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ENGL 101

12 November 2018

Women in Comedy Must Work Harder for the Same Laughs

Bring up her name, and chances are the people you are with will have a strong opinion on

her. She’s famous, she’s funny, she is constantly criticized. She is Amy Schumer, and she is one

of the most polarizing figures in comedy. Men and women alike will claim that she is too vulgar

or annoying which has earned her a somewhat poor reputation. This may come as a surprise

considering her male peers in the industry have very similar styles. This begs the question; Why

is Amy Schumer so hated? The answer lies not in her her jokes or stand up specials. Schumer is

held to a different standard because of her gender and her more masculine, blunt style of

comedy.

The extent of the internet's hatred for Amy Schumer is pretty far reaching. Her Netflix

reviews are often incredibly negative, and Tumblr has extensive amounts of posts just dedicated

to why she is so awful.These claims are not unfounded, Amy does have a history of veering on

the offensive side.​ She doesn’t beat around the bush and often goes to great lengths to tell her

story in the grossest way possible. For example, in her standup ​The Leather Special​, she says, “I

was in the bathroom just, like… [imitating machine gun] Machine-gun shitting out of my ass.

Just… [imitating machine gun] Violent diarrhea.” Some criticism is fair, because clearly this

type of conversation is not palatable for all audiences. What makes Amy the target of so much

hate when many of her male counterparts have pushed the envelope so much further?
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The answer may be found in something frighteningly simple, her gender. Often times

material that would be widely accepted, and praised when delivered by a man is received as

inappropriate, uncomfortable and uncalled for when told by a woman. This issue stems from the

performativity that is expected from woman. New audiences see Amy, a blonde, pretty

seemingly well adjusted woman, and anticipate her set to be somewhat modest. Instead she

explores topics of sex, relationships, and embarrassing moments in her signature raunchy style.

As shocking as some of her jokes may be, all of them have been explored by male comedians

before. Time Magazine writer Lynn Harris offers explanation for why she remains the target of

intense criticism for her work, saying, “​In comedy, as in most other ​male-dominated fields​,

women (and most other non-straight, non-white dudes) have to work harder to succeed.” She

backs this up with an example of how at her childhood summer camp a group of boys got on

stage in impromptu drag and danced around, garnering the laughter of the entire audience. Harris

goes further to say that a group of women doing that simply would not have received the same

reaction. Female comedian Tina Fey weighs in, “It’s a terrible time (in comedy). The boys are

still getting more money for garbage, while the ladies are hustling and doing amazing work for

less.” This is to say that women are starting at disadvantage in the comedic world, simply for

being women. Huffington Post backs this up further, “Last year, all 10 of the highest-paid

comedians — collectively netting a cool $173 million — were guys. By our count, of the 683

people big enough to warrant inclusion on Wiki’s list of “American Stand-up Comedians,” just

92 are women. That equates to a not-so-funny 13%.” But why is this phenomenon happening and

where did it start?

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The authors of ​Women and Comedy: History, Theory and Practice​ offer some insight,

“Men have long claimed humor as their own prerogative and insisted that women are not or

should not be funny.” The male construct of considering humor their own is not a new idea

either. William Congreve, playwright of the late 17th century once said, “I have never made any

observation of what I Apprehend to be true Humor in Women,” which aids in showing that this

idea is nothing new. The reasoning for this may be equally as old, if not older. Women are

simply not expected to be funny. Women have beauty to attract a mate with, instead men relied

on humor. Women never needed to be funny, so once they were, it was unwelcomed and

somewhat uncomfortable by society. Just in the way that it would be cute for a baby to babble

incoherently yet it would be significantly less cute for a grown adult to do the same, humor

simply does not seem right out of the mouth of a woman the way it would coming from a man in

society’s eyes.This doesn’t mean that women can never be funny, but it does explain why some

jokes that would have an audience in a riot from a guy, would flop when told by a girl. It also

helps to make sense of why there is so many less relevant female comedians than male, even

today.

Due to all of these preconceived ideas of how a woman should be, today’s female

comedians have to work harder to get same laughs and face more criticism for the same humor

as their male counterparts. Amy Schumer is no stranger to this considering the intense

microscope she is scrutinized under each time she goes to do a show. One of her most criticized

pieces is ​The Leather Special​, which many consider, vulgar, obnoxious, and annoying. A review

from Exclaim.com tackles the controversy surrounding Schumer head on by leading with this

quote, “Warranted or not, Amy Schumer has become one of the most scrutinized comedians in
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popular culture. That is why it comes as such a disappointment that 2017's ​The Leather Special

does so little to silence her detractors.” This comment both references Schumer's muddled

reputation, then continues to perpetuate it, by making negative comments about it. One of the

only positive points in the review is when the author draws a pleasant comparison between ​The

Leather Special​, and Eddie Murphy's ​Delirious​. This calls into question how Amy’s piece can be

so similar to highly praised Murphy's, in both it’s leather motifs and it’s edgy humor,, yet still

receive such a poor review. Decider.com combed over every “Member Reveiw” on Netflix for

The Leather Special​ and reported negative results, “​33 subscribers gave it 5 stars, 17 gave it 4

stars, 22 gave it 3 three stars, 85 gave it 2 stars, 710 users give it 1 star, and 9 gave it zero stars.

That makes the average rating for ​The Leather Special ​1.35 stars.” The reasoning they found for

a large portion of these poor reviews is equally as disappointing, “Sadly, a chunk of these

negative reviews can be attributed to misogyny – female comics a​re frequently criticized for

making certain jokes that men make all the time.” These reviews are just a few examples out a

vast pool of poor reviews that are based on misogyny much more than they are on true comedic

ideals. Some took this disdain for Shumer so far that a group of online trolls created effort

specifically to sully her reputation.

It is evident that a female’s comedy isn’t received the same way most male comedians

work is, even when the jokes are almost identical. A difference in expectations of performativity

between men and women from audiences and critics has causes female comedians work to be

interpreted differently and often unfairly than their male counterparts. This has lead Amy to lead

a much more tulumptious career than most in the industry. Much of her work, and specifically

her stand up, ​The Leather Special​ received lots of often unfounded negative reviews, simply
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because her style of comedy is often unwelcome from a woman. Despite all of this, Amy still

overcomes preconceived ideas about her work and remains a relevant figure in the world of

comedy today.
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Works Cited

“Amy Schumer The Leather Special.” ​Exclaim! Music​, Exclaim! Media,

exclaim.ca/comedy/article/amy_schumer-the_leather_special.

“AMY SCHUMER: THE LEATHER SPECIAL (2017) - Full Transcript.” ​Scraps from the Loft,​

13 Sept. 2017,

scrapsfromtheloft.com/2017/06/20/amy-schumer-leather-special-2017-full-transcript/.

Budowski, Jade. “Amy Schumer's 'Leather Special' Is Getting Overwhelmingly Negative

Reviews From Netflix Subscribers.” ​Decider​, Decider, 14 Mar. 2017,

decider.com/2017/03/14/amy-schumer-the-leather-special-bad-reviews/.

Dickinson, Peter, et al. ​Women and Comedy: History, Theory, Practice​. Fairleigh Dickinson

University Press, 2017.

Hitchens, Christopher. “Why Women Aren't Funny.” ​The Hive,​ Vanity Fair, 29 Aug. 2017,

www.vanityfair.com/culture/2007/01/hitchens200701.