Saying that women can’t be funny is a little like saying that men can’t wear pink. Absurd, ignorant, and so outrageously sexist that the words shouldn’t even be spoken without an accompanying admission of one’s wild stupidity. It’s also just wrong, which you’d think would go without saying.
And yet, the opposite conclusion was drawn following a new study conducted by YouGov. Asked whether men or women tend to be funnier, the 5,075 people surveyed largely agreed there was no difference, with 62 per cent saying as much. But don’t take that as a reassuring sign of our so-called progressive modern times: one in four (24 per cent) said that in general, men tend to be funnier. And a staggeringly low number – fewer than one in 10 people (eight per cent) – said that women tend to be funnier. Splitting the results by gender was just as bleak: just four per cent of the men surveyed said women were funnier, while 11 per cent of women said the same.
The data is clear: people just don’t think women are that funny. Frankly, I’m astonished. As someone lucky enough to be surrounded by a group of friends who are mostly female, I am consistently reduced to fits of giggles courtesy of their hilarious anecdotes, astute social observations, and – let’s be honest – diabolically disastrous dating stories. I’ve almost always found the women I know to be remarkably funnier than the men.
Obviously, characterising one gender as funnier than the other is a huge generalisation, within which there will always be exceptions (I have a few funny male friends, sure). But by and large, the people in my life who make me laugh the most are women – and that’s including the men I’ve dated (which probably says more about my terrible taste, but that’s another article entirely).
There are myriad examples of women being exceptionally funny – and funnier than men – beyond my own life. Look at the roster of successful comedians who – shock! – happen to be women. (I can’t bring myself to write “female comedian”, linguistically endorsing the assumption that comedians are male, so I won’t.) There are simply loads: Katherine Ryan, Kate Berlant, Ali Wong, Wanda Sykes, Kate McKinnon, Chelsea Handler, Sara Pascoe, Jo Brand, Nikki Glaser... no male comedian (see what I did there?) has made me laugh harder than these women. There are so many more I could name, but I won’t, purely because I shouldn’t have to.
To the one in four men out there walking around thinking they’re funnier than women, I will say this: firstly, get some female friends. Secondly, films, books, and TV shows about women exist and are worth exploring. And thirdly, therapy should resolve those issues with your mother.
On a serious note, I feel sorry for these people who are missing out on so much. There is an entire subsection of life ripe for comedy that they’ll never even acknowledge, let alone enjoy, out of misogynistic malaise. Besides which, there are a lot of things women can be funny about that men can’t.
Last year, I attended Grace Campbell’s standup show, Grace Campbell Is On Heat, an exceptionally clever hour that had me laughing, sobbing, and enthusiastically whooping throughout. At the heart of Campbell’s show, though, was something that isn’t remotely funny: an abortion that left her “floored by a grief so intense it scared [her]”, as she told The Guardian.
But thanks to a confluence of intelligence, humour, and self-awareness, she was able to turn her traumatic experience into a relatable show that educated her audience just as much as it entertained them. It left the entire Hammersmith Apollo in hysterics while driving home serious points about reproductive healthcare, female pleasure, and those ignoramus men averse to wearing condoms.
I loved it. Not only are women funny, but we experience the world in a way that men do not. We’ve learnt how to have the last laugh about that.
