As readers might recall, a couple of years ago I wrote a post stating that most female comedians were not funny. To be clear, I did not say that all of them were talentless hacks or most of their male counterparts were more talented. I also said something along the lines of female comics getting opportunities because of their sex and looks rather than their actual talent or ability. And let us be honest about something else.. show business is NOT a meritocracy, never has been and is unlikely to become one anytime in the foreseeable future. Having said that, let us get back to the topic of this post- namely, my contention that those who attend performances by female comics are doing so for reasons of virtue signaling rather than personal enjoyment.
My initial awareness of this phenomena came from watching too much YouTube at night. While usually restricting myself to videos about specific topics that interest me, I occasionally like to find out where the ‘related video’ sidebar will take me. To make a long story short, while searching for clips of famous standup male comics, I also came across lips of supposedly famous female comics. It was then that I started to notice a peculiar difference in the type of audience reaction to male and female comics. While good male comics usually got a much stronger positive audience reaction than their mediocre male counterparts, their response to female comics was oddly uniform.
To put it another way, reasonably good female comics got almost the same audience response as their mediocre counterparts. Some might say that humor is subjective, but it was pretty hard to ignore this persistent pattern of disconnect between the quality of comedy act and audience applause for female performers, but not their male counterparts. Even more oddly, the type of audience reaction was also subtly different for female performers. Confused? Let me explain. Audience members listening to male comics almost never react to any given joke at the same time or intensity- some audience members react before others and certain jokes elicit a far bigger reaction than others. It is as if they are actually listening to to their acts.
With female comics, the audience response is unusually constant and consistent. It is almost reminiscent of parents cheering on their kids at school recitals and sporting events. The point I am trying to make is that a lot of the people who attend standup comedy acts headlined by women comics seem to be more interested in being there and cheering on the performers than enjoying the act. But why is that so? Here is a clue.. you also see similar behavior when a brain-damaged or dying kid is allowed to throw the first pitch at some baseball game. Almost nobody in the audience is really interested in watching it, but everybody is trying to project the image of being a good and compassionate person to those around them.
But having a limited patron base has its limitations. Many of you might have noticed that the more recent NetFlix specials by Amy Schumer have bombed, and to be quite blunt- her films also were failures (especially when compared to the massive amount of free media hype and promotions she received). After the first season of 'Broad City' things didn't really pick up for Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer- at least not in comedy. Tig Notaro and Margaret Cho now appear on TV more often to give their opinions on LGBT issues and male comedians who jerk off in front of semi-willing women than for their comedic talent. Whitney Cummings and Chelsea Handler are now more well-known for their political positions than comedy. Chelsea Peretti is more famous for who she has married and the career of her brother than her own.
It is hard to ignore that these talentless cunts have financially benefited from their willingness to help a certain section of the American population demonstrate their moral and ideological superiority to those "other" people. In that respect, there real business model is no different from some rich people buying expensive art by some 'famous' artist or going to a restaurant owned by a 'famous' chef, just to show off their superior tastes and how much better they are than all those “other” people.
What do you think? Comments?
'you also see similar behavior when a brain-damaged or dying kid is allowed to throw the first pitch at some baseball game. Almost nobody in the audience is really interested in watching it, but everybody is trying to project the image of being a good and compassionate person to those around them.'
That was a great line. Same vibes with women's sports