Sarah Crichton Books | ISBN:0374287236 | File Type: PDF, 336 pages | File size: 76.Mb | Oct. 16th, 2012
Anectode Humor: The Rise of Women in American Comedy More than fifty years of iconic comediennes unmediated and unfiltered In January 2007 Vanity Fair published an essay by Christopher Hitchens called Why Women Aren t Funny It was incendiary much discussed and as proven by Yael Kohen s fascinating oral history totally wrongheaded In We Killed Kohen assembles America s most prominent comediennes and the writers producers nightclub owners and colleagues who revolved around them to piece together the revolution that happened to and by women in American comedy We start in the 1950s when comic success meant ridicing and desexualizing yourself Joan Rivers and hyllis Diller emerged as America s favorite frustrated ladies the joke was always on them The Sixties saw the appearance of smart edgy comediennes Elaine May Lily Tomlin and the women s movement brought a new wave of radicals the women of SNL tough ass stand ups and a more independent breed on TV Mary Tyler Moore and her sisters There were battles to fight and preconceptions to shake before we cod get to where we finally are in a world where women like Tina Fey or whether you like them or not Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler can be smart attractive sexually confident and most of all flat out funny Like all revolutions it s suffered false starts and backslides But it s been a remarkable trip as the more than one hundred people interviewed for this riveting oral history make clear With a chorus of creative voices and often hilarious storytelling We Killed is essential ctural and social history
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