Women in Comedy Talk Navigating the Hollywood Boys’ Club

Elle editor in chief Robbie Myers and the Ghostbusters cast, from left: Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. (Photo: Getty Images)

If we’ve learned anything from the likes of Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Tina Fey, and Rebel Wilson, it’s that women are just as funny as men. But that doesn’t mean that the road to stardom has been easy for them.

Studios continue to crank out male-centric comedies, and the general consensus has sadly become that female-driven comedic flicks are simply not as good as those of their testosterone-ridden counterparts. It’s an issue that got some of today’s wittiest women buzzing at Elle magazine’s Women in Comedy gala — sponsored by Secret — on Tuesday night.

“Is it harder to be funny [in a male-dominated industry]? No,” Iliza Shlesinger, winner of Season 6 of Last Comic Standing, told Yahoo Celebrity. “Is it harder to be recognized for being funny? Yes. And it’s even harder to make a living at it.”

Iliza Shlesinger says it’s not easy trying to make a living as a funny lady. (Photo: Getty Images)

Leslie Jones, who stars in Paul Feig’s upcoming female rendition of Ghostbusters, agrees that women in comedy are held to a different standard. “Even this, just because it’s Women in Comedy, it’s a big event. And women have been in comedy for years,” she noted. “It’s even in the way we are brought to the stage. ‘Are you guys ready for a woman?’ ‘Are you ready for a unicorn?’” she joked. “When it’s an all-male show, they don’t say, ‘It’s an all-male show.’ But when it’s all women, you gotta have a name to it. It’s just the way that we are singled out.”

Jones’s Ghostbusters co-star Wiig has also dealt with her fair share of hardships working in a male-dominated industry. “Especially in my business, women still have a ways to go as far as opportunities,” she explained, adding that she hopes women push for more on-screen and standup opportunities, which should hopefully be enough to prove mainstream opinion wrong. “Hopefully, we’ll get to the point where we don’t have to even talk about it anymore, because I think that also perpetuates that being an issue.”

Valerie Harper, who attended the event as the plus one of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s Carol Kane, is excited about all the new female talent taking a stab at comedy. “There are lots of young women now coming up and doing great work and getting it done. It’s wonderful!” said the former star of sitcoms such as Rhoda and Valerie.

Valerie Harper was Carol Kane’s plus one. (Photo: Getty Images)

And though there are fewer roles for women out there then she’d like, Kane does see things slowly starting to evolve. “I think it’s harder being a female if anything because there are many, many more jobs for men then there are for women,” she admitted. “But right now is a very fertile time — no pun intended — for women.”

To combat the problem of fewer opportunities for women, comedic actresses who run their own shows, like Rachel Bloom of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Another Period’s Riki Lindhome, are working to employ more of their colleagues. “We have so many parts for funny women, so we’re doing what we can do,” said Lindhome. “All we can do is write parts for ourselves and other women. So we’re really doing our part.”

Bloom’s thrilled to see so many women flocking to comedy. “We still have a long way to go, but I felt really from the second I got my first job that people want women’s points of view,” she said. “I think we’re in a period of awakening where it’s really cool to be a woman. And also cool to be a woman that wants to talk about periods and stuff. We can make period jokes on our show. It’s great!”

Nikki Glaser entertained the crowd. (Photo: Getty Images)

And women-oriented topics, like Aunt Flow, are something that female comedians are not afraid to shy away from. “When I read comments from young boys where they are like, ‘All women talk about is their periods,’ that’s the most frustrating thing about being a woman in entertainment,” sighed standup comedian Nikki Glaser. “You can’t joke about those things because people think it’s so cliché, but it just makes me want to joke about it. And so I’m going to!”

Added Lindhome,“I try to talk about my period just because it pisses those kind of people off. On our Garfunkel and Oates show, we had an entire scene, it was like three minutes long, where we were like, ‘Women just talk about their periods,’ and we just kept talking about them. If men had their periods, it’s all they would talk about. So whatever!”

In general, female comedians just seem to enjoy doing their thing, regardless of what the males of the planet may or may not think of them. But how do they handle the haters who boldly declare women aren’t as funny as men?

“I just say you must like Trump then!” exclaimed Glaser.