Girls Can’t Be Funny

Posted by: gretchen on January 9, 2008 |

This headline caught my attention from gmail this afternoon: Women Writers Scarce in Hollywood. The Writers Guild of America is reporting that women make up 27 percent of television writers and only 19 percent of feature film writers. Ok - I can buy into the numbers, but the explanations from the men had me laughing hysterically. Sarah McLaughlin, a writer for That 70’s Show, commented “I’ve worked with male writers who say flat out, women aren’t funny.” You’ve got to be kidding me!?!


If I think back on the times when I’ve laughed so hard I thought I would pass out, it has always been when I am with a group of women. I’m am certain this is because we can relate to one another on more levels than we can relate with men. That’s not a put-down for the men either. It’s just true that a most-often a woman can relate to another woman more easily than she can with a man. (Notice I said “most-often” because there is always an exception.)

So I’m thinking…why aren’t there very many women writers in Hollywood? And then I thought, perhaps it’s because more men watch tv than women do, so from a marketing standpoint it makes more sense to have men writing for men. What do you think?

I think it’s high time some talented and creative women start getting more recognition in Hollywood and it’s also time for some other talented and creative women to start getting out there and making us laugh even more. Bring it on, ladies!

4 Responses to “Girls Can’t Be Funny”

  1. 1. K Srikrishna Says:
    January 10th, 2008 at 11:21 am

    Sweeping statements such as “Asians don’t know how to drive” or “Women can’t be funny” say more about the speaker than about the person they are talking about. I think the answer to why there aren’t more women writers is not that different than why there aren’t more women engineers or doctors or CEOs. Certainly there are more women engineers/doctors/CEOs today than when I went to college (twenty years ago) but not nearly enough.

  2. 2. Kel1 Says:
    January 10th, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    Now, see…here is yet ANOTHER reason as to why we MUST do a band podcast one of these days… ;)

  3. 3. gretchen Says:
    January 10th, 2008 at 10:37 pm

    Agreed. I will be bringing my video camera to practice on Saturday. ;)

  4. 4. Kel1 Says:
    January 11th, 2008 at 12:24 am

    Oh, joy of joys! :D

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