That Ellen line has always bugged me. Not because it isn't funny but because I remember reading the exact same joke in a joke book when I was a kid in the early 70s. Ellen's just a bit older than I am, so chances are she read that book, too. Now she's credited with a street joke. She's got so many more great original jokes.
No offense SteveG, but the question as to whether women can be funny is not a sociological question, but a question of psychology; unless you mean to ask does society find comedic women funny? This raises the question as to who consumes public comedy in our society. You mention the stinky bars filled with drunken men as a starting place for comedians. If this is true, and I have little reason to doubt this assertion, I understand why most women do not want to enter such a place, which may partly explain (as you suggest) why we find many more male comedians. I think another sociological question is: As more women participate more in the public arena, will many of these women support female comedians? Will women create new comedic venues that are not filled with drunken men? If we look to sports to draw a correlative conclusion, the immediate answer is no. How many women followed the United States women’s world cup soccer team this year? College women’s basketball has become more popular over the years in part due to the coverage provided by ESPN, which has a predominately male audience, not because there has been a cascade of female support. The WNBA has not witnessed a cascade of female support, either. The support for these female athletic institutions largely comes from men and families, but I do not know a single woman who follows such sports. Actually, I know one who followed the U.S. women’s soccer team. There are a number of reasons why this is the case, which will take too much space to list and explain here. Nevertheless, my hope is that as women develop or take more social power, this power will be exercised not merely in exposing a sexist society with appeals to traditional (male) institutions to change, but exercised by consuming (supporting) female institutions that will reform us into celebrating women athletes, comedians and so forth. I understand that we’re along way from this being realized, but if women of power start to support these women, maybe the change will come more quickly. Female consumers can drive us out of this sexist mess. Otherwise, we will be stuck with those stinky bars filled with drunken men.
Don't forget Carol Burnett:
"Giving birth is like taking your lower lip and forcing it over your head."
Actually, many women support women's college basketball, and until David Stern cobbled together the crapfest that is the WNBA in order to steal away the best draft picks and all meaningful television contracts from the ABL, that league was doing a good job of attracting both families and single women. That's because the ABL teams were located in traditional centers of womens' ball, worked hard to place popular college players within their region, and generally put on a fan-friendly game.
Of course, that was the league that made all the players shareholders and treated them as important members of the endeavor as opposed to mere commodities.
So instead of a league catering to its fans and caring about its players, we've got an afterthought from David Stern that takes time away from the players' real jobs playing ball overseas.
First off, I have to say Steve, as someone who is working on a comedy career himself, I love your Comedist ruminations. Fascinating stuff always, even when I don't comment.
I've certainly seen the same thing you describe here in my experience ... the ratio of men to women is usually at least 4 to 1 or worse. However, there are a lot of female comedians in Canada working at a fairly high level ... one of the problems is that Canadian Comedy is very similar to the Witness Protection Program ... no one has any idea who you are.
One of the rooms I play in regularly, Dickens Pub in Calgary, typically has at least 1/3 female comics, and we often have nights where its 50/50, and even a few nights where the women outnumber the men. However, that is definitely the exception rather than rule.
Of the women I work with, I don't see many of them sacrificing their "femininity" for the sake of comedy. Many can be just as "crude" as any of the male comics (actually, a few are worse, lol), but its not really in a male or female sense. More often than not, if they are any good at comedy, the act is unique to the individual, and while men and women have different experiences often to draw on, the way we choose to relate those on stage usually isn't gender specific, but rather related to individual temperament and character. I tend to be thoughtful and quiet, using more intellectual humour, and that comes through no matter what subject i am talking about. The same tends to be true of all the women I work with ... they will often use experiences that tend to be "female specific" but the way they use them isn't really gender specific.
Like writers, comics can only write what they know, and equally like writers, what we know gets expressed in a unique way by each person. "What we know" will almost certainly be at least partially related to gender, how we express that on stage will usually be more tied to personality and temperament than gender, at least from what I have seen in the past year as I try to restart my comedy career.
Wow! This is a super-tough question. I'm a female stand-up comedienne out of NYC. And I pride myself from doing everything in my stand-up differently--uniquely--as to standout from not only the other women comediennes, but the men as well. There is clearly a stigma associated with "female comedy," just as there's a ?stigma? associated with "black/negro" comedy. And that's a double-hit for me because I fit in both those categories. (I wrote negro to distinguish from "black comedy" as in dark comedy.)
Anyway, perhaps you can tell me where I fit in. I wrote several posts on race in comedy as well as how comedians feel the need to "categorize" their comedy. My most recent piece was on the use of "the N-word," which received a front page Digg. Please stop by. I love the fascinating discussion here. I respect the deep/thoughtful readers you have here, who actually consider their place in the world while remaining open-minded---really, refreshing! KUDOS to you all!
I guess Lucy Dee hasn't read C Ewing's posts yet..... 
Seriously, that was a really nice thing to read this morning, Lucy. On behalf of one commenter, thanks!
I am a director for an all female sketch group called
"The Babymakers" We have male writers but the girls are the only ones who star in the sketches.
I think each of our female comedians are very talented and extremely funny.
http://youtube.com/TheBabymakers
Watch and decide whether men could have done it any better.
I guess Lucy Dee hasn't read C Ewing's posts yet.....
You only encourage me by wounding me. I know it's counter-intuitive, but there it is.
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