Well we needn’t imagine because “women aren’t funny” content is trending again.
It never really went away, but it’s now hip again.
It’s what the kids are doing.
And grown men too. Which isn’t at all embarrassing.
Now if you’re someone who believes that women can’t be funny,
you might want to know that I am in fact a woman. Just leave your dislike and go.
You’ve probably got better things to do with your time than hate-watching this.
Oh, you haven’t?
Well in that case I better introduce myself.
My name is Tara Mooknee and this is the only channel on YouTube where all videos are written
and produced by a cow. She couldn’t be here today because she’s too emotionally exhausted to film,
but I’m here. And I’m just as good. I'm almost as good. I’m...I’ll suffice.
So this video is less about WHY people perceive women to be less funny than men, and more:
the WHAT? As in what is going on?
Because psychoanalysing why people find things funny
is deeply complicated and is studied by experts in psychology, which I am not.
What I am an expert in is finding bullshit
on the internet. So I’ll be showing you some of that today, mkay?
Phew, is this one a doozy! Oh honey!
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Lemme just give you a quick lil history lesson into the “women aren’t funny” phenomenon.
In 1695: the Playwright Sir William Congreve, the guy who said:
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” wrote in his treatise, 'Concerning Humor in Comedy':
He also never married.
Then in 1884 we’ve got our boy Richard Grant White.
Who was a culture critic based in New York,
he wrote in journal The Critic that a sense of humor is “the rarest of qualities in a woman”.
As a result there were two separate counter-essays written by Alice Wellington
Rollins, who then in 1885 published of 'The Wit of Women', the first-ever
collection of women’s comedic writing, which calls out White on the book’s first page.
Calm down Alice.
What is it? Your time of the month?
See, I made the joke for you, you needn’t even lift a finger.
There’s lots of stuff in between because - you know why. But let’s jump to 2007.
Christopher Hitchens’s infamous essay, “Why Women Aren’t Funny,” where he stated the reason men are
funnier than women is because “they had damn well better be.” To get the sexy times, of course.
So because women got their FEMALE panties in a twist he wrote a sequel titled: “Why women
still don’t get it”. And as much as I’m huffing and puffing about these articles he does have
a point. Because he’s a super funny guy who comes up with super original jokes.
Now, it’s no surprise that most of the
“women aren’t funny” content is by what appears to be young men.
And are they successful comedians themselves?
Or say anything remotely witty or comical when making content about how women aren’t funny?
🎶 Young man, there's no need to feel down 🎶
oh wait they probably wouldn’t want to be associated with an iconically GAY anthem.
The masculinity is fragile with these ones.
As a side note: what’s the milk malarky that’s going on?
Before writing this video, I was not aware of the milk...situation.
What’s “Pop a choccy milk?” you might ask. Well…
It ain’t my cup of tea.
But am I saying that all milk drinkers aren’t funny?
Actually, yeah. And I will die on that hill.
And why do the boys think they own this? I’m just as confused as you are.
Anyways, let’s look at another tiktok.
I think that’s funny. I mean it’s not HAHAHAHA funny but it made me you know, exhale out my
nostrils. It was more entertaining than whatever this guy was doing. Which was nothing.
I have a question for the guys that make these:
are THEY trying to be funny? Or is the point of these literally just “women aren’t funny”?
Because doesn’t that get boring after a while?
Apparently not. The guys who watch this content seem to lap it up.
Like seals clapping. Bless their hearts.
Power cap! Double the snap! It's SNAP TIME! Wow! That is one baby snap! Mhmm! Tastes like cap!
Was she even intending to be funny? I think she’s just larping as a vampire. What are
those called? Like you know how furries are people that dress up as animals,
what are vampire dresser uppers called?
Oh they just call themselves vampires.
Which is frankly false advertising. At least furries admit they aren’t animals. Next tiktok!
"Mhmm! Damn it's flavourful!"
You know what’s peculiar about this?
Is he titled this “duetting women until I laugh” but this video is from a couples
prank (?) page. It’s from her profile, but on tiktok they come as a pair,
and their jokes are...that they’re a couple. Basically they’re quintessential straight tiktok.
Hold on baby, someone's calling me. Hey wussup bro? Oh you wanna play soccer?
Uh I'm with my wife right now. Ah! AH!
Wait hold on, my girl's acting crazy! Hold on hold on hold on!
What? You called me WIFE?
And? YEAH!
If I took one of their very unfunny videos and reacted with the title “duetting males
until I laugh” you would be quite right to ask “hey, why are you just blaming the guy?
They’re both unfunny. Because they’re couples content.
Show me one single couples channel that’s even remotely funny. I’ll wait.”
Also, there’s a visual motif going on in these duets.
I’d like to see if you can spot it for yourself first.
You see that? I think I’ve cracked what their angle is. And their angle is...filming the
video from a very unflattering angle. With the lights off. Because they wouldn’t just
film themselves watching someone else’s content without adding even an ounce of value, surely?
I think it’s a commentary on loneliness. On society. On the expectations
imposed by society. We’re expected to always come out of the darkness,
hold our heads high and face the world. Turn the lights on. And come up with our own content?
So actually, these toks are really deep.
And if you didn’t realise that well you’re just shallow-minded bro.
So I want in on this boys’ club. Maybe they’ll accept me if I make one of these.
I've actually, this is the first ever time I'm making a tiktok so you are witnessing history!
I need this to be darker. I'll be right back!
Let's find diamond treasure!
I'm giving away a mini to a follower!
"Duetting females until I laugh part"...I'll just enter a bunch of numbers because the joke
is that, you know, if it's a really high number it's saying that
no women are funny and he's watched thousands of women and they're all just so unfunny.
That felt too easy. It felt like I was doing nothing. Let’s hope they accept my application.
Moving on from tik tok, this type of content is also
on Youtube. As you would expect, these videos are in longer form.
Some creators (?) dedicate multiple videos to their opinion that women aren’t funny.
So that’s...what they do with their time.
There’s quite a few of these videos but someone who uses this format regularly is Matt Walsh.
Not the guy from Veep, but this guy. Who in fairness,
doesn’t explicitly say that women aren’t funny, but instead makes videos stating that
feminists aren’t funny. Which are interchangeable to his audience.
To which Simon responded: