Why Are Female Comedians So Bad

Why don't we have as many popular female stand up comedians as male counterparts?

There is a morsel of truth in the two answers below so far. There certainly is a degree of sexism in comedy. A lot of people think “women aren’t funny”. And it might be true that women do need to have a higher standard of comedy to become famous and overcome internal bias, but that’s not the whole story. In fact, those two parts seem to be small factors in comparison of a much bigger problem.There aren’t many popular female stand up comedians because there aren’t that many women that do stand up.I live in Boston where there’s a pretty good comedy scene and I’ve been at my fair share of open mics. And at each one I’ve been to the ratio is probably 10:1 guys over women. From what I’ve heard and what I’ve read, it’s about he same everywhere else in the country too.You can argue that part of the reason for that is because the actual stand up scene isn’t particularly inviting to women, which may be true. However, the fact remains that female participation in stand up comedy is fairly small.If you contrast that with improvisational comedy or sketch comedy, you’ll see a much larger pool of women participating and a larger number of famous women comedians.Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Kate MckinnonIf you ever even mention Improv Comedy the two names that are almost always brought up are Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. You hear these names before you hear Stephen Colbert or Steve Carrel in reference to improv even though they’re arguably just as famous if not more. So I think there is a larger pool of women in improv/sketch so you tend to hear about them more when talking about that type of comedy.In order to find an equilibrium of female comedians to male comedians in stand up, you need more women to try stand up. Once that happens there will be more high quality stand up female comedians which will help make them less of the novelty they are now and hopefully raise the bar of stand up as a whole.

Who are some of the best Female comedians of India?

Sonu Venu GopalWell all of you might not know her. She is former RJ of 104 Fever FM Bangalore.Every monday she drives me crazy by her new #baajumanikaaku videos.She explains the daily chores in very humorous way. Her tone and her Kannada language is very authentic which makes the videos unique.She is probably one of my best female comedian i have ever come across.Other female comedians likeAditi MittalShe is not only known for her hilarious comic acts on stage, but also known for her talent as an actress, writer, and a voice over artist.How can i miss out Bharti SinghShe is an extreme stand-up comedian and actress well known for great humor.Mallika DuaNeeti PaltaAnd the list goes on..

What is it like to be a female comedian?

It is still a male dominated industry. In this society, when a man says something outrageous, or gross, most people find it funny. Men, who are way too full of themselves, usually think it’s “TACKY.”(old school assholes) The general audience, seeing mostly male comedians their whole lives is trained to believe men MUST be funnier because there are more of them on TV. Well, sugar, there are LOADS of very funny women out there who are fighting the good fight against the bigots machismo that book rooms, who feel they REALLY know what’s going on. Being a female in Comedy is a tough, uphill fight. But IF you ARE funny and never give up, you might win the race.And many of them still sit down to pee.

Why do most successful comedians tend to be male?

Of course a key word here is most; there have been plenty of successful female comedians and comics dating back at least to Moms Mabley and Mae West.  And, to a larger degree than men, female comics have tended to be innovators -- women like Lily Tomlin and Whoopi Goldberg who brought a depth of humanity to their characters that few men matched.  I'd also posit that at the very top of the heap -- the folks making big bucks being funny in movies and TV -- things are more even: for every Seth Rogan there's a Sarah Silverman and for every Will Ferrell there's a Tina Fey.  But if you define "successful" as meaning "making a living doing standup" -- and for decades this is where most TV and film comedians were sourced -- there is no question that the vast majority are male.  I just pulled up the most recent full season of the "Comedy Central Presents" standup show available on Amazon Instant (Amazon.com: Comedy Central Presents: Season 14) -- 24 episodes, only 3 of which feature female comics.   I don't think that the reasons for this have to do with inherent aptitude, sociology, or audience preference.  It's much more practical than that: the life of an entry- or mid-level standup comic is rather brutal and unpleasant, involving lots of travel, crappy lodging, drunk audiences, and crappy pay.   It's also reputed to be a misogynistic world in many respects (above and beyond the standard challenges of being a female traveling alone and working late nights).   I imagine that witty, smart women have other more attractive options available to them.   And, to put it bluntly, most comics are damaged goods in some way, to the extent that the nightly therapy of making others laugh is worth the pain of getting there.   The threshold for that equation is, I suspect, higher for women than men.  Most top-tier female comedy stars (and a growing number of males) have come out of the improv world rather than the standup route, which is known as a more nurturing and accepting environment.

