num_pages: 336
description: More than fifty years of iconic comediennes unmediated and unfilteredIn January 2007 Vanity Fair published an essay by Christopher Hitchens called Why Women Arent Funny. It was incendiary much-discussed andas proven by Yael Kohens fascinating oral historytotally wrongheaded.In We Killed Kohen assembles Americas 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 ridiculing and desexualizing yourself. Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller emerged as Americas favorite frustrated ladies; the joke was always on them. The Sixties saw the appearance of smart edgy comediennes (Elaine May Lily Tomlin) and the womens 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 could 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 confidentand most of all flat-out funny.Like all revolutions its suffered false starts and backslides. But its 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 cultural and social history.
language: English
title: We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy
publisher: Sarah Crichton Books