Women in comedy is a rough subject for me because that's my life long dream. Women like Amy Poehler and Tina Fey are my idols. They're work in the comedy business is inspiring, and recognition isn't easy to come by in the world of boys. In her book, Bossypants, Tina Fey devotes an entire chapter to "Peeing in Jars with Boys", about her time as a writer for Saturday Night Live. The world of comedy is a man's world for sure, or at least it has been for years. Finally, in the early 2000s women were starting to get noticed. I know that whenever I tell people that I want to be a writer for SNL, they usually respond with, "like Tina Fey?"
They're not wrong, but for some reason she is the only women who can be named. Kristen Wig, or Amy Poehler also get mentioned. Why? Because these women grace the covers of magazines dressed in tight dresses and pounds of makeup. The spreads usually say something like "TV's Funny Girl", or something like that. A new-comer in comedy is Zooey Deschanel, who also makes the cover of Cosmo every year. We are totally okay with women being funny, as long as we can undress them and still have something to look at. Gila Radner, a member of the original cast of SNL, struggled with bulimia while on the shower because she felt the pressure to maintain her womanly figure. Plenty of women have graced the stage of SNL and other sitcoms but will go unrecognized by the mass media because they aren't sexy enough. Lorne Michaels is known for keeping his women hot and funny on camera.
Similar to athletes, funny women have to be dressed down so we feel more comfortable with them. Comedy is a form of intelligence and smart women scare the crap out of society and have for hundreds of years. Women can be funny, and can be revered for it, but rarely will you see an overweight, Belushi-type woman making jokes on SNL.
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