Why is the number of female stand-up comedians in India so low?

This isn’t just an Indian issue; this is global.Ask yourself this - the vast majority of executive positions, positions of control, positions of influence - happen to lie in the hands of men. Happen being a generous word. They’ve been PLACED in the hands of men, because society is nepotistic, patriarchal, and full of inertia.This creates a situation where men, with their own tastes, must somehow decide what everyone else would like to watch. Their own biases filter down. It’s low. It has resulted in an overindexing of men within the Indian creative sphere. We have to solve this problem top-down. And at the grassroots level simultaneously. Women need to be given the same opportunities and benefits as men - this is an age old problem. It will benefit our society, globally, tenfold.Now to the core question at hand; why the low number of women in Indian standup? Let me take this chance to highlight a few great female Indian comics I’ve seen : Neeti Palta, Punya Arora, Aditi Mittal with their stand up centric direction, Sumukhi Suresh with her unique blend of stand up and her dominance as a sketch comic - it is a list that gets longer by the day.We, as a society, need to support female Indian comics. And female comics globally.

What is the phenomenon of unfunny female comedians?

Well I'm going to go ahead and assume this question was asked by a man. If not, I'll edit later, but I'm fairly certain I won't have to do that. Okay, with that out of the way:Not all media is intended for your consumption. I understand you've likely grown up in a world where the 18–35 year old man is the target demographic of almost all heavily produced material (television, movies, comedy, etc.)However, there are other markets! Approximately 50% of the world is female. So people are starting to recognize that there are underserved markets (female comedy fans in this case), and material is being made for them now. Just because you don't enjoy something, doesn't mean it is inherently bad.For example, lots of traditional standups will have lengthy bits complaining about their wives, or simply making observations about women (from a man's perspective). You might find those observations funny, but a woman might not. It doesn't make their material inherently bad, but it's not targeted for women.Now, imagine a female standup talking about her period, her means of choosing male partners, making observations about men (from a woman's perspective). You might not like this material, but many women might. Just because some people don't like it doesn't make it inherently bad.There's a big difference between objectively bad and subjectively bad. Making sweeping statements based on your own subjective perceptions seems silly.

Do you find that female comedians just aren't as good as their male counterparts? Why?

To me it just seems like there's a kind of vicious circle going on with this: there are very few female comedians at the top tier of fame and success and so panel shows etc. try their best to find women to have on their shows, but because they have less experience and have been chosen based on sex rather than talent they tend to fall flat, which in turn makes people think less of female comedians. Women may feel differently though, and there may be certain places in the world where there are just as many or more female comedians. My opinion is that the main issue is that there just aren't enough female comedians around, which also makes it harder (and possibly less interesting) to make it as a comedian in a male-dominant line of work, and so, on average, people are probably able to name a larger number of male comedians they like than female. The top female comedians are just as good as the best male ones IMHO, though. Another possibility is that because of gender inequality women subconciously or otherwise feel compelled to joke specifically about being a women rather than life in general. Minorities are in the same position. A huge proportion of black Americans' comedy is about race, for instance, but the same is not true for white people. Whether or not this is caused by inequality, lack of interest from the majority, laziness or a false sense of responsibility on the part of the comedian is hard to say. What's clear is that so many reasons; good and bad, conscious and subconcious; go into which comedians we like that we can never tell for certain why we think someone is funnier than someone else.