Funny-looking Women.

After reading "Why Women Aren't Funny" by Christopher Hitchens the class had an open discussion about what he said and why people would come to the conclusion that women aren't funny. Some comments that I heard where defensive stating that women were funny and the author was rude and wrong. I couldn't help but be reminded of a segment from the BBC TV series QI. QI: Why aren't there more women on QI? The television program is a quiz show where comedians and actors are asked to appear and test their knowledge on things that are "quite interesting".
The two women in the segment address the same standpoints people in the class shared such as; there aren't as many female comedians as male comedians. Both women go back and forth poking fun at the idea that women aren't as funny as men. The punchline of this video is when one of the male comedians answers the question with "Once you get them started they don't shut up". I loved this line despite the fact its playing with female stereotypes.

Personally I think male comedians on the whole are funnier than female comedians. I also think that British comedians are funnier than American comedians. Bridesmaids, Stepbrothers, to me aren't funny. Like Christopher Hitchens I am entitled to my opinion and I do not have to find a particular person funny. I think people got upset with Hitchens because he stated his opinion as fact and dropped some questionable language. Society lately has had a huge push for politically correct statements so if Hitchens wanted to get his opinion out without sounding as sexist as he did he should have titled the article "most men don't find most women funny".

At the end of the QI clip Stephan Fry, the host, mentions that he got his information from a study that said women on the whole laugh more at men than other women. This could be because of the type of things female comedians are likely to address over male comedians. The video mentions that women tend to focus on their personal lives because they haven't been doing comedy as long. Where as Male comedians can talk about more global related issues which makes them easier to relate to and find humor in similar situations.