“Women who get offended when people say that women aren’t funny probably aren’t funny, you know? Who cares if 90-year-old Jerry Lewis thinks women aren’t funny? It’s fine. It’s endearing, if anything. It’s like if your grandmother’s racist—it’s adorable, it’s fine, it’s subjective.”
It is one of my greatest embarrassments in life that, in high school, I actually said I didn’t think female stand up comedians were funny. Who the hell was I? Apparently, I was possessed by the spirit of Jerry Lewis.
To be fair, in high school I read almost exclusively male authors, tried to write like a dude, and pretended I liked shitty music in order to impress guys. I wasn’t exactly “empowered,” to say the least. Sarah Silverman’s right; if someone says that women aren’t funny, it really doesn’t matter…whether that person is Christopher Hitchens or 16-year-old me.
Don’t feel bad, I declared I didn’t like female singers in high school. (To be fair, I still don’t care for female singers who themselves are still in high school)
Cat, I totally remember that! Also, we said we didn’t like female radio DJs. What was wrong with us? Why were we so self-loathing??