Friday Round Up: Women Who Make Us Laugh
This week, I’ve been preparing to emcee the National Women’s Political Caucus “Good Guys” Gala at the Caucus’s 40th anniversary convention. Emcees are supposed to be somewhat humorous, and I got to thinking about how some people (remember when the curmudgeonly Christopher Hitchens lobbed the idea in Vanity Fair?) like to say women aren’t funny. Especially feminists. So this week’s Friday Round Up is devoted to women who make us laugh.
Tina Fey, for example–I haven’t read Bossypants yet, but here’s a good piece that summarizes her contributions.
Bridesmaids, written and starring Kristin Wiig, has some male-ish crude barf and fart humor, but enough people thought it was funny that it rocked the box office.
I saw this tweet from @lizzypilcher:
“When a male comic says “women aren’t funny” it really means ‘I hit on a female comic and she wouldn’t sleep with me.'”
INTENTIONING
Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women
Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) GoodThe new book from Gloria Feldt about the future, taking the leadership lessons learned from this disruption and creating a better world for all through the power of intention.
Do you agree? It sure made me laugh. I’m pretty sure that’s part of Rush Limbaugh’s problem with women.
I had the pleasure and challenge of appearing on Kay Ballard’s “Women are Not Funny” radio show, discussing the lighter side of No Excuses. I love it when she says “We must put our contradictions into action.”
Comic Kathleen Madigan has been doing stand-up for 22 years and she is still packing ’em in and making ’em laugh. With her new Showtime special, Gone Madigan, she has the entire year booked including her second Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s USO Holiday Tour of Iraq and Afghanistan, sharing the stage with such comedy headliners as Robin Williams and Lewis Black.
And finally a big shout out to the fabulous stand up comic Cory Kahaney who was generous enough to help me out with a few funny lines for my NWPC remarks. I’ll let you know next week how they went over 🙂
GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”
As co-founder and president of Take The Lead, a leading women’s leadership nonprofit, her mission is to achieve gender parity by 2025 through innovative training programs, workshops, a groundbreaking 50 Women Can Change The World immersive, online courses, a free weekly newsletter, and events including a monthly Virtual Happy Hour program and a Take The Lead Day symposium that reached over 400,000 women globally in 2017.