy is a very poorly written book.

I'll agree with that. I'll agree that the book isn't for everyone. It's not going to win a Pulitzer. I won't even defend Charna. Never met her. From what I can surmise, she IS an excellent business woman.

Improv is just starting to get big. I would bet that part of the reason is this book, which was published around the time when improv started this new explosion. People read how their favorite comedians started with improv and, in particular, at iO. I'll bet a lot of people even moved to Chicago just to study where their favorites did after reading it.

I don't think anyone has ever learned the Harold or any other type of improv simply by reading a book, but at least it sparks enough interest to try it out.

nadine · Post by **nadine** » December 11th, 2006, 2:21 pm

York99 wrote:Improv is just starting to get big. I would bet that part of the reason is this book, which was published around the time when improv started this new explosion. People read how their favorite comedians started with improv and, in particular, at iO. I'll bet a lot of people even moved to Chicago just to study where their favorites did after reading it.

Good point.

I think people just like to make fun of people who make it big.

why women aren't funny...

Funny Women