Description

This article is from the The Complete Guide To Hack Stand-Up Comedy, by Steven Rosenthal and Steve Silberberg (stevebo@onramp.net) with numerous contributions by others.

1b "Men and women are really different..."

No kidding. Volumes could be written about how comedians pit the genders
against each other and turn the club into a kind of "Battle of the Sexes"
with the losers generally being men. Typically, female comics will appeal
to their sisters in the crowd for support in male-bashing ("Am I right,
Ladies?") and males will hunt for approval among a usually shy male
audience ("Oh, you guys wouldn't be saying that if you weren't here with
your women! If it was just us guys it would be different!")

Guys don't ask directions, girls take a long time to get ready for a date,
married men are stupid and whipped, women take too long when shopping, men
hog the remote control, men leave the toilet seat up, etc. etc. Aside from
the fact that sweeping generalizations about gender are inherently sexist,
these gender based topics have been covered a lot - brilliantly at times,
but a lot nonetheless. Another typical angle on this is stating something
that women generally do (ie. go to the bathroom together, dance together,
compliment each other on their looks) and applying it to very masculine
types for comic effect ("You never see two guys doing this! Hey Joe, your
skin is looking lovely lately.")

Don't say you weren't warned.

 

Continue to:

• prev: 1a "L.A. is different than..."
• Index
• next: 1c "Cats are different than Dogs..."

Share and Enjoy

Tags

art, hack stand-up comedy, standup, comedian