Larry Getlen at the New York Post interviewed Adam Carolla today to talk about his new book, which is about growing up in North Hollywood, and probably a lot of other things no one cares about. Today, he’s saying a bunch of inflammatory stuff– probably to try to gain some sort of cultural relevance other than his podcast or old show. One of those things is that women aren’t funny. For a dude whose old TV show was based almost entirely on making fun of women, or women on jumping on trampolines, it makes you wonder if he knows anything about comedy.
In the interview, Carolla said the following:
“The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks. If my daughter has a mediocre sense of humor, I’m just gonna tell her, ‘Be a staff writer for a sitcom. Because they’ll have to hire you, they can’t really fire you, and you don’t have to produce that much. It’ll be awesome.’ When you’re picking a basketball team, you’ll take the brother over the guy with the yarmulke. Why? Because you’re playing the odds. When it comes to comedy, of course there’s Sarah Silverman, Tina Fey, Kathy Griffin — super-funny chicks. But if you’re playing the odds? No. If Joy Behar or Sherri Shepherd was a dude, they’d be off TV. They’re not funny enough for dudes. What if Roseanne Barr was a dude? Think we’d know who she was? Honestly.”
So not only is he entirely sexist, but also vaguely racist. The last time I checked, The View was never meant to be a comedy program, let alone the pinnacle of female comedy. And if you’re schooling us about comedy skills when your claim to fame is being on a dancing show for wash-ups, and a “comedy” program that featured the lowest of lowbrow humor, it looks like you’re standing on shaky ground.
This clever commenter on the article agreed:
“Ultimately however, the reason women aren’t as funny as men is mostly biological. I’ll explain. Humor is basically a social skill, and during human development, females generally stayed home to nurture children, while the males needed to go out and explore, and social skills were necessary for bonding, or even dealing with other tribes. Let’s be frank, how does it benefit a female to have a sense of humor if she is pregnant, or carrying a newborn baby? In these days women are more liberated, but unfortunately these biological traits go back hundreds of years, and now they’re just part of our make up.”
Not only did I have to correct that comment’s grammar, but I also had to read it again to confirm that this was a real thing that a real person actually typed on a keyboard. It’s hard for me to picture our male ancestors walking around hunting, approaching other tribes like, “Hey, do you guys have any extra buffalo meat? What’s the deal with airplane food?!” But I suppose “science” trumped me on this one. Adam Carolla and Random Commenter Dude who agrees with him (on the basis of the least factual scientific explanation I’ve ever heard), your views are laughable. And that’s the only thing that’s funny about you.
